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“Shit.” Sarah’s voice was breathy and nervous. Her heart pounded in her ears, and she felt like she was in some sort of crazy dream. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah.” Ava lifted her head enough to look around, and when she looked past her feet and saw the ground, she quickly closed her eyes and buried her face in her mom’s shoulder. “That’s not what I meant to do.”
“It’s okay, baby.” Sarah wrapped her arm around her, hating the terror in her daughter’s voice. “It’s okay. We made it. We’re all right. We just have to get down to the ground. It’s too steep right here, but we need to get someplace where the drop isn’t too much.” Of all the things she tried to think about ahead of time, ending up on the roof wasn’t one of them.
“Oh, god.” Ava swallowed and clung to her tightly.
Sarah felt that sentiment down to her very soul. If they went crawling across the roof, Frank might hear them. They’d have to not only survive the drop to the ground, but come out uninjured so they’d still be able to haul their asses out of there. There was no going back, though. They’d have to find a way to get through it. “Ava, honey. I want you to look at something. Don’t look down at your feet; just look where I’m pointing.”
Slowly, Ava lifted her head. Her eyes traced a line from Sarah’s shoulder, down her arm, and across the property toward the woods. “What am I looking at?”
“That tree line over there. That’s where we need to go once we get down on the ground.” It’d been an eternity since she’d seen it, and even though some of the branches had become overgrown over the years, she knew it well.
“Okay, but how are we going to get down?” Ava clung to her the same way she had when she was little, her fingers clutching Sarah, not able to get close enough.
“I know it’s a lot, but do you think you can use your magic again? If you can get us down onto the ground and in that direction, then we can go. We can just go. You don’t even have to get us all the way there.” Freedom was so close she could taste it, and the coppery bite of fear was right behind it. “We have to do something, and I think that’s the best place to start. Can you do it?”
Ava’s sweet brown eyes looked into hers, and it was impossible not to see her as a little girl. Her breath was coming fast and she was shaking all over, but she swallowed and nodded. “I’ll try.”
“That’s my girl. Just remember, you do what you can, and I promise it’ll be good enough.” Sarah held tight to her daughter.
Ava’s finger trembled when she began her circle. She clamped it back down, took a deep breath, then started again, slightly more steady this time. She circled and flung, making sure to point straight out into the field toward the tree line.
That same black, suffocating darkness came over Sarah for a split second before the earth came up and whacked her in the back. Any air she had left in her lungs escaped all at once. She gasped, trying to breathe. Fear rippled through her as tall grass swayed gently on either side of them.
“We made it,” she managed to croak. “You did it, honey. We made it.”
Tears rolled down from Ava’s eyes toward her ears as she looked up at the sky. “I don’t ever want to do that again.”
“Hopefully, you won’t need to.” Sarah pressed a kiss to her forehead.
“I don’t even think I can. I’m so tired.” Ava rubbed her vibrating hands over her face. “I always got a little tired when I was doing the spells on other objects, but this is harder.”
“I know, honey, but we’re not done yet.” Sarah listened, waiting for shouts or pounding footsteps. Could anyone from the packhouse see them out there in the field? Had Frank come to check on them yet and found only the shampooer running on its own? “We’ve got to get up, and we’ve got to run. It’s going to be hard, but we can’t give up now.”
Ava nodded as she slowly sat up. “Okay.”
Sarah peeked over the tall grass. It was getting dark now, but she could easily spot that special place in the trees. She just had to hope it was open enough for them to slip through. “Are you ready? Because we have to go as soon as we’re on our feet. No dilly-dallying.”
“I always hated when you said that.” Ava smiled and shook her head while she took stock of her body. “Okay. I can do it.”
“Good girl. Come on.” Sarah reached out for Ava’s hand. They launched to their feet and ran. Fear carried her forward at first, and she was certain that someone would attack, someone she hadn’t anticipated. That was what had happened before. Her love for her daughter made her feet fly through the field. She wasn’t as strong as she used to be. Even with all the chores she did, it wasn’t the same as running. Her muscles quickly fatigued and started to burn, but she pushed them on until they reached the trees.
Sarah ducked through first, throwing herself under a low-hanging branch. Thorns caught on her jeans and tugged, pulling her back toward the terrible life she was trying so hard to escape, but she pushed past them. No damn pricker bush was going to get in the way now. The path was so narrow that it was hardly even a path at all, and she hoped she still knew the way.
“Where are we going to go?” Ava asked.
That was the one part of this scheme that Sarah hadn’t revealed to Ava. It wouldn’t be easy on either of them, and there was no guarantee that it would work. She had hope, but what if they turned her away? It’d been so long, and she had no doubt that she’d caused them grief. “A place where I think we can find help. We’ve just got to get there as fast as we can.”
5
“That was awesome!Did you see the way I took Conner out?” Hunter asked as he came through the back door with a grin, tossing his dark hair out of his eyes.
“Yup,” Brody replied. He reached over and ruffled Hunter’s hair, making him duck away and smooth it down.
“Everyonesaw,” Conner added. “And you’re never going to let me live it down, are you?”
Hunter lifted his shoulders. “Guess we’ll just have to see what happens next week.”
