15

G etting the heirs down the hatch proved trickier than breaking them out of rehab. Granted, we had dumped the whole exile to The Smoke thing on them at the last minute, but what had they expected? Daniel seemed okay with it, but the others were resisting.

My coat was buttoned up to my throat, my hands tucked into the deep pockets, but my nose and ears felt like burning ice and every now and then a particularly severe shiver knocked my knees together—partly from the adrenaline rush fading through me, mostly from the frigid cold.

“You can’t stay in Capra,” I pointed out, stamping my feet for warmth and scanning our surroundings for movement. The trees here had mostly shed their leaves, thinning out our cover. We were vulnerable, exposed and wasting precious time.

Otter bared his teeth at me. The man really was a rabid dog. The flickering halos cast by the flashlights Roman had provided played up his vicious expression. “This wasn’t part of our deal.”

Roman was done talking. He flung the hatch open and pointed. “We don’t have time for you to wrap your heads around it.”

We really didn’t. They’d likely already sent out a search party to hunt down the heirs. Roman figured we had about an hour before the effect of the dart wore off and once the night nurse was roused, I’d be in their crosshairs as well.

Daniel made the first move, carefully lowering himself down the hole as he found his footing on the iron rungs.

Otter folded his arms, glaring at Roman. “And what are we supposed to do in The Smoke?”

“You’ll stay at my apartment for tonight,” Roman said, his voice tempered with indifference. “In the morning, you’ll register with the Protectorate. They’ll assign you jobs and accommodation, and you start your new life.”

Otter’s glare dug in harder.

Roman shrugged. “Or stay here, and see how long it takes them to hunt you down and throw you back into rehab. Go, stay, I really don’t give a damn, but when this hatch closes, you’re on your own.”

“Kem, come on,” Daniel called to Kemerick. He seemed as unconcerned about the others as Roman was. “We’re not saying this is permanent. But we can’t be in Capra right now.”

That finally spurred the older heirs down the hole, one by one, sinking out of sight until it was just me and Roman standing on the edge of the hatch.

Roman stepped in front of me and brought his hands up, rubbing my arms. “I’m right behind you.”

He wouldn’t be walking the train tunnel with us. He refused to leave his truck behind and, besides, all our belongings were on there. Once he’d let us through the metal door below, he’d be driving out of Capra. He’d meet us at the other end. If the alert had already gone out, they might search the truck at the gate, but they wouldn’t stop him. Well, that was the theory. It was solid, though, so long as he got through the gate before any fingers pointed directly at him.

Time was short.

But my feet weren’t moving.

He cocked his head, squaring a look on me. “You okay?”

“Not really.” My gaze locked on his. “Roman, I…I can’t do this.”

“I wish you could drive with me,” he said. “It’s too much of a risk, if they search the truck.”

“You don’t understand.” I swallowed. “I’m not leaving Capra. Not yet.”

His hands fell from my arms. He looked at me, digesting, his jaw going slack, then rock hard. “It’s too late to change your mind. Even if you manage to return and slip your security card into the deposit box before anyone notices, that night nurse has seen your face. He can identify you.”

“I know I can’t go home, Roman. That’s not it.” I took his hands in mine. “I’ve been thinking about what you said, about elected governments and people having the power. Another time, another way of thinking, another kind of life.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” he growled, his brow spearing as he stepped back from me. “Georga, what is happening here?”

“Maybe it can be our time, our way of thinking, our kind of life again.” I tucked my hands into my coat pockets, missing the warmth of his touch, bristling beneath his sting.

But I wouldn’t back down.

This had been weighing on me all day. I’d made this decision a while ago, in the janitor’s closet. I just hadn’t realized it until this very moment.

“The Sisters of Capra, and Geneva, they have the same unlimited, unchallenged power as the council,” I said. “We’ve traded one regime for another. We can do better. At least, I have to try. I just need a little more time here, that’s all, then I’ll join you in The Smoke. I can keep myself safe. Hidden.”

“Hidden,” he deadpanned, his voice clipped. “Where?”

“The nature reserve, maybe?” I wasn’t working off a plan here. “One of the log cabins?”

“That’s the first place they’ll search.”

“I’ll stay one step ahead of them, move as I need to. I’m not being reckless here, Roman. I’ll be careful. I’ll be smart.”

“No.” He wasn’t relenting. “I’ve given you everything, everything that was within my power to give you, but I can’t let you have this. I’m not going to stand by while you throw yourself at their mercy once again.”

“Roman, I love you.” My eyes felt hot with unshed tears. Was this how I lost him? “But running away before I’ve even tried? It feels like I’m giving up on Capra. And…”

My mind was ticking, catching up. “The letter I wrote to my parents explains everything, why I felt I had to help Daniel and the heirs, and how I have to escape to The Smoke with them. I haven’t mentioned you in it at all. I’ll take the letter back to our house and leave it somewhere visible for Geneva to find. She’ll believe we’ve all gone to The Smoke. There won’t be any reason to search Capra. I’ll be safer here than there.”

They were always going to find out we’d gone to The Smoke. Sooner rather than later wouldn’t make much difference.

Roman hung his head, clearly exasperated. “No one ever changed a damn thing by hiding out in the forest and staying safe.”

“Maybe they’ve never tried it my way. I’m going to give Capra what the Sisterhood promised but never delivered.” What Axel and his friends were already doing, even if they didn’t know it. “A rebellion of words.”

I brought my hand up to cup his jaw, pulling his gaze back to me. “I love you. I want to spend the rest of my life loving you whether that’s here in Capra, in The Smoke or in the wilds. Today we saved Daniel, but who will save the next person?”

When he looked at me again, I saw it in his eyes. He knew we couldn’t give up without at least trying. “Why does it have to be you?”

“Because I’m the flame,” I said. “I have a voice, and right now I am loud and I am heard, but that won’t always be the case. It has to be me, and it has to be now.”

He groaned, raking a hand through his hair, a sober grin twisting his mouth. “How do you always do this to me?”

“Because I’m stubborn and spoilt and I never learned to take no for an answer?” A smile touched my lips, then slipped away. “Because it’s what you would do, what you have done, when you went to war with the Union Families in memory of Amelia. Your life’s ambition was to bring law and order to the corrupt quarters of The Smoke. And even now, with the council gone, if the Protectorate hadn’t stepped up, you would be finding another way to make The Smoke a safer place for those young girls.”

He pulled me into his arms, his warm breath brushing my frozen ear lobe. “Give me five minutes to send the heirs on their way.” He drew back to look at me. “Where’s that letter?”

“In my overnight bag in the truck,” I said. “But you don’t have time for this detour. Once they know you’re involved in this escape, they’ll stop you at the gate. I’ll take the letter home and then slip off into the nature reserve.”

“I’m not worried about getting myself through the gate,” he countered. “When I took out the guard, he never saw my face. They may think I’m in cahoots with my wife, but they can’t prove it and they won’t dare stop a warden on a whim.”

He lowered himself into the hole before I could argue further. I considered my options, and stayed exactly where I was. It was a cold, dark and bitterly miserable night and there was no reason to go on foot when I had a ride. I was inclined to agree with Roman. Even if they had concrete evidence, Geneva would be stupid to mess with the wardens, and Geneva wasn’t stupid.

It wasn’t long before Roman returned, and he wasn’t alone.

“He’s joining your cause,” Roman said as Daniel emerged from the hatch behind him.

“Don’t worry, I know I don’t qualify for the women’s liberation movement.” Daniel gave me a sheepish grin. “I’m just here for moral support, and to watch your back.”

“You’re here to babysit me.” I scowled at Roman, who was lowering the cover over the hatch. “Did you put him up to this?”

“He volunteered.”

“I insisted,” Daniel said to me.

I shook my head. “No.”

“It should be me,” Roman said, his voice a low rumble. “But I can’t be with you twenty-four hours of every day, unless I give up my warden duties.”

“You can’t do that!” How was that even a thought in his head? “The wardens are all that’s keeping you safe. They’re your last line of defense if this all goes south.”

“So long as I’m one of them, I have their protection, a protection I can extend to you if it comes to that.” His gaze swept to me. “That’s why it has to be Daniel.”

“Look,” Daniel said to me. “I wasn’t about to run off to The Smoke while you stayed behind to fight the good fight, okay?”

We’d risked everything to get Daniel to safety. “It’s too dangerous for you to be here.”

“I thought we’re going into hiding,” he said.

“It’s safer here than in The Smoke,” Roman said at the same time. “Remember?”

They were ganging up on me. Any further protest could and would be used against me. Frustration gnawed at me, but there was nothing I could do right now.

“How is it safer here than in The Smoke?” Daniel wanted to know.

“Roman didn’t tell you?”

“There’s a letter,” Roman said as he kicked leaves and dirt over the hatch. “Let’s go.”

“What about the others?” I grumbled as we tramped the short distance to where the truck was parked. “They couldn’t have been happy that Daniel stayed and they had to go.”

“Their happiness isn’t my priority right now,” Roman said. “We rescued them from rehab and I’m willing to help get them settled in The Smoke. The rest is up to them.”

“What letter?” Daniel said again.

I filled him in. “I just need to make sure Geneva finds it, so we’re making a quick stop in Parklands. I want to leave the letter at our cabin.”

We were at the truck. I grabbed my overnight bag from the back of the truck before Daniel and I climbed into the rear of the cab, slinking low in our seats so as not to draw attention. We rode in silence, Daniel staring out his window, me rifling through the bag. I found the letter and shoved the bag into the foot well, resting my feet on top of it.

The roads were quiet, not unusual for this time of night. We’d planned for this, a narrow margin of breathing space before the chaos spread out from the rehab center, but we’d used up so much of it already. My nerves were shredding, expecting a blockade of guards to pop out from the side of the road at every corner.

“The cabins in the nature reserve won’t be stocked,” Roman said after a while, revealing what had been churning through his mind as we drove. “You’ll need something to eat, for tonight at least.”

Daniel pulled his thoughts in from the window. “There’s no bedding either.”

“Just as well we’re doing a pit stop then,” I murmured. “What about heating?”

“Some of them have air conditioning units,” Daniel said. “Mainly those closer to the lake, though.”

“Makes sense.” Only the die-hard fishermen tended to use the nature reserve amenities during the winter months.

“We won’t be using the lakeside cabins,” Roman said flatly. “We’re going as deep as possible.”

The way he said it, he’d take me straight across to the end of the nature reserve, over the wall and into The Smoke if he had any say. I bit my tongue. If our roles were reversed, I wouldn’t be happy about the change of plans either. Hell, even in our given roles, I wasn’t happy , but something was sticking my feet to Capra, refusing to let me go until I’d tried to do better.

“There’s a service road from Parklands into the nature reserve,” Roman said when we passed through the barrier. “We don’t have to go through town again. Almost there.”

The tension inside the cab lifted.

Daniel suddenly sat up straighter, his gaze glued to his window and the swathe of evergreens pressing up against the road.

My heart went out to him as I realized what he was looking at. His home was on the other side of those trees. “They aren’t there.”

He turned to me. “What?”

I hadn’t had a chance to explain everything to him. “The council families have been relocated from Parklands. Jessie mentioned that Brenda is now staying two streets over from her, near the square, but I’m not sure about your parents. I think they may have been moved to the Legislative District.”

He deflated, sinking low in his seat again.

Roman cut left onto the dirt road to our cabin and we fell into silence again until he pulled up right in front of the door.

We all jumped out and dashed inside. Daniel went to strip the bedding in both bedrooms, Roman filled my cloth shopping bag with whatever food he could find and I paused, my gaze darting between the bedrooms and the kitchen.

“Where’s the best place to leave the letter? The kitchen table?”

Roman shook his head. “That’ll look too intentional.”

“It’s going to look intentional, no matter what we do.” Maybe I could work with that.

I joined him in the kitchen, grabbed what I needed from the stationary drawer and stood at the oak table, penning on an envelope, Mom & Dad . I stuffed the letter inside, sealed the envelope and left it right there on the table.

“I’ve done what I’ve done, I’m fleeing to The Smoke and this is my explanation and goodbye to my parents. I’m that na?ve thinking it won’t falling into the wrong hands, or maybe I’m beyond caring.”

Daniel reappeared, his arms loaded with quilts and blankets.

Roman glanced at me. “Are we done?”

“We’re done.” I scooped the pack of envelopes, some pens and a stack of note paper from the stationary drawer before heading out. I was going to need those.

Then I was walking out of my home for the last time, again.

At the last moment, I spotted my bicycle against the wall and pushed that outside with me. Roman didn’t comment. We both knew the bicycle meant I wasn’t staying put in the deepest, darkest corner of the nature reserve.

We threw everything onto the back of the truck and a moment later, Roman was reversing out into a U-Turn.

Once we hit the service road, the track narrowed, thick pines pressing close on either side. At every fork, Roman kept left, keeping us on the Parklands end of the reserve. We traveled for about twenty minutes, although it was hard to judge the actual distance. The dirt path was pitted with holes and bumps, forcing Roman to drive so slowly, we were crawling, but eventually we arrived at a derelict cabin in a clearing.

Rundown wooden shack would be more accurate, and it didn’t sit quite level, as if one side of the ground had started subsiding, dragging down that half of the shelter.

Roman kept the headlights of the truck on until I found my way up the wood-slatted steps to a rickety porch that creaked beneath my footfalls.

Cabin 39.

The door wasn’t locked. It wasn’t airtight either, with warped gaps on the sides and below. Once inside, I flipped on the electric switch, flooding the interior with light. The curtains on the windows were thin, but we were so deep into the woods, I wasn’t worried about giving our presence away.

We were so deep into the woods, I was worried about ever finding my way back to town again.

I wasn’t even joking.