Every second they waste is a second Brandon and Evan can gain on them.

But there’s no other hope. There’s only one way across this ridge, and if they deviate from it, Dawn knows they’ll be horribly lost. They have to take the time to find the right trail, no matter how long it takes.

No matter how much it lets Brandon and Evan gain on them.

Dawn tries to focus on helping Lucas find the trail. They’re standing at the top of where the ridgeline drops off, and far below she can see a path leading into the fog.

Just have to get down there, she thinks. Then we’re fine.

But the cliff is too steep to just walk down, and Dawn knows there must be a marker somewhere to guide them. She walks along the lip of the cliff until she finds an easier descent, a notch in the side of the ridge that looks like a trail.

“Found it,” she calls to Lucas, who at this point is just a ghost in the fog. She stands there and waits for him to find her.

She surveys the ground as she does.

And then she makes a terrible discovery.

Chapter 84

I DON’T KNOW IF YOU REMEMBER this part.

On the outbound hike? Before Dawn nearly fell and Warden caught her and saved her life and gave her that big lecture about making sure her pack was on the right way?

Before Dawn noticed that Warden had the greenest eyes she’d ever seen?

Before all that, but just barely, Dawn maybe noticed how Warden was lagging behind the rest of the group, when usually he walked at the front.

You know, like a leader.

But that day, when they traversed the ridge going north toward the Raven’s Claw, Warden lingered near the back, and for the briefest of moments, Dawn wondered why. But then she got distracted.

She forgot about it.

What did it matter, anyway?

Well, here’s why it matters: Warden was destroying those rock cairns. He was kicking those piles of rock over. Rendering them useless, just more random scree on the top of the ridge.

And I’m sure if you asked Warden why he was doing it, he’d just shrug and fix his green eyes on you and grin mischievously and tell you he was sowing the seeds of chaos. Wreaking havoc.

Causing mayhem.

There’s no rational point to doing what he did, except that maybe he wanted to mess with Christian and Amber, get the group a little lost on the way back from the mountain, screw everything up and sit and laugh at the consequences.

Warden didn’t know that Christian and Alex would die, obviously. He didn’t know it would be Dawn and Lucas, specifically, whom he’d be screwing over.