Pav slammed her flat, his weight driving her into the pine needles.
“Spotter drone.” His voice was stripped to ice. “Stay down.”
Every sound sharpened—the rotor buzz, wind through pine needles, the rasp of her own breath.
She forced her eyes open and peeked through her icy fingers. The drone banked between the trees with terrifying precision, searchlights sweeping, adjusting.
Someone had their hands on the controls somewhere, searching for them.
She pressed into the ground.
Run.
Every instinct screamed it.
Run now or die.
“Don’t.” His hand pressed into her spine. Holding her there against every instinct screaming to bolt.
The drone drifted past overhead, searchlights combing through the forest.
Harper stopped breathing, Pav perfectly still above her. The light swept across the forest floor—then kept moving.
Silence rushed in behind it.
Harper’s lungs unlocked. “Did it?—”
Somewhere beyond the trees, the rotors shifted pitch, now growing louder. The sound swung back toward them.
“They’ve seen us,” Pav whispered.
His hand shifted to the center of her back.
“We need to end this.”
The pressure of his touch vanished. His hand was gone.
She twisted, fingers digging into icy grit. “Pav?—”
He wasn’t beside her anymore.
She lifted her head, a violent shiver running through her. “Pav?—”
He’d stepped out of cover. Into the open and into the light.
No.
The only break in the canopy wide enough to drop it.
He didn’t look back.
A sob escaped her.He’s drawing it away.
“No.” The word ripped out of her as she scrambled to her feet.
Branches scraped her face as she ran. “Pav!”
The searchlight snapped to him. The white glare illuminated him like a target painted on his chest.
