When Riley arrived at Greenwood the following Thursday, Gabe wasn’t waiting for her on the swing like he usually was.

“The pool has a crack in it,” Alley explained. “Gabe is moving all the water out of the way so Andrew can patch it. He’ll be a few hours. In the meantime, how would you like to climb up to the summit?”

Girl time? “I’d love to.” Riley twisted her hair back and stuffed it up under her ball cap.

“Great! Pash and Katrina are coming, too. Change into your sneakers. We need to start right away if we’re going to get there and back before dinner.”

A few minutes later, the four of them were on their way up the mountain. The path became more narrow after the cabins — about one foot wide instead of four — but it was clean, dry, and covered with snaking horizontal tree roots that doubled as steps. Very easy to climb.

As she hiked, Riley looked around at the early fall scenery. The afternoon sunlight was splashing liquid gold over the canopy of emerald leaves above. A handful of trees had begun to turn yellow or peachy orange. The forest floor was covered in ferns and ivy, with a few large silver-gray rocks protruding from the mountainside. The day was warm, but a crisp breeze kept her feeling cool and comfortable.

She tucked a stray blond curl up under her cap again with a smile. It’s great to have walking companions again. Her only walking companion for a very long time had been Ghost. Riley felt another stab of pain at the loss of her dog. He would’ve loved this. “It’s beautiful up here, Alley.”

“Wait ‘til we get to the summit.” Alley smiled at Riley over her shoulder. “You can see for miles.”

“How far is it?”

Pashika answered. “From the base of the trail it’s three quarters of a mile. At the pace we’re going, we’ll get there in about half an hour.”

Riley chuckled. “I’m sorry, guys. I’m the weak link.”

“Riley, you take your turtle time,” Katrina said, flexing her arms. “No reason to hurry. It feels great out here today.”

Pash frowned as she stepped over a large tree root. “I feel bad that no one asked Violet. Celia’s on patrol right now, but Violet—”

“Don’t feel bad, Pash,” Alley interrupted her. “It’s better this way.”

“I did ask her, but only because I knew she wouldn’t come,” Katrina added.

Pash made an exasperated face, and Katrina snapped her shoulders back. “Don’t look at me like that, Pash! You know how she is. All that girl ever does is complain. You ask her to take an hour to stroll up to the summit and back, and she makes it sound like Mount Everest. ‘It will take all day long. We won’t get anything else done.’”

Katrina’s mimicry was so perfect that Alley and Riley began giggling. Even Pash chuckled. “I shouldn’t laugh.”

“Yes you should,” Alley argued. “You should always laugh when something’s funny. It’s good for you.” She sat down on a large log and took a sip from her water bottle.

Pash reached into her pack and pulled out two more bottles. She passed one up to Katrina and handed the other toward Riley. “I brought one for you, too.” But as Riley stepped toward Pash to take it, Katrina grabbed her arm.

“What?” Pash asked.

Katrina put a finger to her lips, a panicked expression on her face. She looked up the mountain in the direction of the summit.

Glancing around, Riley saw fear come over Alley’s face as well, and Riley’s heart skipped.

They hear something we don’t.

A high-pitched whistle reached her ears, followed by a thud. Riley turned and saw a black arrow embedded in the side of a tree… just inches from Pash’s face.

Katrina morphed into her panther and ran low and fast into the woods, perpendicular to the direction the arrow had come from. She disappeared completely from view as a second arrow whistled by and hit another tree beside Pash.

“Alley, go down for help!” Pash yelled. Alley’s golden cougar leaped into the air and sprinted back down the trail.

Pash dropped her pack and turned to Riley with a panicked expression. “We can’t outrun them… we’ll have to hide!” She glanced over Riley’s shoulder and gasped. Riley, too, turned to look.

Two Veiled men with painted faces were barreling down the mountain, not bothering to be quiet now that they’d been spotted. They were charging through the brush toward the women on the trail. Both were armed with bows.

—HIDE—

Riley took a step toward Pash so she was less than fifteen feet away from her, and then she made the two of them invisible.

The attackers stopped. “They disappeared!” one yelled.

Riley took Pash by the hand. “Come with me, quickly! We are invisible.” She pulled her friend downhill. “They can’t see or hear us, but they can still see our footprints if we’re not careful. Stay inside my shell, and stay on the trail.”

“I didn’t know you could do this!” Pash’s voice shook.

“Xander told me to keep my invisibility a secret, and save it for special occasions. This feels pretty special to me.”

Pash gave a nervous giggle. Riley could tell she was on the verge of tears.

The two of them moved downhill as fast as Riley could go. Alley could be heard in front of them in the distance, screaming the whole way down the mountain as only a cougar could scream.

A few seconds later, Riley heard rustling and thumping. She let go of Pash’s hand and glanced over her shoulder. The men were charging down the hill again, this time on the trail. Riley’s palms began to sweat.

“Hurry!” Pash squeaked.

The men came closer and closer to the women. Riley’s pulse was pounding in her ears as she strained to move quickly.

The intruders were barely outside Riley’s shell when they stopped running a second time.

“That girl,” one of them panted, out of breath, “She’s the one we’re looking for!”

What? Who are they looking for?

“Wait!” Pash whispered. “We need to hear this.”

Riley met her eyes and nodded. Stopping, though, was a major gamble. If the pursuers changed their minds again and continued running downhill, they would be discovered.

Off in the woods, a third man holding a rifle stood. He was glowing dark blue. “Enough!” he said. “There's nothing more to see! We need to go report this. We’re almost at their shield, the girl is gone, I don’t see that red panther anywhere, and the cougar will be back in a minute with company.” Alley’s screams were still ricocheting down the mountain. “We can’t take the whole Greenwood clan on our own. Let's get out of here.”

Riley didn’t recognize the heavily painted face of the third man, but she would have known that voice anywhere. “He’s the man who pulled a knife on me the day I met Xander!”

“Are you sure?” Pash asked her.

“Positive.”

After a couple more fruitless glances around them for Pash and Riley, the men ran back uphill. Riley watched until they were all out of view.

Once they were, Pash tugged on her arm, and the two of them began going back down the trail.

They came here looking for me, or for Pash. But which?

And WHY?