TANGLED, genya safin

chapter twelve.

"We need to set down," I said.

"Where are we?" Harshaw asked. His crest of red hair lay flat on his head, soaked through with snow. I'd thought of him as unpredictable, maybe a little dangerous, but here he was— bloody, tired, and working the lines for hours without complaint.

Tamar consulted her charts. "Just past the permafrost. If we keep heading south, we'll be above more populated areas soon."

"We could try to find woods for cover," panted Nadia.

"We're too near Chernast," Mal replied.

Harshaw adjusted his grip. "Does it matter? If we fly through the day, we're going to be spotted."

"We could go higher," suggested Genya.

Nadia shook her head. "We can try, but the air's thinner up there and we'll use a lot of power on a vertical move."

"Where are we headed, anyway?" asked Zoya.

"To the copper mine at Murin. To the firebird," said Alina.

There was a brief silence. Then Harshaw said what I knew a lot of them had to be thinking. "We could run. Every time we face those monsters, more of us die. We could take this ship anywhere. Kerch. Novyi Zem."

"Like hell," muttered Mal.

"This is my home," said Zoya. "I won't be chased out of it."

"What about Adrik?" Nadia asked, her voice hoarse.

"He lost a lot of blood," said Tolya. "All I can do is keep his heart steady, try to give him time to recover."

"He needs a real Healer."

"If the Darkling finds us, a Healer won't do him any good," said Zoya.

I ran a hand over my eyes— I had lost a lot of blood too. A headache was pounding at my temple and my hearing was cutting off— sweat was breaking out on my forehead.

Genya pressed a hand to my forehead. "You're burning up," she said. "She's burning a fever."

"I'm fine," I whispered.

"No, you're not," Genya said.

She dipped a rag into a bucket of water that I hadn't even seen and pressed the cold rag to my head.

I gasped— Genya shushed me. "It will get your fever down."

Tolya crouched down on one knee, unwrapping my shoulder to check my injuries. "It's infected," he said. "I can't do much to prevent it."

He looked up at Genya, "Do you still have the salve that David made?"

Genya perked up and rummaged through her bag, "It should be enough to last at least a few days."

"Can you manage?" Tolya asked.

I nodded my head weakly and fell back into Genya's arms. She wrapped her arms around my waist and pressed a kiss to my cheek.