Wiggling from his grasp, I sat on the ground. My hair clung to my cheek; I swept it behind my ear and realized I had been crying. Mortified, I wanted to turn away, but everyone stared at me. “Sorry, I just—”

“Don’t apologize.” Belen handed me a handkerchief. “It’s been an utterly gruesome day.”

I scanned the area. Tohon’s dead lay in pieces. Broken by decapitation. Black blood pooled on the snow. The putrid odor of decaying flesh soiled the air. At least there was a way to stop them. There was no sign of the other three who had been with Tohon.

Struggling to stand, I brushed snow and dirt from my cloak. I met Quain’s gaze. “How bad is Loren?”

“Bad, but not critical,” Quain said. “We should get back.”

“How far?”

“About half a day.”

I wouldn’t last an hour. No one carried their packs. They probably left them with Loren and the other dead dead. What else could we call them? The truly dead? Dead for real? Dead again? I shivered. Now wasn’t the time to think about it.

“Does anyone have any food?” I asked, although I doubted the guys thought of food when they had chased after me.

Belen produced a handful of beef jerky.

I pounced on the food and munched it as we headed east at a fast pace. Walking next to Belen, I asked, “Canteen, handkerchief, food…what else do you carry?”

He blushed. “Just a few essentials.”

“Thanks. I can always count on Poppa Bear.”

“Poppa Bear?” he asked in a neutral tone.

Uh-oh. Did I hurt his feelings? “Yes, like a bear protecting his cubs.”

“Isn’t that what the mother bear does?”

“Would you rather I called you Momma Bear?”

He laughed. “That would offend my fragile male ego.” He remained quiet for a while. “I guess that’s an accurate nickname.” Belen jabbed a thick finger at Kerrick’s back. “I’ve been protecting that cub since he was born.”

“When you were like…four? Five?”

“Four. And before you pish at me, isn’t Noelle six years younger than you?”

“Yes.”

“Then you know what I’m talking about.”

“I do. Point taken.” I lowered my voice. “He’s lucky to have you.”

“And Noelle is—”

“Screwed up because I wasn’t there. Let’s not go there.” I mulled over his comment. “But you are always there for Kerrick. Wasn’t there a time you wanted to do your own thing?”

“No. I swore an oath.”

Wow. “But what about if you had met a girl? What if you wanted to get married?”

He shrugged. “Then I would have gotten married. But I didn’t meet anyone. And once the plague hit, there were more important things to do.”

“How about when things settle down?”

“Perhaps. If I meet the right person.” He smiled. “Then I might have cubs for real.”

“They’d be the luckiest cubs alive.”

“I don’t know about that. But if they get hungry, I’ll have that covered.”

“No doubt.”

“What about you, Avry? Is marriage and children in your future?”

Fingers of ice gripped my heart as images of Tohon’s dead soldiers filled my mind. I focused on Belen, pushing the horror back. “No.”

We reached Loren as the sun sank in the west. He huddled next to a small fire. Bandages covered with blood had been wrapped around his right thigh. A sheen of sweat coated his forehead.

“Avry, I’m so glad to see your beautiful face,” Loren said.

“How nice. Let’s see if you still think I’m beautiful in the morning.”

Loren tried to mask his pain, but couldn’t suppress a yelp when I touched his leg. A sword had cut the muscles behind his right leg almost to the bone. My magic flared to life.

“Don’t you want to rest first?” Belen asked me.

I glanced at Kerrick. He gave me a slight nod.

“I’ll be fine.” My power surged.

Loren yelled as the magic stitched his muscles back together and repaired the damaged tissue and skin. It rushed back into me and pure fire stabbed my right hamstring. I had thought nothing could hurt as bad as Belen’s stomach injury—I was wrong. Loren’s was a whole different animal.

I stumbled and hit the ground hard. But compared to the agony in my leg, it didn’t even register. My opinion of Loren went up as I realized he had dealt with this for almost a day.

Then a warm wave of spring sunshine and living green dulled the pain as Kerrick pulled me into his arms.

Kerrick and I needed a couple days to recover. I fell into a deep healing sleep that lasted both days. When I woke, Loren cooked a big pot of stew. He rationalized that since we weren’t hunkering down in the foothills, we didn’t need to lug around so much meat.

When we were ready to continue up the pass, Loren scouted ahead even in the woods. We could no longer rely on Kerrick’s forest magic to warn of ambushers.

Each time Loren reported back, we’d climb another mile or two. The path narrowed as the trees disappeared. Rocks poked through the snow and we slowed so no one would twist an ankle.

The wind keened between the mountain peaks and cut right though my cloak. Just as Belen had said, when the trail was high and tight, we pushed on without stopping. Quain hugged the rock wall on our left. I didn’t blame him. The drop to the right made me dizzy.

We crested the pass. When the trail angled down, the ache in my calves transferred to my thighs. Loren’s injury throbbed. After a couple hours going down, I slipped, fell on my backside and slid down the path, gaining momentum. The trail ahead of me snaked to the left. If I didn’t stop, I wouldn’t make the turn. Instead, I’d fly off into the abyss.

Shouts echoed, warning me of the danger. I dug in my heels and stopped inches from the edge, but my heart continued its fast tumble.

“Were we going too slow for you?” Loren teased when they caught up to me.

“Hold on to me from now on,” Belen said, hauling me to my unsteady feet.

“Yeah, it would take an avalanche to move him off this mountain,” Quain said. “Can I hold on to you, as well?”

Belen ignored him, but tucked me in close.

When we reached the tree line, Kerrick led us off the pass.

“I thought you said Ryne was hidden within the Nine Mountains?” I asked Kerrick.

“We’re still in the mountains.” He pointed north. “There’s the next ridge.”

I groaned. “How many more of them are there?”

He smiled. “After that one, there’s seven more. Nine ridges in all.”

Quain paled. “Holy shit.”

“Why did you think they’re called the Nine Mountains?” Kerrick asked.

“I never thought about it.”

“Oh, man, Quain. You make it easy,” Loren said.

“I thought it had to do with the war with the tribes in the north,” I said, jumping in before Quain could dig himself in deeper. “My father told me the mountain chain kept the tribes from invading our land. But once they learned how to cross them, it took us nine years to push them back into the wildlands.”

“I thought it had to do with the nine gemstones that can be found in the mines underneath,” Belen said.

“That’s a better reason than war,” I said.

“Anything’s better than war,” Belen agreed.

As we traveled deeper into the woods, I noticed there wasn’t any snow on the ground. That night, we camped in a small clearing. Kerrick assigned two people to be on watch at all times.

I had no trouble falling asleep, but my dreams haunted me. The dead chased me as Tohon laughed. I woke with a start. My heart slamming in my chest. When I returned to sleep, the dream continued as if I hadn’t woken.

Come to me, Avry. Tohon’s voice held me immobile as the dead closed in. I thrashed and screamed, caught in their icy grip.

Kerrick woke me. “Nightmare?” He settled next to me.

Belen snored on the other side of the campfire. Loren and Quain must be on watch.

I clutched my blanket to keep my hands from shaking. “I wish.”

“Tohon’s dead?”

Come to me, Avry. I ignored the voice inside my head. “Yes. They’re a nightmare you can’t wake from.”