Ashes (Ashes Trilogy 1)

“Maybe fifteen minutes, Jess … Not now, Vi, heel!” Nathan rapped at his dog, which had spurted over to greet Alex. Nathan jerked his head to the left. “They’re coming. We going to do this, we got to do it now.”

“Fifteen minutes before what? Who’s coming?” asked Alex.

“All right then.” Jess jerked her head at Alex. “Come on. Bring Matt’s horse. We don’t have much time.”

“Fifteen minutes before what?” Alex asked again as she led the horse out of the makeshift stable. She saw that the night was bleeding away. The sky was still a deep cobalt directly overhead, but fading to slate, fast. It would be dawn in another half hour, maybe less.

“You’ll need this.” Jess handed over a medium-size backpack. A pair of lightweight Tubbs snowshoes was lashed to the pack. “Supplies, enough to last two weeks. Clothes from your room, and a nice sweater. I’m sorry, I couldn’t risk a larger pack or a sleeping bag, but there’s an emergency blanket in there, a plastic tarp, waterproof matches, a knife, and a flint.”

“Thank you,” said Alex. She unzipped the backpack to peer inside. If Jess had been in her room, maybe she’d taken the case? But no, she saw at a glance that her parents weren’t there. She’d actually already known that; the pack was too light. Zipping the pack, hefting it to her shoulders, she looked up to find Jess studying her.

“Best you shake the dust off your sandals, girl,” Jess said. “The past is past.”

She didn’t ask Jess how she’d known. It was a moot point anyway. “I could use a gun. That Remington would be nice.”

Jess shook her head. “That, I cannot do. You won’t need it anyway.”

“How do you figure?”

“Trust me.”

That, Alex did not. But did she have other options? What would happen if she refused to go? Would Jess shoot her?

“Why can’t I have a gun?” Alex asked. “I’m no threat to you. I want to leave.” When Jess didn’t reply, Alex persisted: “You know what it’s like out there, Jess. I’ll go, but give me a fighting chance.”

Jess studied her for a long moment, then said to Nathan, “Give her your rifle.”

Nathan’s eyes widened. “Jess, I’m not sure—”

“But I am.” Turning, Jess boosted herself onto her horse. “Give her the rifle.”

Nathan’s jaw tightened, and for a second, Alex thought he would refuse, but then he thumbed off his carrying strap. “You know how to use a bolt-action?” he asked Alex.

“Yes,” she said, trying to hide her elation. The rifle was a scoped Browning X-Bolt, with a stainless-steel barrel and dark walnut stock: a very good weapon. “What’s the pull?”

She couldn’t tell if Nathan was contemptuous or amused. “Medium. Three and a half pounds, no take-up or creep. You got a detachable box mag here.” He unlocked the floor plate and swung it open. “Holds five two-hundred-seventy Magnum shorts, and there’s one in the chamber now, so you’re loaded for bear. Safety’s here on the tang, and there’s a separate unlocking button where the bolt and the body meet up, so you can open the rifle on safe and unload, okay? She’s a real good gun.”

That was an understatement. Not only did she have a rifle and a scope, a Magnum short meant higher velocity and more power for the same amount of bang. She slung the rifle to a cross-carry, then tucked a box of cartridges Nathan handed over into her parka pocket and zipped that. “Thank you,” she said to them both.

“Depending on what you find, you may not have cause to thank us,” Jess said. Her scent had not changed, but that didn’t mean much. Alex thought Jess was as good at hiding as Chris. Better, actually. In the months that she’d lived in Jess’s house, Jess had

remained a cipher. But the rifle convinced her.

Jess wants me gone, she thought. But why now?

As if she’d read her thoughts, Jess said, “Now or never, girl. This is a onetime offer.”

Alex hopped onto the Appaloosa’s back without another word and followed Nathan, already plowing into the woods at the end of the cul-de-sac. In two minutes, the three of them were deep into the woods, and Alex could no longer see any houses at all.

“Now, listen very carefully,” Jess said. They were moving fast, the horses high-stepping through the snow. “The Zone in this direction extends for two miles. After that, there are no guards.”

No more guards? And Kincaid had implied that the Zone went on for five miles, not two. Unless there was something different about the terrain? “How are we going to get—”

“Hold your tongue and listen. We will get you through, but once we reach the edge of the Zone, I can no longer help you, and I can’t send anyone with you either. The trail is plain as day. A mile further on, the trail forks, and from there, you’ll have to go on foot.”

“Why?”

Ducking beneath a low-hanging branch, Jess flashed a look of impatience. “The trail’s only a footpath and too narrow for the horse. You want to go left, not right, you understand? Right will loop you back to Rule. So you must dismount and send the horse back. It will find its way.”

With no horse and no skies, slogging through snow in the woods, even with the snowshoes, would be rough. “How long before I hit anything like a road?”

“Ten miles. From there, you can go anywhere you want. There’s a map in the zipper pocket of the backpack. But remember, take the left fork—you understand?”

She nodded. “But why are you helping me? Why me, and not Lena?”

“Peter wanted Lena,” said Jess, kicking her horse to a fast trot. “But Peter isn’t the one who has to decide.”

Alex urged her horse after. “Decide? Decide what?”

“Whether to break the rules or not.”

Then she got it. “This is about Chris?”

“Let’s just say I’m taking advantage of an opportunity to speed things up a bit,” said Jess. “You had to be ready, too. Now you are.”

“Ready for what?”

“For the same mission that led Isaac to sacrifice. Abraham was called by God to choose, and he chose righteousness. In the end, he was rewarded and Isaac was saved.”

Great, a Bible story. Just what she needed. “That doesn’t make any sense. That was a test.”

“And so is this,” said Jess. “Christopher cares for you. He wants you. He’s Chosen, whether he knows it or not.”