Page 80 of Perilous Healing

“I agree,” Silas replies.

“You do realize that if we can’t get you out in time, those executions will extend to you too, right?” Michael asks.

“We’ll get them out in time,” Silas says.

But Bradyn, Elijah, Dylan, Caleb, Michael, Elliot, and Riley all look unconvinced. I imagine if Silas’s other cousin Tucker was here, he’d likely have the same doubt stamped on his face.

“It’s your mission,” Bradyn says. “You tell us what you want us to do. We called for backup, but you should know it’s not getting here anytime soon. Maybe forty-eight hours.”

“We don’t have that long,” Silas insists.

“No,” Bradyn agrees. “We don’t.”

Silas falls silent as he processes. We wait, they all die. We go in, there’s a chance no one makes it out. Rock, meet hard place.Lord, please guide us.

“I’ll sneak back in,” Silas insists.

“How are you planning to explain the escape? How the three of you got away from the guards and Laring and Idra?”

“We’re not going to get caught.”

“No?”

“The guards are there to keep people from leaving, not keep us from getting back in. So I’ll go in under the cover of night, sneaking through the camp and alerting the people there to the coming danger. You give me a weapon, and I’ll take out some of the guards, making a path for them to escape to freedom.”

I don’t miss the fact that there are a lot ofI’sin Silas’s plan. “I’m going with you.”

He turns to me. “No.”

“Yes. It’s foolish for you to think you can do this alone. You need more boots on the ground.”

“No one else can be risked,” he insists.

“You forget I was a soldier, too,” I snap, frustrated that he’s planning a suicide mission like this when having me go in with him increases the odds of success.

“Bianca—”

“No. I go in too. We leave Abana, Laring, and Idra here where they’re safe and go in together.”

“I’m up for an adventure, I’ll come in, too,” Michael adds.

“Same,” Bradyn replies.

“You can’t all risk your lives like this. I have a better chance at getting in undetected if I go alone.”

“And also a better chance at getting caught if no one is watching your six,” Michael says. “You can’t tell me you don’t see the problem with this plan.”

Silas’s reaction is pure fear.

His earlier words come rushing back to me.

“I losteverything. My friends, my parents, the ranch, my sister?—”

“Silas,” I say, stepping forward and pressing my palm to his chest. “You’re not going to lose us, but you will force us to lose you if you go in there alone. Please, we have to go as a team. A unit.”

He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. “We have to be quiet.”

“And we will be,” Bradyn replies. “We’ve all trained for this, cousin. You’re not the only one.”

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