“I didn’t realize just how soft your heart could be,” he murmurs.
Flakes still fall from the sky, glittering in moonbeams and catching on the evergreen needles.
“Neither did I.”
We are silent for a time, but my mind races. Eneko is dead. The realization sinks in, and then sours.
“Fuck, the papers Eneko brought back from the mines,” I all but shout.
Ra’Sa rubs my uninjured arm. “Peace,Ruh’flor. They are inside. Scattered across every surface.”
This is good news. I look up at him, then stare at the house. So many memories. We’re so close.
But my chest tightens and my eyes burn. Perhaps it’s the fact that Eneko’s dead, but I can’t seem to move my feet.
“I… can’t go in there. Never again.”
Ra’Sa nods. “You must, for a little while. It is too cold for you to be outside. Give me a little time, and I will take you to a hiding place we’ve been preparing so I can tend to your wounds.”
I watch the snowfall and look back at the cabin.
"What if someone else finds us?” I say.
Eneko's cabin was far enough away from the slave pens that we would have time.
Ra'Sa shakes his head. “There will be no more guards for a while. I know their patterns. Just let me send a message to King Teo, then we may leave. Tomorrow, the slaves will riot. And we will begin our trek home. It will not matter."
I look up at him. “Take me with you.”
His brows furrow, so I don’t allow him to respond.
“We need to get my family. And I need to warn the comfort women."
He looks down at me, wary. “Very well, but we must run.”
“I can run well enough.”
Chapter 37
RA’SA
We run toward the slave pens as fast as my legs can carry me. The air is charged with electricity as I whip past trees. Some of the branches hit me in the face, scraping against my little Melisa’s skin, almost demanding that I slow down and reach some common sense.
But I can't stop.
Not until I warn my king. Not until we get Thea and Wren.
Ra'Sa, Melisa says to my mind.I can’t keep running.I’ll stop back here. Come and get me when you are ready to go for the girls.
I swallow hard. My skin burns against the onslaught of cold.I’m comforted to know she’s not far behind.
Stay hidden. I’ll only be a moment.
When I draw close to the slave pens, my chest constricts. I stop, gasping for breath near one of the trees, and lean against it.
It’s Melisa’s presence in my thoughts and the need to return to her that makes me push off of the bark and head to the fence. Once easing through the hole, I find the new hollowed out rock where I'd hidden the stones.
Through my magic, I can feel the weight of hundreds of humans in this place, and the guards moving through the area. My brows furrow. There are two more than usual.