# Chapter 18: Day Seven

All day long, I couldn't eat.

I tried. Mrs. Holt put a plate of eggs and toast in front of me at breakfast, and I picked up the fork, and then I put it down again. My stomach was a tight, hard knot.

*Alone. All night. In the forest.*

*This time, I won't be coming to save you.*

Tessa came over at lunch. She sat on my bed and stared at me like I had just told her I was going to jump off a cliff.

"He said *what*?"

"The whole night. From sunset to sunrise."

"With rogues out there? With some crazy archer who wants to shoot you in the head?"

"He said that's the test."

"That's not a test, that's *murder*!" She grabbed my hands. "Sienna, quit. Please. Just say the word. Say *stop*."

"If I say stop, I lose everything. The Guard. The money. Mom's freedom." I swallowed. "And I have to tell him the truth."

"So tell him the truth! He already knows it!"

"Knowing it and hearing it are different, Tess."

She looked at me for a long time. Then she sighed and pulled me into a hug.

"You're the most stubborn person I've ever met," she said into my hair.

"Everyone keeps saying that."

"Because it's *true*."

---

Owen found me in the afternoon. He knocked on my bedroom door and looked both ways down the hallway, like a spy in a movie. Then he pushed something into my hand.

It was a small pocketknife, red, with a silver blade that folded inside.

"For tonight," he whispered.

"Owen, I can't take this. No weapons. Those are the rules."

"Nobody has to know."

"*I* would know."

He looked at me with his big freckled face. His eyes were worried.

"Please," he said. "You saved my life. Let me help save yours."

I closed his fingers over the knife and pushed it back into his hand, gently.

"If I cheat," I said, "then I didn't really pass. And I need to really pass. Do you understand?"

He looked down at the knife. Then he nodded slowly.

"Okay," he said. "But if you're not back by sunrise, I'm coming in after you. Rules or no rules."

I smiled. "Deal."

---

The sun went down at seven o'clock.

They took me to the edge of Black Hollow. It was the biggest, oldest, darkest part of the forest, on the west side of the pack land. The trees there were huge and thick and ancient, so close together that even in the daytime, the ground under them was dark.

Nobody went into Black Hollow at night. Not even the guards.

There was a small crowd waiting at the edge of the trees. More people than I thought. Some of the guards from the barn. Mara, with her short gray hair and her arms folded. Owen, looking like he was about to cry. A few of the elders, in their long dark coats.

Garrett was there, smiling and warm, with his arm around my mother. Mom's face was gray. She looked like she hadn't slept in days.

And Margot was there, of course, standing with her group of friends from Silver Creek. They were wrapped in fancy fur coats, holding cups of hot coffee, laughing and whispering like this was a party.

And Kael.

He was standing apart from everyone, near the trees, with a small brown backpack in his hand. He didn't look at me when I walked up. He just held out the bag.

"Rules," he said. His voice was flat. "You stay inside Black Hollow until the sun comes up. You can't come out early. You can't go home. You can't ask anyone for help."

I took the bag.

"Inside, there's a bottle of water, a compass, a box of matches, and a jacket," he went on. "And a red flare." He finally looked at me. "If you want to quit, you light the flare and throw it up into the sky. Someone will come get you. But if you do it, you fail. And you know what that means."

"I know."

"Good."

He stepped back.

That was it. No "good luck." No "be careful." Nothing.

My heart cracked a little more.

Then Margot walked over, smiling. She threw her arms around me in a big hug. She smelled like expensive perfume and coffee.

"Good luck, darling," she said loudly, so everyone could hear. Then she leaned close to my ear, and her voice dropped to a whisper. "I hope the rogues eat you alive."

She let go and walked back to her friends, laughing.

I didn't say anything. I just put the backpack on my shoulders.

Mom started to walk toward me. Garrett held her back gently, with his hand on her arm.

"Let her go, Elena," he said kindly. "She's strong. She'll be fine."

Mom looked at me. Her eyes were wet. She mouthed two words.

*Be careful.*

I nodded. Then I turned around and walked into the dark.

---

The forest swallowed me whole.

In ten steps, I couldn't see the people behind me anymore. In twenty steps, I couldn't hear them either. There was only the forest. Huge black trees, all around me, so tall that I couldn't see the tops. Thick, wet moss under my feet. The smell of old leaves and dirt and pine.

And the dark. So much dark.

The sun was gone now. The last bits of gray light were fading out of the sky. Soon, I couldn't even see my own hands in front of my face.

*Okay. Okay, Sienna. Don't panic. You can do this.*

I took off the backpack and opened it. I felt around inside for the matches. I needed light. Just a little light, so I could find a safe place to wait out the night.

My fingers found the little cardboard box. I pulled it out and opened it. I took out a match and struck it on the side of the box.

Nothing happened.

I tried again. Nothing. I tried another match. And another.

They were wet. All of them. The whole box was soft and soggy, like someone had soaked it in water.

My heart started to pound.

I dug back into the bag. I found the water bottle. When I picked it up, it was so light. Too light. I shook it. It was empty. My fingers found a small, round hole on the bottom, like somebody had pushed a nail through it.

The jacket was there. But when I pulled it out and felt it with my hands, it was thin. Very thin. It wasn't a real jacket. It was just a light summer shirt.

I found the compass last. I held it up close to my face and squinted at it in the very last bit of gray light.

The needle wasn't moving.

I shook it. I turned it in circles. The needle stayed in exactly the same place, pointing at nothing. Someone had glued it down.

And the flare.

I turned the backpack upside down and shook it. I felt every single corner. Every pocket.

The flare was gone.

I sat down hard on the cold, wet ground.

*Margot.*

Her big hug, and her face so close to the backpack. And her friends, giggling over their coffee.

They had swapped everything. The real matches. The real water. The real jacket. The real compass. And the flare. My only way out.

I was in the darkest forest in Montana, at night, alone. With no light, no water, no warm clothes, and no way to call for help.

And somewhere out there, there were rogues. And an archer with blue ribbons.

---

For a long time, I just sat there and shook.

The cold was coming now. The real cold, the mountain cold, sinking down through the trees. My breath came out in white clouds. My fingers were starting to go numb.

*Think, Sienna. Think.*

I remembered Kael's voice, at the lake, standing by the blue truck with the map spread out on the hood.

*If you get lost at night, you look at the stars. Find the North Star. It's always in the same place.*

I looked up. But the trees were too thick. I couldn't see the sky. Just black branches, all tangled together.

*If you can't see the stars, use the moss. Moss grows on the north side of the trees.*

I got up. I walked to the nearest tree and put my hands on the bark. It was rough and cold. I felt all the way around it, slowly. One side was dry. One side was soft and thick and wet.

Moss.

*North.*

The town was east. So if north was there, then east was…

I turned to the right.

*That way.*

I couldn't leave the forest. But if I walked east, slowly, carefully, I could find the old hunting tower Kael showed me on the map. The tower was inside Black Hollow, near the east edge. It was high, made of old wood, with a ladder. Rogues couldn't climb ladders. I could wait there until morning.

It was a good plan.

I put the useless backpack on my shoulders, and I started walking.

It was slow. So slow. I walked with my hands out in front of me, touching every tree I passed, feeling for the moss every few minutes to make sure I was still going the right way. Branches scratched my face. Roots grabbed my feet. My bad ankle ached. But I kept going.

One hour. Maybe two. I didn't know. Time was strange in the dark.

Then I heard it.

It was a sound, far away. Long and low and terrible.

A howl.

I stopped walking. I didn't breathe.

It wasn't a pack howl. I'd heard Kael howl, and the guards answer him. Those howls were deep and strong and proud.

This one was different. This one was high and broken, and hungry.

A rogue.

Then another howl answered it, from the left.

Then another one, from the right.

Then another, from behind me.

And another.

And another.

Five. Six. Seven. I lost count. They were all around me, everywhere, in every direction, coming from the dark.

And they were getting closer.