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It gave her a sweet, painful stab of hope.

But she faced the hard truth. Even with the improvements she’d made, she couldn’t run fast enough. If she couldn’t get rid of the Focus, it would lead Sirna to her and she would be dragged back.

Unfortunately, the chances of getting another look inside the cart were slim.

Evelyn had been even more protective of her territory since Ava had been in there yesterday.

Far in the distance, lightning flashed and then she heard the low rumble of thunder.

The air felt charged, and the dark purple of the clouds began to take on a greenish tinge. The scent of rain filled the air, and Ava filled her lungs.

A few drops of rain hit her cheeks, then stopped, and Ava looked up between half-closed eyes.

The clouds were not directly overhead yet, but she could see the rain falling in sheets in the distance.

The carts kept moving, directly into the storm, but before they reached it, Reckhart gave a piercing whistle and led them off the track, into a clearing that was surrounded and sheltered by big, established trees, their branches arching over the elongated space to form a natural shelter.

“And if the branches snap off in the wind?” Evelyn asked, sourly. She had come out of the cart when it had stopped and walked up to Sirna’s spot on the driver’s bench.

“You’d prefer we kept riding?” Sirna asked, and they stared each other down.

“What are we going to do with her when it rains?” Evelyn asked, voice low. “She’s not coming into the cart.”

Sirna gritted his teeth. Ava could see his jaw clench under his stubble.

“Where will we put her then?” he hissed. He looked over at the other travellers, talking to each other in laughing voices as they set up for bad weather.

“That’s what I asked you!” Evelyn leaned closer to him. “Under the cart, maybe?”

“Not without a pallet. We’ve drawn enough attention to ourselves where she’s concerned as it is.” As he spoke, the rain hit, thundering into the leaves overhead, hitting the roof of the cart in a sudden cacophony.

Ava hunched over, curling over her thighs. The branches overhead protected them from the worst of it, but rain was still getting through.

With a curse, Sirna jumped down from the bench and disappeared, and after a moment, Ava could hear him in the cart behind her.

“You ruin everything.” The words were said with a venomous hiss. Ava looked up and saw Evelyn hadn’t moved, she was staring at Ava from beside the cart.

“Let me go, then,” Ava mumbled.

A sudden bright flicker of lightning and the almost immediate sound of thunder on its heels jerked Evelyn’s attention upward.

“Get her down,” Sirna shouted and she reached up, grabbed Ava’s arm, and yanked her down.

Ava let herself fall to her knees, head bowed.

“Are you sure she’s your sister?” Gregor loomed out of the rain. “You treat her like a prisoner.”

“Tempers are just a little raw,” Sirna’s excuse for every interaction was starting to wear a little thin. Even he seemed to offer it with less conviction as he stepped up behind Evelyn.

“I can lend you a tent for Avasu. Melodie and I use it when we have to leave the cart somewhere for repairs.”

“Thank you.” Sirna’s relief and gratitude were genuine. “I didn’t know how the pallet would hold up on the wet ground.”

“You can put it in the tent and it’ll stay dry,” Gregor told him, and then nodded to Sirna and held one end of the tent out to him.

It took Sirna a moment to realize he wanted help putting it up, but the narrow-eyed stare Gregor gave him galvanised him into action.

When she was finally installed inside it, lying on Sirna and Evelyn’s comfortable pallet, dry and warm with a blanket from Madame Croter tucked around her, Ava finally let herself grin.