I take the turn. Follow the rough track until we’re hidden by thick trees. Stop the engine.
Silence settles except for our breathing—both of us still panting hard from exertion and adrenaline.
Then reality crashes back.
“Where are we going?” I ask.
“Away from here.” She’s checking weapons. Counting ammunition. Already planning next steps. “I’ll figure out the rest.”
“You’re a fugitive now. A traitor to Aurora.”
“I know.”
“They’ll hunt you. Everyone you know will be ordered to bring you in or kill you.”
“I know.” She doesn’t look at me. Just keeps checking gear with grim focus.
“Why?” The question forces itself out. “Why believe me?”
She stops. Looks at me directly. Eyes are pale green again, but I can see the wolf still present, still close to the surface.
“Because you didn’t do it.”
“How can you possibly know that?” I’ve never been on the receiving end of such blind trust before.
“I don’t know how yet. I just know.”
“That’s not proof. That’s instinct.”
“It’s enough.”
The certainty in her voice is unshakeable. She sacrificed her home, her family, her safety, her entire future with Aurora—all based on the instinct that I’m innocent.
I made her into this. Fugitive. Exile. Traitor to the only family she’s had for five years.
She chose it anyway. And I’m humbled.
“Where do we go from here?” I ask quietly.
“I don’t know yet.” She finally looks at me fully in the dim light filtering through the trees. “But they’re going to kill you for something you didn’t do. I couldn’t let that happen.”
“Even though it costs you everything.”
“Yes.”
We sit in the stolen truck hidden in the forest with Aurora organizing pursuit behind us. No clear plan. No allies we can trust. No safe haven to run toward.
Just the two of us.
Both changed forever.
We need to move again soon. Need to put more distance between ourselves and Aurora before they organize aerial pursuit.
But for this moment, we just sit in the silence and process what we’ve both done.
What we’ve both sacrificed.
What we’ve both chosen.
