There will be time for that later. A lifetime for that.”
Pippa allowed him to drag her up, and she stumbled after him. They navigated the furnace room, muting their racking coughs with cloths Pippa snatched from a shelf. She bounced from foot to foot as Declan scrambled through the coal door, checked to see that the coast was clear, and then reached back in to pull her out.
The smoke was a blessing in that it shielded them from view as they raced for the forest.
At least she thought it had, until a shout of their discovery sounded the alarm.
Declan used a string of curses Pippa was yet unfamiliar with as he yanked her into the tree line as the first shot rang out, showering them with chunks of bark.
She ran with all her strength. Her lungs burned and her legs felt as though they would tear open, but still she ran.
Another shot scattered the birds and creatures of the Mont Claire woods. A burning sting buckled her leg and she crashed down hard enough to scrape both her knees and the palms of her hands.
She didn’t even have the breath left to cry out.
Declan dropped beside her, calling her name.
“My leg,” she wheezed.
He checked frantically and she was comforted by his breath of relief. “Pip, it’s a graze,” he reassured her. “Can you walk?”
Pippa nodded, swiping at the tears burning hot tracks of pain down her cheeks. If he could be brave, she would be valiant.
Her calf buckled as soon as she put her weight on it, and she dropped with a devastating moan of pain.
Declan glanced around, his eyes going wide and wild as he heard the men crashing through the underbrush.
“Here.” He dragged her down a ravine and stashed her beneath the roots of one of her favorite trees, covering the system with fallen branches and other detritus. “You put this leaf on your leg and press down so it doesn’t bleed too much.”
“Come in with me.” Pippa scooted over, making room for him.
“No.” He shook his head, perking to a distressingly close sound. “You stay here. I’ll lead them away.”
“You can’t!” She reached for him. “They’ll find you!”
He leaned down very close, thrusting her deeper beneath the tree, his eyes more serious and frightening than any she’d ever seen. “You’ll be safe here. And I always survive best if I’m alone. Just trust me.”
She’d never trusted anyone more.
She kissed him then, full on the mouth. A desperate mashing of lips salted with tears and ash.
“I love you,” she said fiercely.
He blinked several times and opened his mouth before a crash to their right stole his attention.
And he was gone.
Footsteps followed too closely on his heels, and Pippa shrank into the depths of the tree, both hands clasped over her mouth.
Several gunshots caused her to jump in the dark, then a victorious shout rang through the forest. The American calling for his comrades.
Several times, Pippa thought about going out there to throw herself over his body, but her pain and terror paralyzed her to the ground, so she simply curled up in the root of the tree and silently sobbed.
Eventually a rustle of branches revealed a dark and beloved face.
Serana.
With a soul-ragged sound, Pippa surged into her arms, burying her face against the wiry Romani woman as her anguish overcame her.
“I know.” Serana smoothed a hand over her hair. “We must flee. Now.”
“But Declan!” she wailed.
“Darling, they ran him down. They … shot him in the back.” Serana’s brown eyes shone soft in the muted light the flames reflected onto the overcast sky.
Devastated, Pippa allowed herself to be carried by the woman to a nearby horse. Her lungs ached and her leg throbbed, but the pain was nothing compared with the pain in her soul.
She sat limply where the strong woman had settled her on the horse before joining her there, riding with a leg over each flank, like a man.
They stood on the restless beast and briefly watched the flames breach the night through the cracks in the boughs as her childhood was reduced to ashes. Everyone she knew and loved was in that house. She thought of them all burning, of the various beasts her mother had roasted and what happened to the meat when the flames would lick at it. Of the sizzle of the juices and the curling of the skin.
She wanted to be sick.
“Why?” she whispered once again through a fog of pain and rage. “Why did I live and no one else?”
Serana’s