The second lake is smaller than the first, with fewer avalanche paths to cross. They make it to the other side in decent time and find where the lake drains into a little river that they have to follow farther down, another half mile or so, before they reach the steep little valley that leads up to the second ridge.

They stop at the river and each eat a hydration candy.

“We have to start rationing,” Lucas says. He says it like Dawn’s been pigging out on their meager supplies, like it was her idea to throw the backpacker meals away.

(Like he actually brought any food on this misadventure.)

“We have a long way to go yet,” Lucas says.

The valley up to the second ridge is steeper than Dawn remembers. And the trail is much slipperier now that it’s covered in snow.

They don’t have their packs, so they’re lighter and can move around more easily, but still. It’s a long, grueling climb, and once or twice Dawn nearly loses her footing and slides down the hillside, almost erasing an hour of work.

She catches herself just in time.

She pulls her way up the mountain until she’s sweating through her undershirt and her clothes and her hands and her face are covered in mud. Until she can barely feel her fingers, which are bloody and raw and cold.

Until she emerges at the top of the valley trail into the alpine again, and the second ridge is just ahead of her and Lucas is behind her, still climbing, panting and sweating and trying to keep up, clutching at the tear in his jacket, at the wound he still won’t show her underneath.

He’s hurting, Dawn can tell. Hurting bad.

Maybe you should find somewhere to hide, Dawn wants to tell him. But she doesn’t.

She’s afraid if he lies down to rest he might not stand up again.

Chapter 83

THE BAD NEWS IS THAT IT’S afternoon at this point. From what Dawn can remember, it’ll take the better part of a day to traverse the second ridge. That means they’ll be doing at least some of it in darkness.

The other bad news is that the weather’s turning again. As Dawn was climbing up the narrow valley, she noticed the first drops of more rain coming down through the trees. Here, in the alpine again, it’s not rain but snow. Not heavy stuff, but a little bit.

And visibility is fading. Clouds are rolling in, low and dense, bringing with them wind and a penetrating moisture. Dawn stops to catch her breath and drink from the canteen and she’s shivering almost instantly.

Up here, in the alpine, there are no trees for protection. Nowhere to hide from the wind or the snow. “We need to get across that ridge,” she tells Lucas. “Quickly. Before the weather gets any worse.”