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“Yes,” she said as she quickly brushed his hand away.
Using his shoulder as leverage, she stood on shaky legs, wincing as she stood. A gasp escaped her when she tried to take a step.
Shit, she was hurt.
Realizing he was also in pain, he stood and clutched the right side of his abdomen. His ribs were most likely broken. “Where are you injured?”
She shook her head, not meeting his eye. “I’m not.”
With a careful eye, he watched her take in their surroundings.
“I have to find my crew and father—” She took another step and hissed, bending at the waist and grabbing her leg. “My ankle.”
Swiftly, he gripped her around the shoulder, giving her stability. “Here, lean on me. Which way?”
She spun on him, shoving him hard, then stumbling away from him. “Lean on you? I don’t even know if I can trust you!”
“I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but what I did back there was called saving your life.”
When he had seen the general had her father, he had started work on making a bomb. Albert Rush liked to play games—that boosted his ego. Eva was not going to be his next victim.
She sighed, her fingers running through her hair as he moved to her side, offering his help once more.
This time, she wrapped her arm around him and said, “We should be able to move discreetly under the stilts. Between the snow, smoke, and darkness, we should have enough cover.”
With stiff movements, he moved up the incline—ignoring the throbbing in his side and back—silently, moving through the shadows. As they eased under a hut near the back of the settlement, Eva moved away from him and gripped the wooden stilt.
Once they were finally able to rest, they heard voices nearby, and both stilled as a group of the Others were only feet in front of them. They had Samuel and Eva’s crew on their knees with their hands behind their heads while Derek talked with General Rush, who assessed them as he walked past.
Eva’s sharp intake of breath met his ears as he watched her try to move out from under the hut. “Eva, no. We have to go. Now.” Quickly, he grabbed her coat and hauled her back, covering her protests with his hand. He couldn’t risk her getting them caught.
He scanned the area. It was so dark, but they had to be close to the shed, and that would be their way out.He went over to the other side of the hut and made a run to the edge of the wall, dragging a very annoyed Eva with him.
The falling snow made the area look different than he remembered, but they had to be close.
Like a trapped animal, Eva struggled and jerked in his arms—her elbow connecting to his injured ribs. He groaned but continued his pace along the wall. As he ducked past a tree, he caught sight of their way out.
Eva continued to buck in his arms as he opened the shed and shoved her inside. As fast as possible, he closed the door and then turned to her and pressed her up against the wall.
“Listen to me, we are injured, outnumbered, and not prepared to face them. You will get yourself and them killed if you try to go free them now.”
Her brows knitted together as she spat, “So you think I’m just going to leave them like that?”
Leaning in and brushing his lips against her ear, he said, “I don’t think, I know. The only way you are going back in there is over my dead body.”
He kicked the exit open and hauled her through it.He let her go once her feet met the earth, then turned to secure the wall back into place. Their footprints would lead the Others straight to the shed, but hopefully they wouldn’t figure out the hidden door—
Before he could finish his thought, Eva’s fist connected with his shoulder. He faced her as she hit his chest. He suppressed his frustration, locking his jaw, as she hit him again and again. If she needed an outlet, then he would be that for her.
“How could you! You know what they mean to me—how could this happen? I don’t even know who you are... Cillian? Y-you—you should have left me...” Tears welled in her eyes as she beat his chest with her fists.
After letting her take it all out on him for a few minutes, he took hold of her wrists to stop her. Her eyes swirled with pain and fear. Tears streaked down her face, and in that moment, his heart cracked. He clutched her to his body, his hand tangled in her hair as he let her grieve for what had happened.
When her breathing steadied, he pulled back and said, “We need to find shelter, you’re hurt and the temperature is dropping.”
She shook her head, looking down at the snow. “No, no—I have to go back in there, they need me—”
“Look at me,” he said, his voice firm.
