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“Putting all our faith in a little girl,” says the first. His voice is the most distinctive, maybe because he speaks every word through a sneer. It’s a little familiar, too, but I can’t be sure amid all the others.

Little girl? mouths Tayla. Kiara?

“At least we’re at full power now.” The fourth guy seems determined to be positive, which makes his next sentence all the more chilling. “Think the pretty boy noticed he’s almost out?” he asks with a cackle.

Keiffer’s batteries , I mouth back. Tayla’s eyes widen with understanding.

“You should have taken them all,” snaps the first voice. “I fucking hate the dark. This forest is ours. We shouldn’t be forced to stay put at night. Bad enough we’re stuck here.”

“If I took everything, he would definitely know something was up,” argues the fourth guy.

“I agree,” says Voice Two. “They’re more scared when they wonder what happened.”

“We’ll get everything eventually anyway,” says the third voice, sounding horribly pragmatic. There’s a soft click when he speaks, then I hear it again and again.

Voice Four laughs. “Remember the last group? Siblings are always fun to fuck with.”

My feet are rigid inside my boots, but my toes still curl.

“No one’s turned on each other that fast before,” agrees Voice Two. “It was good work, boys.”

Voice One chuckles. “These new kids will be too easy. They’ve been at each other’s throats from the start. Almost takes the fun out of it.”

“We could have beaten our record with those college girls if they hadn’t been rescued,” sulks Voice Two. “The havoc got to them fucking quick. Too bad the woods were crawling with do-gooders.”

“Don’t get ahead of yourself,” says Voice Three, the most indiscernible. His voice sounds close. Too close. As though he’s brushing behind where we’ve hidden, within grabbing distance. The metallic clicking sound draws closer. “We’re not out of the woods yet…”

The laughter sounds like it’s right in my ear.

I squeeze my body tight, imagining a sheet of paper that’s been wadded up into a ball.

Tayla copies me. Her pin-straight hair is frizzy, strands falling out of her loose bun to frame her fearful face.

My mouth forms We’re okay, and she jerks her chin in acknowledgment, nostrils flaring and chest rapidly rising and falling.

Among his hothead friends, the third man gives the impression of caution, but he could also be the most dangerous and cunning.

His next sentence confirms my suspicion when he says, “If they lead us to the wishing well, we won’t need another group ever again.

So no more theft or scares, boys. We need them to keep focused on finding the well.

The full moon is almost upon us.” Click, click, click.

Their conversation peters away—the men talking about the first thing they’re going to do when they’re out, mostly some disgusting, degrading comments about women—but we stay frozen until I count to one hundred in my head, and even then we stretch the stiffness out of our limbs, stepping gingerly to avoid even the smallest of twigs.

Those men sounded like they were hunting us, and the forest is so eerily tranquil that the most inconspicuous of snaps or crunches could easily give away our location.

We both scan the trees, but we don’t see anyone. Not even the flash of someone’s jacket or hair.

“Sometimes,” Tayla says, voice shaky, “I see eyes peering out at us from the dark.”

“When? Today?”

She takes a deep breath. “Since the first day.”

“The first—!”

“I thought they were birds!” She’s careful not to speak above a whisper. “Animals!”

“Why didn’t you say something sooner?! Those guys could have been tracking us this entire time,” I hiss, absolutely aghast.

She glares. “Yeah, thanks, that did actually just occur to me.”

“Do you think they have Kiara? They mentioned a girl. Maybe the roots took her as bait. If they’re working in cahoots with those men.”

“No,” Tayla says thoughtfully. “Remember, they still need us to lead them to the wishing well. If we’re looking for her, then we’re not doing what they want. I don’t think they realize we’re looking for anyone at all. And what was up with that creepy-ass clicking?”

I wrap my arms around myself. “I don’t even want to know.”

“Do you think it was his teeth?”

I glare at Tayla. I absolutely do not want to think about that. “We need to warn the others,” I say.

“What about Kiara?” she demands. “We can’t just turn back.”

“Yes, we can. We have to. If we don’t, they’re sitting ducks.

And they’ve already been in our camp, Tayla.

They’ve gone through our stuff. They’ve taken Keiffer’s batteries and—and probably Evan’s poncho, too!

Maybe your damn lip balm.” My eyes widen.

“Shit. They’re the same guys Keiffer and Radhika ran into on day one. ”

Tayla looks nonplussed. “What guys?”

The whole story spills out. I recite everything Radhika told me, word for word, until I can get Tayla to agree that as much as we want to explore further now that we’re all the way out here, regrouping is our only option. Split up, we’re weaker.

“You said you trusted me,” I point out.

“I never said that.”

“You wanted me to take charge.”

She snorts. “That is not the same thing.”

“We can argue about it, or we can save our friends, and then we can all save Kiara.” When she hesitates, I go in with the kill shot.

“We have two days left until the full moon. If we don’t find the wishing well by the apex, you can kiss Kiara goodbye.

And we need Evan and Keiffer and Radhika.

Like, they probably don’t even have a lookout!

Anyone could do god knows what . If you really love Kiara, if you know her even a little bit, then you’d know which Kiara would prioritize between her life and those of her friends. ”

Tayla looks at me for a long moment. What feels like centuries creep past. Finally, she nods.

Even with her grudgingly on board, it takes us the rest of the day to make it back to where the steps once were.

We don’t encounter any more snakes, but we don’t come across any other familiar markers, either.

It’s like the forest knows what we’re up to and is determined to make it as difficult for us as it can.

It’s twilight when we finally reach the slope. With the wall collapsed, crumbling in on itself, there’s nowhere our feet can find purchase as we struggle to grasp onto roots, hoisting ourselves up. Most of the roots can’t support our weight, so we collapse in a heap more times than not.

On what must be the twentieth try, I reach the top.

I heave a leg over, throw off my backpack, and then offer a hand to Tayla.

She steadfastly ignores it, grunting and gasping.

Her entire face is red, muscles straining, but adrenaline helps her the rest of the way.

She collapses next to me and makes a pitiful whine, the same one I’d bit back just a minute ago so she wouldn’t know how miserable I was.

“We should have left our backpacks down there,” she says, voice low and aching, each word spaced out like each one costs her.

She tips her water bottle into her mouth, shaking it and cursing when she ends up with just drops.

“Damn it. I don’t know why I’ve been so thirsty today.

Everything tastes off, and my mouth…” She works her jaw.

“Maybe I just need to brush my teeth again.”

After taking a long swallow of water, I pass her my bottle. “Don’t be too proud,” I say when I suspect she’s about to cut off her nose to spite her face.

“Fine. Thank you.”

We take a few minutes to sit in silence, massaging our shoulders and calves until the weird pins-and-needles feeling fades.

A breeze stirs, cooling the sweat on my neck.

“I’m glad we didn’t leave the packs behind,” I say, pulling down the quarter zip on my sweatshirt just enough to let air in.

“We still need our supplies for the journey home. Would have been easier if this wasn’t so high up, though, so we could have tossed the packs over instead of lugging them up on our backs. ”

Irritably, she says, “Never thought I’d have something in common with Brian and Emily.”

“They’re long gone. Bear food,” I say with a straight face.

She stares at me before cracking a smile. “You’re fucking awful sometimes.”

I haul myself to my feet, wincing with soreness. “As defending champ, you nervous?”

I give her my hand, and this time, she takes it.

“Shaking in my boots, Nova.”