Nowhere to Run

The cold bit into Adila's skin as she forced herself to keep moving. The night stretched endlessly before them, the distant glow of their burning village the only light against the darkness. Magari's breath came in uneven gasps beside her, but Adila didn't let go of her hand.

They had to keep going.

They had been running for nearly an hour, and still, Adila's mind screamed at her to go faster. She knew what happened to runaways. If Renard's men caught them, they wouldn't be given the mercy of a quick death.

"We should go back," Magari muttered suddenly, her voice hoarse from crying.

Adila stopped so suddenly that Magari nearly crashed into her. "What?"

"We should go back," Magari said again, louder this time. Her blue eyes burned with something Adila had never seen before. "They deserve to die. Every single one of them."

Adila's stomach twisted. Magari was only ten. She was supposed to be the soft one, the timid one. But standing in the moonlight, her face streaked with soot and dried tears, she looked like something else entirely.

"That's not an option," Adila said, forcing calm into her voice.

"You saw what they did! My mother, your father—" Magari choked, fists clenched at her sides. "They deserve worse."

Adila swallowed the lump in her throat. "We can't fight them, Magari. They have swords. We have nothing."

Magari let out a sharp breath, turning away. Her whole body trembled, but whether from rage or exhaustion, Adila couldn't tell.

A twig snapped in the distance.

Adila's head snapped up. Magari stiffened beside her.

A figure moved through the trees, too far to see clearly but close enough that Adila's heart lurched into her throat.

"Go," she whispered.

Magari hesitated.

"Now."

She grabbed Magari's wrist and pulled her through the underbrush, ignoring the way the branches scratched at her arms. Her legs burned, her breath was short, but none of that mattered.

The trees thickened around them. The figure's footsteps grew fainter.

After what felt like forever, Adila finally stopped, pressing her back against a tree trunk. Magari sagged beside her, clutching her knees.

Silence.

They had lost them.

For now.

Adila exhaled slowly, trying to calm her racing heart. "We can't stay here," she said. "We need to find shelter."

Magari wiped angrily at her eyes. "And then what? Keep running forever?"

"If we have to."

Magari clenched her jaw, but she didn't argue.

Adila turned her gaze to the north. The only path forward was away.

And so they walked, two children alone in the dark, leaving behind everything they had ever known.