grimaces.
I hear Evan move behind me, feel the weapon press against the back of my shaved head. It is cold. I’m thinking of Emma and Claysoot and unanswered questions and if it will hurt when I realize it has grown quiet; too quiet. The rustling of animals in the woods is gone. Not even the wind makes a noise.
And then I hear it, the gentle whiz of a projectile through air. It is followed by a soft thud. Evan coughs and falls onto me. I shove him off and find an arrow in his chest, red blossoming over his shirt.
“Rebels!” Liam yells. “We’re being attacked!”
The arrows come in a steady stream, piercing their way through the darkness. Some are on fire and send tents ablaze when they connect with canvas. I cover my head with my hands and scramble to my feet.
Blaine grabs my arm and tugs. He’s pulling me from the madness when an arrow grazes his arm. He stumbles. I turn in time to see a second arrow burrow into his leg. He falls instantly.
“Blaine!”
I bend to examine him on the ground, barely dodging another arrow that whizzes overhead. Blaine is clutching his thigh. Already there is a lot of blood and I can’t see the wound.
“Is it bad?” he asks, coughing.
“You’re fine,” I say, even though I’m certain he’s not. “Come on, we have to move.” I sling Blaine’s arm behind my neck. He is heavy, but in the moment, my legs don’t seem to care. I run away from the fire pit, supporting Blaine’s weight as best I can. Gunfire breaks out behind us, our attackers now shooting both arrows and bullets.
The camp is in absolute chaos. Order members drop sporadically while the attackers stay hidden in the evening shadows.
“Fire at will!” someone shouts. Bullets race in both directions. How the Order is not shooting their own kind, I am not sure.
“Fall back,” another voice demands. “Fall back now!”
I duck behind the nearest boulder. Craw, too, is using the rock as shelter. “What happened?” he shouts over the gunfire, eyeing Blaine.
“An arrow. It hit him.” My ears ring from the shooting.
“He’ll be okay,” Craw says, reloading his gun.
“I don’t know.” I watch him ready the weapon. He slams ammunition in place and then leans back over the rock, spraying bullets into the darkness. A series of arrows comes back at us, forcing us to flatten our bellies to the ground.
Craw looks at me desperately, and then Blaine. “I can’t hold them off much longer,” he admits. “You should go. Now.”
Bullets come flying at the rock. I’m struck with the realization that this might be it, that I might not make it beyond tonight or back to Taem and I never got to tell Emma how I really felt. She seems so distant suddenly. Irretrievable.
“If you make it back to Taem, tell Emma I’ll come back for her. And that I love her. Can you tell her that?”
If Craw is surprised at that word, he doesn’t show it. He gives a nod, one quick jerk of his chin, and then leans back over the rock. He points his weapon into the darkness and speaks without looking at me. “Go. Now,” he orders. “I’ll cover you.”
I shift Blaine so that my arms are better locked beneath his shoulders, and as Craw opens fire, I run.
TWENTY
I SPEND THE NIGHT IN a dark cave nestled among a small rise. I build a fire and tend to Blaine as best I can. Fearful of being unable to control the bleeding, I don’t pull out the arrow. Instead, I break it off low to the wound. He winces. I use most of the water left in my canteen to clear away the blood. He snarls. I wrap bandages from my pack around the remainder of the shaft and they quickly turn crimson.
“I’ll be okay,” he says over and over and over. I nod.
I had been running to the Rebels, and they’d shot my brother. I watch his chest rise and fall in unsteady waves. I already lost Blaine once. I can’t lose him again.
In the morning, Blaine is weaker. We follow our footprints back to camp with him slumped against my shoulder. There is nothing left of the mission team but a mess of canvas and ash barely visible through a thick fog. The fire pit is run over, and most of the tents lay trampled in the dirt, smoldering. I salvage one and create a giant sling that I can rest