She raised her head to check the wind. Was the monster on her trail? She couldn’t find his scent. What was taking him so long? “The trap falls apart if he doesn’t take the bait,” Death said in her brother’s voice. She could almost see her brother’s frown in her mind, so caught up in the thinking of a thing that he forgot about its why. The why was all Silver could think of. The trap was to save Dare and her mother’s pack. If she failed in this, she failed them. She hesitated a long time, until the spring’s water built up and dribbled over her fingers, painfully cold. “We’re going back,” she told Death. “Maybe the warrior was right. The monster’s too smart for such a trap. I need to warn my mother’s pack.” Death dipped his head that he had heard, but his manner was too bland for Silver to tell if he agreed. “If you think you can find them in time.” Silver snarled at him. “If I didn’t think that, I’d give up. I’m not giving up.” Her next breath twisted into her throat and choked her.
