The storm lasted more than a half an hour, not relenting for a moment and leaving Reide pacing around the red team's alcove and raking a hand through his hair every few minutes. When the rain finally lightened up enough to see to the other side of the Reel, he dashed out before anyone could stop him.

By the time thunder struck again, Reide was already into the woods, slipping in puddles of mud and not even hitting the ground before he was up and running again. "Dreya! Lan! Kella!"

When no one responded, he skidded on the trail, breathing heavy and swiveling in search of movement or color. "Caza! Gid! Is anyone out here?"

It took three tries before someone responded from up the mountain. "We're dry as bone, Reide!"

He raced up the trail as two boys climbed back down it, makeshift hiking sticks prodding in front of them, almost completely untouched by the rain. Lan and Caza, the red team scouts.

"Did you find a cave?" Reide let out a breath when they nodded and a spark of hope lit in his chest for the others.

"Did anyone else get stuck up here?" Caza asked.

Reide was already scanning the forest for them. "Yeah. Gid, Kella, and Dreya, the dark-haired girl who came with me and Tari today. I'm going to keep searching. Blow the horn when you get back and keep an eye out for if anyone else returns."

They both nodded and started past him, and Reide continued further up the mountain, calling after the lost players and receiving no response. Several minutes later, the clear, low call of the Mandy Reel horn sounded from the crater, signaling the end of the game. Still, no one emerged from the trees or the trails.

He checked every spot the Mandies had ever been, ran up the trail he'd hidden by with Andreya, raced past every cave he knew of.

"Dreya!" he called out into the woods. "Kella!"

He didn't feel like his panic was so irrational anymore. "Andreya, where are you!"

"Reide, what in the world?"

Reide spun around to where, a good twenty paces down the mountain, a brunet a year or two younger than him stared with his hands on his hips.

"You're a mess," Gid shouted up at Reide. "Kella and who have gone missing?"

"Dreya." Reide skidded down the trail and met him where he stood. "Dark hair, Nasavtean, from the Mixed District. She's never been in these woods before, I shouldn't have left her—"

Gid flicked a hand up. "Don't beat yourself up, mate. She's with Kella?"

"They could have gotten separated."

"Then I'll search for Kella and you search for your Nasavtean friend." He patted Reide's shoulder and took a few steps down the trail. "And since neither of them have responded to your incessant yelling yet, they might not be able to, so I'd use your eyes instead. I hope they're in a cave somewhere."

Reide had grown up on this mountain to know he'd searched every cave it had, but he still managed a smile as Gid jogged off. Now the only people unaccounted for were Andreya and Kella.

Of course Andreya would be one of the lost players.

Reide pressed a hand to his thrumming chest and blew out a long breath. She was immortal. She would be fine.

Kella, on the other hand, might not.

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Andreya didn't know how long they'd been sitting next to the rock, but at some point, Kella had either fallen asleep or feinted, and she lay now in Andreya's arms, sharing both warmth and an odd sense of comfort in simply not being alone.

Andreya leaned her head back against the jagged rock and stared through the trees at the cloud-covered sky. Her eyes almost closed several times, and the world, glistening with freshly fallen rain, went in and out of focus.

It occurred to her somewhere in the back of her mind that someone was saying something. A simple call in the distance. She couldn't make out the words.

She drew in a slow breath and tried unsuccessfully to move.

The calling continued. A hard consonant, ending in an "ah"...

"Kella." The name escaped her lips soundlessly and the minutes dragged on. The calling became louder, closer. She could clearly make out the name this time. Kella.

When the voice reached her, a young man came into blurry view. He knelt in front of her and asked, "Are you okay?" He touched Kella once, then mentioned something about getting help.

"Reide?..."

Andreya tried to move her arm and managed only a shake in her numb wrist. But he had already left, leaving only the trees and the sky and her splitting headache.

She finally let her eyes lull closed and her head hang limp.

It would not surprise her if the next face she saw was Death, here to turn her away again.

She would be back.... For sure she would be back...

──── ❉ ❉ ❉ ────

"They got caught in the rain?"

"A little ways off the trail to where the blue Mandy was hidden," Gid told Reide again, pointing up the mountain. "They're soaked clean through."

"That could kill a person in this cold!" Reide was already sprinting past him. "Pick up your feet!"

Gid had told him not to beat himself up, but this was so many levels above irresponsible for Reide. He could have turned back for them when he saw the rain, but he hadn't. He could have paid attention to the clouds that morning, but he hadn't done that, either. He spotted the light green of Kella's jacket from the trail and dashed off the beaten path toward it.

It ended in a small clearing with a jagged boulder. Against the rock sat Andreya, head lowered, and Kella, cradled loosely in Andreya's arms. They were both dripping wet and unmoving and pale as death.

Reide cursed and cursed again, skidding down next to them and bringing a hand to each of their wrists in turn. Their pulses were so weak they were almost undetectable. His hands shook almost too much to tell.

"Are they okay?" Gid broke into the clearing behind him and Reide lifted Kella from Andreya's lap, carrying her over to him.

"They've been out in freezing rain for way too long," he said, transferring Kella to Gid. "We have to get them home."

Gid agreed and, as soon as Reide had shifted his quiver to his front and lifted Andreya onto his back, they both set off back down the mountain, a fifteen-minute hike at their speed. Reide only stopped at the edge of the Reel long enough to assign someone to help Tari home, then he started after Gid back to Korsa, another half-hour trek on muddy paths over small streams and thorny bushes. Several kids walked back with them for extra safety, but Reide was focused on nothing more than the woman he carried, supposedly an immortal but barely hanging on to life.

She was so cold. Just when Reide had learned to trust her about her ability to revive, he was tested like this.

This was the worst test ever.

As soon as they reached Korsa, everyone broke off to their own homes and Reide cut to the shortest route, walking briskly around the puddles and to his family's house.

He pushed through the door and straight to his older brother Sauva's room, surprised for only a split-second by the fact that everything had been meticulously organized since Andreya had stayed there last night. He laid her down on the bed and snatched a set of clothes and a towel from his room for her, then paused in the doorway.

He had never undressed a woman before, and frankly never thought he would. He stood for only a second with the garments in his arms before dismissing the thought and tossing them beside her on the bed.

When she was fully dressed again, his clothes baggy and out-of-place on her thin frame, Reide adjusted the blankets on top of her and unbraided her wet hair, drying it with the towel and adding more blankets from around the house. Finally, with nothing left to do for her, he dragged up a kitchen chair and leaned his elbows on the bed.

"Andreya," he tried, and brushed the hair from her face, his touch lingering on her colorless cheek. How long was it supposed to take for her to revive? When she had sliced her arm, it had healed in seconds, yet now she still hadn't so much as opened her eyes. But he'd seen her frozen before, and she had revived then.

The first time he met Andreya, she'd been covered in dried blood and curled up in the snow, unconscious. There in the Borderland, she'd mustered up the strength to bicker with him until he agreed to her terms, but here in his home, wet-haired and covered in blankets, she seemed so much frailer. The faint rise and fall of her chest, the shadow of strain on her brows, the part of her lips as she drew in shallow breaths. He'd brought her up that mountain. He had abandoned her.

Reide lowered his forehead onto the blankets and released a tormented sigh.

Tari arrived soon after that and stood on the threshold for several moments, then closed the door and hung his cane on the coatrack. When he came to stand next to Reide, he chanced an empathetic look and placed a hand on Reide's shoulder. "How is she?"

Reide didn't lift his eyes. "Well, she's not awake."

"I can get the doctor," Tari suggested, but Reide only shook his head. Andreya was a case unique to anything he'd ever seen or heard of, and if she healed magically while under a doctor's care, it may lead to questions they'd both been avoiding.

"I'm sure she'll come around," Reide said, and wished he meant it more than he did.

Tari patted his shoulder and turned to go, only for the sound of splashing mud and hooves and wheels to bring them both to a stop. A horse's whinny traveled straight through the thin wooden walls and Tari spun around as if to ask if Reide knew anything about it. Reide sat up, frowning.

They both waited at the slam of a carriage door and startled when a knock banged on the door several times. Then, a deep, clear voice rang through the house.

"By order of the Isantad Court, the lady Andreya Marivatan is hereby under arrest, effective immediately. Please surrender her to the care of the Court Guard or submit to the consequences of harboring a fugitive."

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