IT’S SUDDENLY VERY COLD where Dawn is standing. And no sweater, no sleeping bag, no roaring fire can change that. Dawn is suddenly very aware of how alone she is here in the clearing, even with Warden and the others nearby.
“Dawn?” Warden says again.
He shifts his position a little, turns to follow her gaze, and Dawn looks quickly away from Warden’s tent and prays he doesn’t realize she’s seen the knife.
Her thoughts are racing.
She can’t figure it out.
Did Warden kill Alex?
And if Warden has Christian’s knife…what happened to Christian?
Dawn forces herself to meet Warden’s eyes. “Thanks so much for the offer,” she tells him, smiling. “It’s really kind of you, but I think I’ll just sleep somewhere else tonight.”
Warden blinks.
Then his eyes narrow.
(For a heart-stopping moment, Dawn imagines that he can read her mind, that he knows she knows.)
But instead, Warden just shrugs. “Suit yourself.”
So Dawn sleeps in Kyla’s tent that night. But Dawn can’t sleep.
The wind is picking up again. Dawn lies awake and listens to it blow and hears the first spatter of rain against the thin tent material.
She can’t sleep because she’s afraid if she sleeps that whoever killed Alex will sneak up and surprise her.
Dawn is scared.
She’s scared of the night, and she’s scared of what might happen in the morning.
She’s scared of what the knife in Warden’s tent means. She’s scared it means he, not Brandon or Evan, murdered Alex.
She’s scared because she’s trusting Warden to get them out of here. And she’s scared because he might not be who she thinks he is.
She’s scared nobody will believe her if she tells them.
She’s scared that even if Warden isn’t a killer he’ll still get them lost, that another storm will kick up and Warden’s memory will fail him, or the map he remembers will be wrong, and they’ll all of them die out here in the wilderness.
She’s scared that Amber’s still alive and they’re leaving her to die.
But what scares Dawn most of all is knowing how easily she could forget about all of it. Knowing she could just walk away.
She doesn’t want to. She knows it’s not right that Alex is dead. That Amber is probably dying, if she isn’t dead already.
That Christian is alone on the top of the Raven’s Claw.
(If he isn’t dead already, too.)
Dawn knows a strong, good-hearted person would find a way to fight for the truth and for justice and whatever other words sound like solid unmovable mountains when you’re snug in your bed but seem like bullshit when you’re camping in a blizzard with murderers.
Dawn knows she should fight harder, for Alex and Amber and even for Christian.
But she knows in the morning there’s a fair chance she’ll pack up with the rest of the group and set off down the trail after Warden and not say anything and maybe never say anything.
She’s tired and she’s hungry and scared, and she knows there’s an easy way out.
If she keeps her mouth shut, she doesn’t have to be so scared.