Page 15 of Surrendering Her Heart

“Fine. We run,” Ava says with a sharp exhale and a nod.

There is no time to waste, so I grab her wrist and break into a sprint. The others follow, their footfalls pounding against the sand. The desert is treacherous at night, but staying is death.

Behind us, the figures move, but they are not pursuing. They are waiting and I know their plan. They do not need to catch us, only need to shepherd us to where they want. We have to make the outpost. The shelter is our one hope of surviving their attack.

9

AVA

My legs are so heavy that every step forward feels impossible.

We’ve been moving as fast as possible without breaks. The Zmaj stays at my side. Wearily, I think again how I should know his name, but I’m too tired to hold onto the thought of asking. It comes and goes just as fast.

We caught up to the group without the scouts of the Order ever coming close enough to bother us, but they made sure we know they’re there. Dan and Nyanna kept the group moving along with the rest of the Zmaj, but this journey has not gone anywhere near according to plan.

My throat is dry and raw. I would kill someone for water and some hydration tablets, but we don’t have enough to go around. Reaching the top of yet another dune, I stop, bend over and rest with my hands on my knees.

“I could carry you,” the Zmaj says.

Panting, I look at him through my damp, fallen hair, with my face showing what I’m sure must be the disbelief I’m feeling inmy head. I blink, thinking he must be joking, but nope. He’s serious.

“No.”

“You are tired.”

“Yes.”

“I will carry.”

“No, you will not,” I say, straightening myself, taking a deep breath to get my panting under control and letting it out slowly.

He frowns. The moonlight glints off his scales and gathers in his eyes making them look like silver pools. He shakes his head.

“You are stubborn.”

“And?” I ask, arching an eyebrow. He growls, his tail twitching across the sand and throwing bits of it up and around. I stare him down for several heartbeats, waiting for him to give in but he’s not backing down. I point to the stragglers behind us. “They need help. Carry them if you want to carry someone.”

A few of the older people are really fighting to make it. The line is much longer than anyone would like, but we only have so many ways we can help. Several of the other Zmaj are aiding them as well as other humans, but we need the sleds.

“I must be free to fight,” he says.

“And you can do that carrying me?”

“I could.”

I roll my eyes and shake my head.

“You’re impossible.”

“Weare.”

Something in the way he says it makes me stop. It slices through my resistance like a sharp knife through paper. It pulls me towards him, not physically, but in my heart. I don’t understand why or even what this is but it’s undeniable.

I blink, my eyes are dry and some sand grit is in them. I wipe away the moisture that is forming, trying to clear them. That’s all it is. Grit.

“We need to keep moving,” I say, but my voice is much tighter than it should be.

I turn away, unable to keep looking at him. Blinking, I clear my vision and see our goal. The small mountain range fills the horizon. We’re close.

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