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Kaiden bit back a smile and rose to his feet, helping her up with him. Despite his amused expression, he didn’t answer her question. Instead, he told her something else.

“We found Hunter’s next arrow while we were waiting for everyone to cross.”

“Fantastic,” Alex muttered. “Do we get to throw ourselves off another cliff?”

Kaiden glanced at her. “Don’t even joke about that.”

“Too early?”

“Definitely. And don’t get me started on your ‘hanging in there’ comment.”

She laughed lightly and ignored the playful glare he sent her. “I was quite proud of my wit at the time.”

He shook his head at her and she was denied a response when the rest of their classmates came over to collect their backpacks. Pipsqueak was humming quietly to herself and Alex felt a pang of concern.

“How long until she’s normal again?”

“Depends,” Tom answered. “Usually people sleep it off.”

“So, we have to wait until she wakes up tomorrow?” Alex clarified.

At Tom’s nod, Jordan dryly said what they were all thinking. “This should be fun.”

The sarcasm wasn’t lost on any of them. Well, except for Pipsqueak.

“Fun?” she asked, jumping into the conversation. “I love fun. What’re we gonna do that’s fun? Another race?”

“No, definitely not,” Kaiden said quickly.

“That’s not very fun at all,” Pipsqueak said with a pout.

“We need to move,” Declan intervened. “I reckon we only have another hour or so before it’s too dark to see.”

“Where’s the arrow?” Alex asked, looking around for Hunter’s sign.

“Over here,” Jordan said, leading the way along the edge of the ravine.

When they were all standing around the arrow—but keeping their distance from the edge of the mountain—Tom reached out to grab the paper. His brow furrowed in confusion as he read.

“What does it say?” Declan asked.

Tom held the paper out so they could all lean in and read it.

Time to swim. Don’t forget your raft.

And sweet dreams.

“What does that—”

The rest of Alex’s sentence was drowned out as the ground rumbled beneath them and an entire portion of it corroded under their feet, dissolving away into nothing…

… And they plummeted down into the ravine far, far below.

ky voice.

Fifteen

Their screams filled the air as theyfell faster and faster. Alex knew none of them would survive the fall, even if they managed to avoid hitting the rocks in the river below. They were too high for the impact not to kill them.