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Back to Booth.
Her grip tightened on the reins. She dug one heel into the horse’s side, urging the mare into a jolting canter. “C’mon, girl. Giddy up.”
Abilene responded. Hooves thundered through the underbrush.
Nova’s pain intensified as Abilene picked up the pace.
Low-hanging branches whipped past Nova’s face, and she hunched low over the horse’s neck, using her uninjured leg to grip the barrel of Abilene’s body.
They broke through a copse of trees into a wide meadow. Nova hauled back on the reins, chest heaving from the effort of staying astride.
She scanned the sky for the passing plane.
Overhead, the plane’s beacon lights flashed in the inky black sky.
Heart thrashing, she let out a howl. “Nooooo!” The plane was flying away from her.
She’d missed it.
Her mind raced with possibilities. Maybe it wasn’t too late to signal them. But how?
Fumbling with the saddlebags, Nova located two emergency flares. Striking them alight, she tossed the sputtering red fuses into the field, where they glowed red. This had to work. Had to catch the pilot’s eye.
Abilene shifted beneath her.
“It’s okay. They’ll come back.” They’d have to.
Gritting her teeth, Nova awkwardly dismounted. She half slid, half fell from the saddle and landed hard on the ground with a strangled cry. Her body gave out and she collapsed. The impact jarred her broken ribs. She curled on her side, panting.
Flare smoke wafted overhead.
Nova forced herself to rise, clinging to the stirrup for balance. On legs that threatened to buckle, she hobbled to the saddlebags and searched the pouches for more flares but only found a flashlight.
Yes. This could work.
Nova flipped on the flashlight beam. Limped into the open field. Sank to her bottom in the meadow between the two flares.
In the hazy red light of the beacons, she waved the flashlight overhead in broad arcs.
“Hey! I’m down here!”
They couldn’t hear her, of course, but she shouted and signaled for help anyway. “Come back! Come back!”
A tear slipped free as she watched the plane disappear through the haze. “Please…please see me…I need help.”
THIRTEEN
Aria banked them toward the foothills devastated by flame.
Through the smoke’s haze, Booth glimpsed a search crew working downhill. Tiny insects combing a moonscape of char for any sign of their fellow smokejumper.
Jaw rock hard, Booth scoured the terrain as Aria circled wide.
They’d been searching for thirty minutes when the radio crackled.
“Aria, I need you back at the base.” Miles’s voice broke through the static. “The next round of smokejumpers can deploy within the hour.” He filled her in on the new plan to stay ahead of the fire and keep it from reaching Snowhaven if possible.
“Copy, we’ll turn back,” Aria said.
