I look down to see her clinging to a narrow ledge, her injured side bleeding through her shirt. She’s pale, shaking with exhaustion and pain.
“Yes, you can,” I tell her, scrambling down to her position. “Just a little farther.”
“No.” She shakes her head, tears cutting clean tracks through the soot on her cheeks. “I’m slowing you down. You should?—”
“Don’t you fucking dare,” I snarl, grabbing her chin and forcing her to meet my eyes. “We do this together or not at all. Remember?”
She stares at me for a moment, something fierce and desperate flickering in her gaze. Then she nods, taking my offered hand.
I force her ahead of me, following her climb. One handhold at a time, one foot after another, pushing through pain and smoke and the terrible heat rising from below. The world narrows to just this—rock under our hands, air in our lungs, the solid warmth of each other beside us.
I lose track of time, of distance, of everything except the need to keep moving up. The fire below sounds like a freight train now, consuming everything in its path. But ahead, through the smoke, I can see the edge of the cliff face.
“Almost there,” I gasp, following Lithia’s painful ascent. As she reaches the edge of the cliff, I reach up, boosting her onto the stone outcrop. I haul myself over, finding her flat on her back, gasping for air. She’s climbed the fucking thing on pure stubborn will. I flop beside her, sucking in lungfuls of the slightly cleaner air.
Below us, the forest burns. The entire valley is engulfed in flames, smoke rising in towering pillars that block out thesun. And somewhere in that inferno, our pursuers are either dead or retreating.
“We made it,” Lithia whispers, her voice raw from smoke.
I want to agree, but something’s wrong. The smoke up here is different—not just wood smoke, but something chemical and sharp that makes my eyes water.
“Lithia.” I grab her arm, pointing to the horizon. “Look.”
She follows my gaze and her face goes white.
An aircraft circles in the distance—helicopters dropping something that makes the flames burn hotter and faster.
“They know we’re here.”
As if summoned by my words, the sound of rotors cuts through the air above us. A helicopter, emerging from the smoke like a predator, already swinging in our direction.
“Run!”
We scramble across the rocky plateau, looking for any cover, any escape. But there’s nowhere to go—just bare rock and empty sky, and the helicopter closing fast.
The searchlight finds us, cutting through the smoke to pin us like insects in its glare. Over the rotor noise, I hear a voice amplified by a megaphone.
“Stop running. You’re surrounded.”
I grab Lithia’s hand, pulling her toward the far edge of the plateau. Maybe we can find another way down, another route?—
The rock explodes inches from my feet, shards of stone spraying across the plateau. Not a warning shot. They’re trying to kill us.
“This way!” Lithia yanks me toward a narrow crevice in the rock face. It’s barely wide enough for a person, but it’s cover.
We squeeze into the narrow crevice in the rock face, gasping as the helicopter’s searchlight sweeps past. There’s another shot, but it lands about three feet to our left. Theangle of this crevice is all that’s keeping us from becoming Swiss cheese.
But our relief is short-lived.
The sound of rotors cuts through the air above us—another helicopter, different from the first. Through the gap in the rocks, I watch in horror as it drops a line of liquid fire across the plateau above us, the chemical accelerant igniting instantly.
“Fuck, they’re boxing us in,” Lithia breathes.
Fire below us, climbing the cliff face with terrifying speed. Fire above us now, spreading across our only escape route. And somewhere in the smoke, helicopters circling like vultures, making sure we have nowhere to run.
The smell of smoke grows thicker. The fire is climbing toward us from below while the new blaze spreads across the plateau above, following the wind currents down through the rock formations. Through the narrow opening, I can see orange light dancing closer from both directions, hear the roar of flames consuming everything in their path.
“Kier,” Lithia’s voice is tight. “The fire—it’s coming up.”
