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.

He didn’t realize that messing up the rock piles would within a few days confer on Brandon and Evan a significant strategic advantage in a particularly high-stakes race back to headquarters.

No.

But I bet if you’d told him, he would have been pretty damn pleased with himself.