But I know the direction. Know they’re using vehicles, which means roads. Infrastructure. Places that can be tracked.
And I have resources now. A phone with signal. People who can help.
I just need a location worth sending them to. Information so they know what they’re up against.
The village appears through the trees. Dragana waits in the square, expression unreadable.
“You found what you needed?” she asks.
“A direction. Not a destination.”
“Directions are a start.” She studies my face. “But you cannot follow tonight. You are injured. Exhausted. The mountain will kill you before those men do.”
I want to argue. Want to insist I’m fine, that every second counts, that K is getting farther away while we stand here talking.
But my body betrays me. Trembling from cold and adrenaline crash. The blood on my lip a reminder that I’m not as healed as I pretend.
You died last week.
The thought comes back to me, along with memories of bone-crushing pain.
“Tomorrow,” Dragana says. It’s not a suggestion. “You rest tonight. Eat. Recover strength. Tomorrow, I send guides. They know the roads, the passes. They will help you follow.”
“Why?” The question slips out. “Why help us? You barely know us.”
“Because our kind have been linked with his since before my great-grandmother’s time.” She pauses. “And because you care for him, even if you have not named it yet.”
I stare at her.
“I don’t… We’re not…” I stop. Can’t finish the denial.
Because it’s a lie.
And I’ve told enough of those.
Dragana’s expression softens fractionally. “Rest, child. Tomorrow, we find him. Tonight, we plan.”
She turns and walks away, leaving me standing in the square with Andrei and the knowledge that I need him.
A week. That’s all it’s been.
Seven impossible days where he saved my life and carried me through mountains and kissed me… touched me.
And I’m falling for him.
Idiot, I tell myself.Reckless, foolish idiot.
But knowing it’s stupid doesn’t make it less true.
“Come,” Andrei says gently. “You need food. Warmth.”
I follow him back to the dwelling. The one K and I shared.
The fire still burns. Our pallets still side by side.
The space where we came together and fell apart in the span of minutes.
I sink onto my pallet, pull his cloak around my shoulders.
