Page 104 of Healing Conviction

She tried to think of something pithy to say, but an ember drifted toward her, and she shrieked into another hacking cough before swatting it away. “Yeah, we gotta skedaddle. This time we use each other to lean on, alright?”

He gave her a doubtful look up and down but nodded and waved her toward him. She complied and sturdied herself as he gently laid his arm across her shoulders.

“You’re gonna have to do more than that, handsome.”

His frustrated sigh stuttered before he cleared his throat. Nora tried to cover her nose with the hem of her shirt. She wanted to ask him where his own shirt went, but the fire was quickly closing in on their path toward the facility. All questions would have to be saved for later.

When he finally leaned heavily on her, she was sure she’d fall, but she wrapped her own arm around his waist to help steady her too. The touch of her skin on his helped soothe her anxiety, but the relief only made her want to go to sleep.

“I’ll lean on you, but we both use the trees around us for help, deal? And try to breathe with me.”

She nodded and exhaled deeply before they both took a step. The air was hot around them, and smoky fire tainted the oxygen that burned as it went down her throat. She looked up to see Drake taking measured breaths, and she tried to adopt his cadence, but they were too slow, and her lungs were screaming at her, begging her to take much bigger gulps of air than she was trying to allow.

Every step and reach out to a tree took an eternity they didn’t have, and the heat was oppressive, making everything around her feel heavy. Where they were connected, her hand slid against the slick skin of Drake’s torso. The trees themselves were warm to the touch as she leaned and pushed against their trunks. Even the ground was fighting them, trying to trip them with roots and holes as they painstakingly maneuvered around them.

The safest place she could think for them was the perch he’d created to spy on the facility, or straight to the road if they could swing that. But she already didn’t know which direction to go in the daylight, let alone through the smoke with a fire burning at their back and quickly closing in on the sides. Without Drake, she’d have been lost in an inferno.

Her heart thumped in her chest as her entire body screamed at her, pleading for her to just lay down until the fire was gone.

What if we don’t make it?

“Hey… Drake…”

Her words were labored, and when he responded, his single one wasn’t much better. “Yeah?”

“I, um, I was about to tell you something. When you were… passed out. I’ve never said this to anyone. It’s hard… to say, but here goes… Drake, I lo—”

“Don’t.”

She sluggishly turned her pounding head up at him, nearly causing both of them to stumble. But if she crashed down to the forest floor, who cared if her heart ripped in half before she landed? “You… you don’t love me?”

“No. It’s not that. Save it.” He smiled wearily. “No dying declarations allowed. Just… tell me over waffles.”

She huffed a cough and nodded. “Deal… Jacky’s?”

“As if we’d go anywhere else.”

Her eyelids began to get heavy, and she tripped over a root. Drake caught her midair by tugging her backpack up and he grunted as she used a tree trunk to help herself up. When she was upright again, the smoke in her lungs made her cough until she was bent over, gagging while Drake held her. When her body was finished, she swiped her shirt across her mouth.

“Nice… fluffy… golden Belgian waffle.” His deep, comforting voice deposited the image into her mind, and even though confusion was settling in, she clung to the vision as he spoke. “Bacon… for the vegetarian, of course.”

“Ob-obviously.”

“That sugary drink… with a splash of coffee… so you can joke how you’re a caffeine addict… like everyone else.”

“Peppermint tea… for you.”

“I’ll have one of everything, too… and you’ll even let me have a bite of your waffle.”

“Yeah right. Over my dead bo—” She swallowed. “Maybe… maybe… just a bite.”

It looked like the smoke was clearing above, but the lighting was weird, different than the fire glowing all around. The closer they got, the brighter, even though it was nighttime. She began to fade…

“Drake…”

“Stay with me, Pix.” Her body felt heavy, and she vaguely registered him tugging her to the tree he was resting on. “Come on, baby. Stay with me. We’re almost there. I can see it.”

The bright light shined down at her through the trees, hurting her eyes. “I can too.” They weren’t seeing the same thing, but that was okay. He didn’t need to know.