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"We don’t need a daet kinky You do realize I live with hiht? We’re already--"

Oren slapped his hand over my mouth "Come on, kid," he called to Colton "Want to see a waterfall?"

"Yeah!" Colton jumped up, excited

"Be careful," Noel cautioned ilance "Don’t worry, big brother You’ll get both your siblings back, safe and sound"

Leaving, him, and Aspen, and Brandt behind, the three of us strolled up the abandoned trail toward the waterfall As Colton skipped ahead, I grasped Oren’s hand "I alanced over, his eyebrows lifted in surprise "For what? You didn’t do anything wrong"

I sighed and rested my cheek on his shoulder "I should’ve known better than to expect you two to just…get along"

Oren swept ain, we’re going to have to suffer through a couple of encounters like these first" Then he kissed et the theh "But--"

"Hey, don’t get too close to the edge!" Oren yelled above me

I turned to find Colton ahead of us He’d already reached the banks of the waterfall, and just as he glanced back at us, the ground under hi and waving, the next he was being sucked down into the earth It happened so fast I could barely draw in a breath bethat my eyes saw and what my brain realized had just happened

Then I screa forward, but Oren was faster

He reached the edge first and held up a hand, warding me away "Stay back This bastard is unsteady as fuck"

I skidded to a halt, not wanting to add anyhelpless, I covered my mouth with both hands as tears filled my eyes The roar of the waterfall was so loud Oren had to yell when he glanced back at ht hold of so on"

"Oh thank God" I pressed ht s I shivered and huggedas Oren inched closer to the edge, trying to keep one foot back on ot down on his knees and stretched one ar for round about five feet away cru clumps tumble downstream only a second later The way it was battered around like a pinball made me pray even more fervently that Colton didn’t soon join it

"Caroline," Oren called, glancing back at aze that so

"What?" I demanded "Is he okay?"

Oren nodded, but he still looked…sick? Scared? Resigned? "I need…I need you to be prepared to catch him as soon I pull hi what that ritted his teeth and jerked his are at ed intorabbed hold of hi backward away from the bank Colton burrowed into me until ere a safe distance away That’s when I pushed him aside and searched frantically for Oren…to find hirabbed Colton, jerked him to his feet, and then shoved him in the direction of our picnic "Get Noel Quick Oren’s in trouble"

As soon as he nodded and took off, I bit e

"Oren?" I screa to happen when he’d pulled Colton up He’d known he’d get sucked down Fearing I wouldn’t find him at all, I sobbed when I saw him, only to realized he’d been left in the sa fro out the side of the steep eood thirty feet below him

When he looked up and saw me, his eyes flared with panic "No Get back"

But the root he was clinging to couldn’t support his weight as well it had been able to hold Colton’s It started to slide down the embankment, and as he scrambled to hold on, I lurched forward on round--and then I grabbed for him