Moonlight silvered the path, a thin rope across the hill.
Wind pushed at the scrub and at Isabella's back.
Her breath made small clouds that broke and scattered as she ran.
“Come back," Liam had said.
“No," she had answered, and now she didn't waste breath on second answers.
She cut left where the deer trail narrowed.
Stones turned underfoot.
Branches slid fingers across her sleeves.
Behind her, paws hammered once, then again, then the earth took human strides.
He didn't hurry.
He knew the map.
“Stop," his voice called, measured, infuriatingly calm.
“You cannot outrun me.".
“I can out-choose you," she said, and didn't look back.
The trail funneled into a throat between two rocks.
She squeezed through and scraped skin.
The open dark breathed on the other side.
She broke int
