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I push off the stone and run.

My first steps carry me past his left side. I take the dip I’ve watched for days, dropping low enough that the ledge hides me from the passage.

Behind me, he makes a harsh sound through his teeth.

I keep going.

Loose grit slides beneath the leather, so I shorten my steps until I reach the first roots. I catch a trunk with my right hand and swing around it, putting the thickest growth between us.

The ground’s easier here. Needles cover the stones, and I can stretch my stride without watching every place my feet will go. I duck under a branch and turn downhill.

I’m running.

My legs hold, and my shoulder takes the movement. Wind reaches the skin above my collar. I pass one tree, then another, with room to choose where I go next.

The stream shows ahead through a low gap in the ferns.

I step into water barely deep enough to cover my ankles and turn downstream. Cold soaks through the leather, but the stones give me places to put my feet without leaving prints. At the next bend I climb onto a flat rock, making a muddy smear where I push off.

Let him find that.

I jump back into the water farther along, below an overhanging bank, then turn and wade upstream. The bank hides me from the slope above. I pass the place I first came in and keep going, stepping slowly where the current splashes against the rocks.

Water won’t take away every trace of me. It can make him hunt for the right bank while I get farther from it.

When the stream narrows, I climb out over a root and cross a patch of exposed stone. I double back along its edge, then step onto a fallen trunk that takes me into thicker trees.

I stop behind an upright pine long enough to listen.

All I get is water, my own breathing, and a faint rustle overhead.

I get my breath quieter. He could be beyond the stream or right behind the next tree. I can hear my own sleeve scrape bark, which tells me very little about the rest of the forest.

But he hasn’t caught me.

I move again, keeping to the slope until it flattens. Once I find the river, I can follow it upstream. Mel can swear at me while she fixes the shoulder. Keer can have his turn after her.

I’ll even let him finish.

The trees thin ahead, and moonlight reaches a strip of open ground. I head for it, lifting my feet over roots I can’t see until I’m nearly on them.

My next step drops farther than I expect. I catch a branch with my left hand, and pain tears through my shoulder.

Fuck.

I let go and land on bent knees. I stay crouched, holding my arm against my ribs. The bandage presses hard beneath the shirt.

Then I hear movement behind me and push upright.

The open strip is close. I get through the last branches, hauling in air that doesn’t go as far as it used to.

A dark shape clears the fallen trunk to my right.

He hits me around the waist, and we go down together.

He takes the ground on his arm, beside my head. Needles catch in my hair, and the breath I’ve been fighting for leaves me all at once.

I was nearly there.