Page 17 (1/2)

"Truce! Truce!" Sophie hollered, laughing She carefully walked out of her hiding spot

Ree chuckled at her draggled hair and clothes Then she realized that not only did she also have wet clothes and hair, but there were twigs and dirt stuck to her froround The state of her clothesspot

"Very good, Ree You pulled that water without so ht!" Sophie pointed above her head "And the paperweight is still doing patterns"

"Oh!" Ree looked at the glass ball in shock She held her hand out and brought it to land in her palot all about it"

So there holding towels She had never seen anything lookher

"If you two are done with your wet t-shirt contest, I started a fire in the den," he said

Sophie and Reeas they ran

Chapter 23

Ree slept like the dead that night She had the faintest ihtmares, but didn’t have any coherent ht before had really taken its toll Hoping she didn’t get sick froht, she decided to wear several layers today What had they been thinking? At least they had so the tension and it allowed Ree to see a ht she almost felt like they were friends or family, not just mentor and student Once she was dressed she went to the kitchen, looking for everyone It was quiet but there was a bunch of rabbed one and a bottle of juice and went in search of her friends She found thearden, and it looked like they had already been running Today is looking up, she thought I

Melanie waved at Ree as she pulled the door closed behind her "Hey! We didn’t want to wake you up for the first run Sophie said you did a lot last night"

"First run?" Wrinkling her nose, Ree hoped that she had heard wrong

"Yeah, sorry, Ree The first one you wouldn’t have been able to keep up Now that you’re awake, we can practice forain"

"Anyone else feel like they’re in boot camp?" Weylin asked Juliette raised her hand and Bryce pushed her shoulder gently in mock disapproval

"What? It does a little bit," she said, obviously gruot the tennis shoes that runted when Jules elbowed hiood of you to join us" Roland ca a bottle of water Ree blushed at his words and gulped the rest of her juice down She saw Paden out of the corner of her eye He looked away from them and bent down to retie his shoe laces She set her bottle down on the bench and stretched Everyone else was li The run started out the sa a protection pattern around her as they ran Roland was in the lead and would occasionally call out one of their names That person would drop to the back and keep pace fro even Her legs were sore a lot quicker today, but she thought she re normal Hopefully tomorroould be a little easier She stu she noticed Roland wasn’t in front of the at each other in confusion They kept running, but their pattern seehter, filled with tension Juliette’s head turned to the side just as a dark shape flew out of the trees Ree squeaked and bumped into Bryce, but Jules twisted and used Roland’s momentum to throw hi," Weylin said from the rear

"Hush, we have to listen" Paden’s eyes darted around the path

Ree felt silly for squeaking like a little girl Of course it had been Roland They were raising the stakes Giving theh This was different though; knowing there was so out there where you couldn’t see the fell out of the tree they passed under, and Weylin hollered in shock

"Tag," Roland said, s dione, with nothing to even tell theuys," Weylin picked hio on without me now"

"We’ll see you at the house," Paden said Ree smiled at Weylin before he turned and started back to the house Almost as quickly as Roland had disappeared, she couldn’t see any trace of her friend

"All right guys Tighten up and fill the gap" Paden took the lead again, and Ree was amused to watch everyone do as he said She mock saluted him He rolled his eyes at her, but she saw the corners of his mouth twitch They resumed their earlier pace, and Ree tried to sense where Roland was lurking

It was overwhel to send feelers out into the forest There was so much life around them that she would normally not notice She let her body keep rhythm with the others, and drifted further out with her senses Just as she felt so dark and cold she heard Paden holler at the others He turned toward the left, but that wasn’t quite right

"Up!" Ree hollered Just as Roland ca down fro, Bryce barreled into hi, and eventually Roland disappeared back into the trees

"Does that count as a point for me?" Bryce asked as he ap and now ave Bryce a high five Theyto find Roland She couldn’t shake the spooky feeling of being watched and she found herself shivering fro that aside, she concentrated harder on their surroundings She felt the anirow still every so often, and she started to sense a pattern She smiled once she was sure it was Roland She had hi to be as quiet as possible "Directly ahead" Reaching out to touch Roland with her poas a unique experience He didn’t have the salow the others held, but rather a spark that seee

Ree felt Roland and just barely saw a blur ahead of them as he darted across their path In the next round