An easy choice, which Ahnna suspected meant it was no choice at all.
She slid to a stop at the riverbank, and James cursed as he nearly ran her over. “Swim,” he gasped. “We need—”
He broke off, and silence stretched between them. No words were necessary as they took in the inferno on the opposite side of the bank. Carlo had set a merciless trap and he’d set it well, the wind rushing down from the mountains driving the flames west. Flushing them toward the edge of the tree line, where there would be nowhere to hide. No way to outrun mounted soldiers. That he’d leave miles of scorched ruin in his wake clearly troubled the Beast not in the least.
“We have to get into the water,” James urged. “The fire is coming fast.”
Ahnna clenched her teeth and gave her head a sharp shake. “It’s a trap, James. He has to know that if we are in here, we’ll take to the river.”
The wall of flame racing in their direction illuminated James’s dirt-smeared face as he caught hold of her shoulders. “If he catches us, we still have a chance. If the fire catches us, we aredone.”
Ahnna coughed as the wind blew over them. “What if we wade out as deep as we can and wait for the flames to burn past?”
“The smoke will be too thick.” He struggled to get the words out between coughs. “In another few minutes, we won’t be able to breathe.”
Fire like this wasn’t something Ahnna knew. Ithicana was saturated with rain daily, and even fires started by lightning or humanity never took hold. “We can try. If I’m wrong, we swim.”
James opened his mouth to argue, but then caught hold of her left hand and pulled her out into the river. It was fed by melted snow, and the cold cut down to the bone. But with the wall of heat blowing over her, Ahnna didn’t hesitate to wade deeper.
The current was fast, and it was hard to keep upright on the slippery rocks of the riverbed. It rose up her thighs, and Ahnna leaned against it to keep from being knocked down. Yet as the water reached her waist, her boots went out from her.
James’s hand tightened on hers and he hauled her upright, wrapping an arm around her waist and keeping her back against his chest as he edged deeper. He was warm and solid, his height and weight keeping them upright where hers had failed.
Around them, the smoke hung like a shroud, thick and suffocating, pressing into her lungs and coating her throat with ash. Her breaths were shallow and desperate, the air so heavy with soot it felt like trying to breathe through cloth.
James coughed violently, his body shaking from the effort of keeping them upright in the current. From the effort ofbreathing.
The smoke was everywhere, clinging to them like a second skin, wrapping around her throat like a noose. “I was wrong.” Her voice was raw and barely audible over the trees exploding from the heat. “We have to go downstream.”
“Carlo will be waiting.” James’s grip around her waist tightened, and he reached down to pull her sodden shirt up over her mouth and nose. “He’s angry, Ahnna. He’ll hurt you again.”
As if she didn’t know that. As if she couldn’t picture Carlo standing just outside the range of the flames, illuminated red like the demon that he was. Waiting, waiting to punish her for her infractions against him.
For the loss of his eye.
“Unless you’ve got another plan, we have no choice.”
James didn’t answer, only gave a grunt of effort as he started wading upriver, his movements sluggish but deliberate as he finally said, “We just need to get past the worst of it. The wind is blowing the smoke the other way.”
The smoke pressed in closer, its tendrils swirling like living things, clinging to her skin and filling her nose with the acrid stench of burning wood. Ahnna’s vision blurred, the riverbank lost in crimson and flame, and her face felt like it was on fire.
I can’t breathe. James can’t breathe.
We are burning burning burning.
“James, this isn’t working!”
No answer, but she could feel his determination to go any direction other than Carlo’s. Even if that direction was death.
“James!”
With a desperate burst of effort, Ahnna slammed her feet into James’s shins and knocked his feet out from beneath him.
The current caught hold and ripped them downstream, the water mercifully cold against Ahnna’s flesh as she fought for air.
The smoke eased as they outpaced the blaze, and James caught hold of her shirt and pulled her against him in the water. “I’ll try to distract them. You run.”
“No!” She shoved at him with her left arm, treading water to keep afloat. “If anyone is going to beat you bloody for being an unrepentant stubborn prick, it’s me!”
