Page 24 of Burning Escape

“Yeah.” She leaned against the headboard next to him. “The dark…it just gets to me sometimes.”

Orion didn’t say anything.

Eventually Tori rested her head on his shoulder. “When I was little, I would sleepwalk and get night terrors. I’d wake up in strange places. Usually it was just the hallway or the kitchen. But once I woke up in the neighbor’s yard.”

“That had to be freaky.”

“I was so scared. I’ve never known darkness like that. It was too dark for me to recognize where I was.”

“Were you far from your own house?”

“Three houses away. In a backyard I’d never seen. I have no clue how I got there. All I know is I went to bed in my own room and woke up to pitch blackness and strange sounds, and I was outside.”

“What did you do?”

“I cried. I prayed so hard for my dad to find me and take me home.”

“Did he?”

“No.” She choked on the word. “I sat there in the dark. Alone. For hours. I was paralyzed with fear. It felt like that night was never going to end.”

He pulled her in closer, thinking of the lost and terrified little girl, praying for a rescue that had never come. The image sent a pang through his chest. “How did you get home?”

“Eventually daylight came, and I found my way to the front yard and back to my own house.”

“You were gone all night? My mom would’ve freaked. What did your parents say?”

“My mom died when I was a toddler. I don’t remember her.” Tori sniffed. “And my dad didn’t say much. He was barely around. He did add some high locks to the doors outside, though, after my sister Penny yelled at him. But ever since, I’ve hated the dark. I’ve never been able to shake off the terror of that night.” Her body shuddered.

Orion wrapped his arm around her. “Well, no wonder. I can’t imagine being lost in the dark like that. I probably slept with a nightlight until I was in high school.” He tried to lighten the mood with a quiet chuckle.

“You can make fun of me. I know it’s silly, a grown woman afraid of the dark.”

“It’s not silly at all. You’re one of the bravest people I know. I mean, look at what we’ve already come through.”

She didn’t say anything, but she relaxed against him, the tension in her posture melting away.

“Ry?”

“Yeah?”

She paused. “Would you stay here? Just for the night.”

“I’m not going anywhere. Go ahead and try to get some sleep if you can.”

She mumbled something that sounded like “Okay,” and fell asleep quickly.

Orion didn’t. He remembered the night they met. The way she’d danced and twirled under the twinkle lights. He remembered her gentle touch when she’d helped bandage his wound in the forest. Somehow, the weeks of intense rivalry didn’t seem so important. He was falling for her. And that wasn’t good.

He prayed until dawn that he could remember this was only a fake marriage.

* * *

The place might be called the Refuge, but it felt more like a prison.

After twenty-four hours stuck at the commune, Tori’s short handle on her patience was quickly disintegrating. She couldn’t get rid of the constant gnawing inside, wondering what had happened to the rest of the Midnight Sun crew. Had the militia gotten anyone? Had everyone made it out of the plane crash?

And if Orion asked her one more time if she was okay, she might resort to violence.

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