Page 16 of The Lovely and the Lost

I will find you. That had been my silent promise to Bella.I will bring you home.

“Kira,” Cady said. “You’re cutting out.”

I wasn’t cutting out. I was stalling. A sound in the distance sliced through the mountain air. It took me a moment to realize what it was.

Three barks.

I was sure that I’d imagined it, willed it into being, heard it the way I sometimesheardorsaworfeltthings in a place in my mind that seemed real. My pulse pounding in my throat, I fixed my eyes on a clearing in the trees. If Saskia had found something, she’d circle back and give the signal a second time.

Find. Recall. Re-find.

A blur of white burst through the clearing. Saskia barreled toward me, and I knew, just from the way she was running, that I hadn’t imagined anything. She bounded up to me—joyful, wild, free—and barked.

Three times.

Saskia hadn’t found Bella Anthony. She’d found a piece of Bella’s windbreaker, caught in brambles. That piece of red cloth, uneven and torn, was like a shot of adrenaline, straight to my heart.

Bella had made it out of the river.

She’d made it this far.

She’s alive.I knew, logically, that the river wasn’t the only danger a child would face in these mountains. Based on the tracks I’d seen, it was home to mountain lions. In all likelihood, that wasn’t all.Black bears, rattlesnakes, foxes.My brain began to rattle off what a child would face out here alone.Dehydration. Hunger.

“How did a little kid even make it this far?” one of the rangers asked as the sheriff marked off a perimeter around the scene. “Why would she keep going? Why head up the mountain at all?”

“Because,” I said softly, “if you stop, it’s over.”

If you stop, you die.Bella might have been taught to stay in one place if she got lost, to wait for someone to find her. But there came a point when you realized that no one was coming.Keep moving. Girl has to keep moving. Find water. Food. Run—

Cady laid a hand on my shoulder, her touch light and fleeting. Once upon a time, I would have bristled at the contact. Instead, I reached out and caught her hand in mine. I brought it back to my shoulder.

“Pad and I will see if we can pick up the trail from here,” Cady told me, rubbing her thumb gently over my arm. “You should head back to town, get some rest. Free and Jude went back hours ago.”

I should stay.I thought the words, and then I said them. I said them so that Cady would know they mattered.

“Kira.” Cady forced me to look at her. “I’ll take one of the rangers with me. I won’t be alone. And,” she continued, preempting any argument, “Ihaven’t run myself ragged. You have.”

Getting into a staring contest with Cady was never a good idea.

“If you haven’t found her by dawn, I’m coming back.”

Cady gave a brisk nod, then turned and led Pad to the strip of red cloth, barely visible in the moonlight as it wafted in a wind too light to feel.

“Miss?” A park ranger came up behind me.Directlybehind me.

I whirled, every muscle in my body tightening. The ranger gave me a look I recognized all too well. Even a hundred miles away from home and whispered rumors about the feral girl from the forest, there was still something about me that told other people that I wasn’t quite right.

“Come on,” the ranger said, his voice quiet and kind. “Let’s get you home.”

* * *

Homewas Bales Bennett’s house, but Cady’s father was nowhere to be seen. Ness was the one who met us at the door. She looked the ranger up and down, then thanked him for coming all this way. He was probably halfway to town before he realized how handily he’d been dismissed.

“You need food.” Ness issued that statement like a woman declaring martial law. Without waiting for a reply, she turned and headed for what I could only presume was the kitchen.

Saskia stayed outside. I would have preferred to do the same. But people lived in houses, ate at tables. My lungs constricted as the front door closed behind me. I felt trapped.Cornered, no way out—

The smell of chili wafted in from the kitchen. I breathed in and breathed out and tried not to think about the fact that there had been a time when fresh meat had been the only way Cady could lure me indoors. Fighting the déjà vu, I walked slowly toward the kitchen. As I crossed the threshold, I wondered if Ness was the one who’d taught Cady to make chili.