My people start pouring out of the trees, harried and bedraggled, their faces filled with fear. I hear Dommik counting. “We’re missing two!”
The group looks around, and then one of the women answers, “It’s Tash and Sam. They went out to try and hunt!”
My gouged stomach crumples up in further dread, accentuated by the crying of Neira. Her wounded leg is still wrapped up, her arms clutching her mother. Another person begins to cough as the first waft of smoke drifts in.
Dommik and I share a look. Without speaking, we know what we have to do.
“I’ll go search for them,” he murmurs.
“I’ll lead the others away from the fire.”
He gives a terse nod. I can see it bothers him to separate, but he doesn’t argue. Instead, he steps closer, back facing the group. “When you’ve found a place to stop, use your magic to mark the spot. I’ll keep a lookout for the sign, and then we’ll meet up with you.”
“Okay.”
He moves to walk away, but a terrible sense of dread overcomes me.
“Dommik—”
Body stilling, he turns back toward me.
Words fall flat in my chest, weighing down my broken organ until it feels pressed down. I don’t want to separate either, but I know we have to.
“Just…be careful,” I say, though that barely scratches the surface.
He watches me as if it’s not only shadows he can pull in, but all my unsaid words too. My fear and worry stick to the silence, heart pounding with apprehension and unease. Yet my tongue stays still, my lips pressed together, unable to say more.
Dommik abruptly eats up the distance, grabbing my chin before pressing his mouth to mine. My heart flips as I meet his hurried kiss, tasting the emotions between us. “I know,” he murmurs against my smoke-tinged lips, as if he’s heard everything I didn’t say. “You be careful too.” I nod and then he gives me one more long look before he turns and strides away.
I let out a breath at his departure before I turn, straightening my spine with fortitude. Now, I’m left with everyone else in the group, and they’re all looking to me for guidance. For protection. I can’t let them down, and I can’t let my fear bleed through my demeanor either, so I stand tall and keep my expression calm.
“We’ll evacuate now. Make sure that none of you are carrying more than you can handle,” I tell them before glancing in the direction of the smoke.
“Where will we go?”
“We’ll find another safe spot in the forest,” I assure them, though I think I’m also assuringmyself.
Turning around, I start to lead them.
Hoping it’s not to slaughter.
I’m meticulous about watching the progress of the flames behind us. Meticulous in ensuring we are going straight, that we aren’t accidentally traveling in a circle. Yet no matter how quickly we travel, the flames seem to encroach. To close in like a curling wave coming to bat us down.
Sweat drips down my back and sticks to my clothes. The only reason the smoke hasn’t overwhelmed us is because we’re traveling against the wind that’s started to blast through the forest, blowing with a fervor.
Yet the wind is only spreading the fire.
Someone cries out, and I jerk around to look as one of the men helps up his elderly father—Kasin. The man worked as a street sweeper his entire life, always hunched over a broom, which accounts for the curve of his back. His son followed in his footsteps. They both were born and raised in the shanties. Both lost wives during childbirth.
I’ve learned more about this group just from the last several days than I ever knew about the rest of my people after being their queen for decades.
Kasin wears a grimace of pain as he gets back to his feet and steps over the snow-covered rock he hadn’t noticed before. He’s thin, his dirty clothes hanging off of him, and his face streaked with ash. Everyone looks in much the same state, including me. We’re exhausted. Dirty. And without enough food, we won’t have the energy to keep up this pace for much longer.
The child’s mother, Dari, leans against a tree, bony hands clutching at the girl. “We aren’t getting away from it, Queen Malina. The fire is spreading closer!” she says with desperation.
Dread envelops me. I know we can’t keep going like this, deeper into the forest. We’re not finding the haven I’d hoped for. I thought we could move away from the flames, but it seems the entire forest is being choked out.
Going deeper in no longer seems like a viable plan. Even if wedidfind another place to stop amongst the pines, there will be no huts, and there’s no telling if we’d be truly safe from the fire or if it would simply spread there too. The flames don’t seem like they want to slow or stop. What if they burn the entire forest?
