Page 127 of Kings & Carnage

And up ahead, other male voices, their words indistinguishable. I didn't need to know what they were saying to know they were with Roberto, the men who’d staged from the other cabins seeking to cut off my escape.

I'd been running along some kind of trail, snowy and overgrown. It had been the path of least resistance when I’d run from the site of the ruined cabin, but now it seemed foolish.

I’d been making it easy for them.

There was no time to weigh the pros and cons. I was surrounded on all sides. I would have to take my chance off trail.

I looked for a spot in the tree line along the path wide enough to get through with my wings and spotted it about ten feet ahead.

I waited until I was next to it, then hurled myself through the gap into the old-growth trees.

Unfortunately I hadn't thought about the downside to leaving the trail, and I was immediately forced to slow my pace without a clear path through the trees. There was no reason to the way they grew, some so close together there was no room for me to squeeze through, large gaps between others creating mini clearings that allowed me to temporarily pick up speed.

I was starting to feel hopeful. The voices of the men, on my heels almost from the moment I'd started running, had disappeared. I was steeped in the ageless silence of the woods, beginning to believe I might have lost them.

Then I passed through one of the small clearings and entered another thick copse, slowing my pace to avoid slamming into one of the thick trucks that rose into the night sky. I didn't even see the man hiding behind one of the trees until he grabbed me, locking his arms around my chest from behind and lifting my feet off the ground.

"I think I caught a rabbit," Roberto's voice said against my ear. "And she's going to make one hell of a dinner."

Chapter63

Neo

Splitting up was the right thing to do, but running through the forest off trail was hella challenging.

The moonless night was no help, and I had several close calls, thick roots that rose from the ground, threatening to trip me as I ran, low-hanging branches I didn't see until they’d already smashed into my face.

I didn't care about any of it. All that mattered was that I stayed on my feet for Willa.

It was eerily quiet, the crunching of my footsteps on snow the only sound in the night. Even the animals that lived here were silent, hiding or hibernating for winter.

And then, barely loud enough to hear over my steps, a soft squeal.

I stopped running, holding still, listening.

I almost thought I'd imagined it, was gearing up to start moving again, when I heard it again from the trees to my right.

I broke in that direction, heading for the sound, moving more slowly and carefully now, not wanting to tip off the wrong people if they were close by.

But in the end it didn't matter. I was almost on top of them before I spotted them: my father and Willa, my father holding the blade of a knife to Willa's slender throat.

Chapter64

Willa

Ialmost couldn't believe my eyes. I'd been struggling against Roberto's iron grip, managing a couple of soft screams, my throat still raw from the smoke at St. Andrew’s, before he clamped a hand over my mouth.

I felt the bite of a blade against my throat and knew I was finished. We were in the middle of nowhere, with not even Roberto's playmates nearby.

Not that that would have improved the situation.

I was thinking about Emma, hoping heaven was real and that I'd see her there when I died. Maybe there, this would all seem like a bad dream.

Then I saw a flash through the trees and a few seconds later Neo flew into the clearing, freezing when he saw Roberto with his knife to my throat.

Neo was holding a gun and I had a brief moment of hope before I realized our predicament.

To kill Roberto, Neo would have to make an impossible shot, hoping the bullet wouldn't hit me instead, that it would hit Roberto before the slide of his knife through my neck.

---