Page 54 of The Flame

My response was a smile, and a determined look in my eye. “It’ll only be for a couple of weeks, at the most, then I’ll join you in The Smoke. If this is going to work, it will be now, not in the months or years to come.”

The change had to be now, while my voice was loud, while Capra was still shaken from the revolution trembles, before the Sisters of Capra put down solid roots.

He brushed his knuckles across my cheek, his gaze sinking into me. “I’m not leaving you here to fend for yourselves. Tomorrow, I’ll bring proper food, more blankets…anything else you need?”

“We’ll be fine.” I reached up onto my toes, fully intent on offering my mouth to his for a kiss when—

“Here’s your bedding,” Daniel said, oblivious to what he’d walked in on as he tossed a quilt and blanket on the bare mattress.

Just as well.

I extracted myself from the fold of Roman’s warmth and strength…before I begged him to stay. “You should go.”

Roman hesitated, reluctant to leave me, but he had to go and I was determined to stay and a few more minutes wouldn’t change anything. “You still have your iComm?”

“Yes!” I’d completely forgotten about the iComm. That wasn’t all. I patted the bulge in the purse slung over my shoulder. “I also have the gun and three darts.”

“Keep them close,” Roman said.

“You have an iComm?” Daniel stepped forward. “Do you think I could contact my father?”

I thought of the pile of iComms at Berkley House and shook my head. “I’m sorry, but I think his iComm would have been confiscated.”

“What about Brenda?”

I threw my hands up. “I don’t know. We can try.”

“No social calls,” Roman said firmly. “That’s what I wanted to warn you about. If they don’t disable your iComm, it will be so they can monitor it.”

“They can’t trace or intercept calls,” Daniel said.

“They can’t,” Roman agreed. “But they can see where the connection originates, and they’ll know Georga is here, and not in The Smoke.”

Daniel slapped his palm to his forehead. “I didn’t think of that.”

Which got me worrying about all the things we hadn’t thought of. Roman had the training for this kind of subterfuge. It was practically in his nature. Daniel and I were accustomed to a cotton-coated, candy-fluff life. Roman’s words, but in this moment they rang true.

Roman looked me in the eye. “Call me if you need to, but only in an emergency. Understood?”

“Understood.”

He brushed a kiss over my mouth. “I love you.”

“I love you.” Tears threatened behind my eyes. This wasn’t goodbye, but everything felt so uncertain. “Be careful. And don’t return to Capra if you can’t do so safely.”

“If I can’t come through the gates, I’ll come through the tunnel.” The way he looked at me, I knew nothing would keep him away from Capra so long as I was here.

“Go.” I gave him a gentle push, and he went, leaving me and Daniel to sort ourselves out.

Not that there was much to do.

I spread the blanket over the mattress, then shook the quilt out over it. Without heating, it wouldn’t be warm enough. I’d have to sleep in sweatpants and a sweater. I insisted Daniel borrow an oversized hoodie from me, but my spare pair of sweatpants didn’t fit.

He wasn’t overly concerned. He was too busy rooting through the shopping bag dumped on the table. “Hungry? We have crackers and dried apple...and…”

He gave me a look. “Crackers and dried apple.”

I wasn’t surprised that was all Roman had managed to scrounge from our kitchen. If I were my mother, I’d have pantry shelves lined with jars of preserved fruit and tins of wholesome soup. I made a terrible housewife.

---