“Yes.” She turned away from Reardon’s body. “He was trying to force me to go out that door that leads to the cliffs and forests when you showed up on the scene. He mentioned Masenak. Let’s go.”

*  *  *

Stay here! Sasha slipped from Chaos’s back as soon as she reached the forest trail that led up to the cliffs. Don’t follow me. Take care of Nightshade.

She didn’t wait for him to complain but started up the shale slope of the trail along the cliffs. The horses should be safe in that forest area below, but she needed to get higher so that she could see what was going on. Though that might not do any good. There was smoke everywhere. She’d heard the explosion and the screams right after she’d left the access road, but she hadn’t stopped to find what had happened. Masenak and Reardon had been too close, and she doubted those screams had come from them. Alisa had said to run and hide and not emerge until they came for her. That’s what she would do, but she had to know if they were safe here or if she should go deeper into the forest.

“Stop right there or I’ll blow your head off, Sasha.”

Masenak.

She froze.

“Or I might decide to do it anyway. I’d like nothing better.” He was climbing the rocks behind her, his gun pointed at her. “You’ve ruined me. I wish I’d killed you that first day in that stable at St. Eldon’s.”

“You were a ruin to begin with. Ugly and greedy and evil. What you did to those girls was—” Her head snapped back as his hand whipped across her face. Pain. Dizziness. Then she was able to speak again. “And Jeanne Palsan. You should burn in hell. I think you probably will.” He struck her again and she staggered back. She wasn’t thinking straight. Verbally attacking him wasn’t going to do any good. The gun. He didn’t know she had a weapon in her jacket pocket, and he wasn’t used to thinking of her as a threat, only a victim. So figure how she could get that gun out without him shooting her. “I thought Reardon might even be worse than you, but he isn’t. You’re just the same. Where is he?”

“He’ll be here as soon as he knows I’ve caught you. And he’s probably even angrier than I am about the humiliation you handed him.” He motioned with his gun toward the cliffs she’d just climbed. “But he’s always bragging how great he is with negotiations, and you might stay alive if they go well enough to please us. You’re our ticket out of here. Let’s go down and get started.”