“I know.” I worked my neck, testing my recovery. “Me. Not you.”
She understood, but she couldn’t seem to leave, despite the soldiers amassing in the forest around us.
I stood then, pulling her up to stand close before me. A strange, burning numbness prickled my legs. I still couldn’t feel the gunshot wound in my thigh. “I’ll run with you to the third maple tree.” She listened to my instructions, her eyes never straying from mine, never allowing anyone watching to guess the route I was laying out. “… there is a built-in keypad on the wall, the others will find you by morning…”
She let me finish before she spoke again, barely above a whisper. “But—”
I stopped her and she swallowed hard. She thought I was sacrificing myself for her, she thought they would gun me down the moment they had a clear shot, that I would die on the forest floor beneath us.
“They won’t do it, Emily. Morgan has given them orders. I’m to be captured.”
It wasn’t a lie. They wouldn’t kill me here. They would take me in, because he would want the honor.
She stared up at me, not entirely convinced.
“I swear to you, Emily, I will not die here.”
I pushed down the guilt at misleading her. She had to stay safe. She was the chosen. She had to live.
“Put your hands over your heads,” a voice called from the other side of a clearing. “Turn slowly toward the sound of my voice.”
Emily’s eyes glistened, but she never looked away from me.
A wave of dizziness made my head spin. I had to convince her, she had to go. “You first,” I said. “I’ll be right behind you until the third maple. It’s the only way, Emily. The only way.”
I’d used Brianna’s words, and it seemed to strengthen her resolve, or at least remind her of the importance of staying alive. Remind her of the prophecy. After a long moment, her expression changed, and she gave the slightest nod.
The frontline moved closer. We stared into one another’s eyes, strengthening our courage.
“Okay,” she breathed. “Okay.”
The pain in her words did something to me, and I was suddenly reaching for her. My hands braced her there as I pressed my forehead to hers and held her. Just long enough for a silent promise. I would come back to her.
Ihadto come back to her.