Winter Fire

Ch. 40 [The Fourth Choice]

Winter Fire
Ch. 40
The Fourth Choice

Neither Archer nor I moved after we stepped into that room, shock overwhelming us. It was a lovely little place, though, bookshelves and couches and armchairs, a table and even four beds against the far wall. But half of the furniture and the floors were covered in dark crimson stains, and the air reeked of blood.

I scanned the room quickly. Avery lay unconscious on the first bed, shivering beneath the blankets and deathly pale. In the next bed, Elias was sitting up with a book in his lap, but his leg was encased in a thick cast and elevated on a pillow and one of his arms was in a sling. Beside that, an empty bed, beside which Aidan occupied the last bed in the row. He lay with his head at the foot and his feet on the pillows. He looked mostly unharmed, a few scratches, one deep one across his left shoulder, surely from where a bullet grazed him. He had a gun in his right hand and he was spinning it absently, his eyes half-closed. Sophia sat on the couch. Both her wrists were wrapped in casts and a bandage circled her head. I glanced around the room again, but Logan was nowhere to be seen.

Sophia looked up when the door opened and sat up straight, but before she had the chance to speak, Archer kicked the door closed and demanded in a quiet, stiff, cold voice, "Where's Logan?"

Aidan sat up sharply and Elias glanced up from his book. For another moment, no one moved, then Archer asked again.

"Where's Logan?"

Aidan looked away. Elias's expression fell and he couldn't meet Archer's gaze. It was Sophia that answered.

"He was captured."

Archer sucked in a breath and stumbled back and I barely caught him before he ran into the bookshelf and knocked it over. I knew just as well as him what those three words meant, but I couldn't bear to think about it, not when so much else was at stake.

"Archer. Archer, focus, please. Keep it together."

My hands were on his arms and slowly his lifted his hands to mine and held onto me. He let out a strangled breath and his eyes were wide and flooded with emotion. They found mine and his gaze seemed to grab hold of mine and use it as a lifeline, keeping him grounded.

"Keep it together." I breathed.

He leaned his forehead against mine and I didn't move away. I took his hands in mine and held tight.

"Keep it together." I whispered, one more time, and it finally seemed to pull him back from the edge.

He moved his head back and his eyes slid to where our hands clasped and for a moment he didn't move, didn't even breathe, then, softy, so slight it was barely there, his lips turned up at the corners. Then, as quickly as it came, it was gone and Archer pulled away. I watched him for a moment more before turning back.

"How did you guys get out?"

"By the skin of our teeth." Aidan replied sorely. "No thanks to you."

I scowled. "Not my fault, Aidan. He didn't ask for permission." I shot Archer a shape glance.

Aidan just huffed. "Whatever. We're just lucky I know how to hot-wire. Stole one of their vans."

"And we're also lucky, I know a doctor." Elias added. "Or we'd all be dead by now."

I frowned. "You know a doctor? Who?"

"Caressa." Archer answered behind me, his voice so quiet I almost didn't hear. "She was an army doctor before we met her in France."

My eyes widened. "Really?" Elias nodded and I exhaled slowly. "You know, with all the surprises everyone's been springing on me, I'd think I'd be used to it all by now, but, um, I was not expecting that."