The torches stopped moving.
Gad pressed flatter against the rock, watching the lights hover barely thirty yards from their position, voices dropping lower, careful now instead of casual.
"Tracks end here," one voice said. "Ground's too rocky to hold a trail further."
"Spread out. Check the ridge line."
Mira's hand found Gad's arm in the dark, grip tight with warning. Nobody moved. Nobody breathed louder than necessary.
Boots crunched closer, one set peeling away from the group, moving directly toward the cluster of rocks where they hid. Gad's pulse hammered, the current beneath his skin rising unbidden, responding to the danger pressing close.
‘Not now,’ he thought, forcing it down with everything he had left.
The footsteps paused just beyond the rocks. A soldier's silhouette blocke
