Smoke rises, orange and gray.
In the middle of it, I see the shadow of Brothers laying Kayleigh down and picking up his gun.
Everything is quiet. He turns, lifting a hand.
Waving us on.
“Who is that?” Della gasps.
I take her arm, putting my body between hers and the house. “I don’t know,” I say. “We need to move and find the horses. We have to go now.”
We’re less than five steps in when the shooting starts again. This time, it’s not the sound of warfare. It sounds like vengeance. This is no place for us tonight. If there is a God, he is long gone by now. All that’s left is what I choose to do from here on out, and I choose to protect my family.
I whistle, sharp and loud, into the smoke. The shape of Godspeed appears in the distance. He comes running, hooves sending up sparks as he skids on the pavement. I lift Della up first and hand Landis to her before swinging up behind.
My heels dig in, and Godspeed does what he does best.
He runs.
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
DELLA
I don’t remember much of the ride. All I know is he’s holding me, and I’m holding Landis.
And we’re safe.
We slow after a good half hour of running. Jensen slides off Godspeed, and someone takes his reins. I see a flash of bright eyes and dark beard—it’s Angus. My lips crack, and I try to speak, but Jensen is pushing me across a grassy clearing. Metal glints in the moonlight as a birdlike structure rises into my vision.
“That’s a plane?” I ask, stumbling.
“Brothers sent it for us, to get us back to Montana,” Jensen says.
“What about Kayleigh?”
He hesitates, dipping his head. “Brothers will keep her safe.”
Before I can respond, I see Angus pulling down the airplane steps, Jensen lifting Landis. He doesn’t speak as he helps me into the back seat of the tiny plane. It’s cramped, the pilot just a few feet from the back row. Jensen slides in, and Angus slams the door, slapping the pilot’s side.
The plane rises. Landis whimpers, clinging to me, and I kiss his forehead.
“Is this safe?” I breathe.
“It’s all we have, but yes, I think so.”
I glance sideways at him. He’s wounded from the fight, his face still leaking blood. There’s a fine crust of mud scabbed over his bare arms from the ring, but he’s never looked so beautiful to me.
He did this. He told me he was going to get my baby back, and he did it. I take my left hand from Landis and reach for Jensen, twining my fingers through his. He’s subdued, but his eyes flicker warm in the night, connecting with mine for a breathless second.
The plane curves, and down below, I see fire. Orange, hazy smoke rises from the Caudill estate.
It’s gone. It’s over.
The hell I went through since the moment I became a woman is finished. It will burn away through the night, but what it leaves behind doesn’t matter to me anymore. We’re flying toward a new life.
I hold them both close, closing my eyes.
I feel nothing, just numbness. But as the night goes on for hours, there comes a moment when the horizon finally lightens. It goes from mountain blue to the first golden rays of the sun breaking. That’s when I finally feel something in the shattered remains of my porcelain heart.
