Page 203 of After the Burn

The big man looked as if he belonged on a warhorse, holding a battleaxe.

I glanced toward Ben. “You seriously ended up at Ren-Fest?”

He shrugged. “It’s a good setup.”

Finley gave a quiet laugh from behind us. We’d stopped at the silo after leaving the compound. He’d opened the door with a pistol in his hand, and Rory tucked safely behind him. Max nearly knocked me over when he saw me.

Only three of the women from the compound came with us. The others went in search of family, and nobody even thought to stop them. They had been denied choice long enough.

The trees opened, and I forgot to breathe.

The old festival grounds spread below us, surrounded by reinforced timber walls and watch platforms. Smoke curled from chimneys. Gardens filled spaces that had once held vendors and games.

People moved between buildings.

I didn’t see many women, but there seemed to be more than any other place I’d been.

A little boy ran across the road carrying a wooden sword while another chased him.

Playing. Not running for his life.

The gates opened and Ben rode through first.

For the first time in months, nobody pointed a gun at us when we entered somewhere new.

That alone nearly made me cry. Then I heard someone shout my name.

“Taryn!”

I turned and saw Ethan standing outside an old blacksmith’s shop. Lane appeared behind him with the twins.

All of them beautifully alive.

“Oh, my God.” I was off the horse before I remembered deciding to move.

Ethan reached me first, and his arms wrapped around me. “Holy shit. He actually found y’all.”

I laughed against his shoulder. “Did you have any doubt?”

He pulled back, and his eyes moved past me, searching. Confusion covered his face, then understanding, then grief. “She didn’t make it, did she?”

“No.”

His gaze swept the road behind us again anyway. Probably hoping it was some cruel joke we were playing on him.

I wished it was.

“Did she suffer?”

“No.” My throat tightened.

Ethan’s eyes filled. “I loved her.”

“I know. She loved you too.”

He pulled me back into a hug, his face buried in my shoulder, neither of us speaking.

Lane stepped closer and rested a hand on Ethan’s shoulder, the twins silent behind him.