“I’ve taken from you what you took from me—everything that means something to you—unless you can get your wife home fast enough to at least save her.” He laughed. “But then she has to reach you first… on her own without help from you.”

Tarass went to call out to her when Fasta grabbed Snow’s arm and yanked her to her feet.

“Not a word,” Conall warned and took Snow from Fasta, his thick fingers closing around her upper arm.

A short man appeared out of the woods and handed Fasta a bow and a cache of arrows and Tarass felt more helpless than he ever did, though his mind raced with possible ways to save his wife.

“Call out to your wife, make any sound or move at all, and my daughter will set an arrow on her, and she won’t miss.”

Tarass bit his tongue, fearful he’d not be able to hold it. And how could he not run to Snow? If only the distance between them was shorter, he’d have a chance of reaching her before the arrow did. But he’d never make it at this distance.

“Go to your husband, Snow,” Conall said with a laugh and shoved her toward the woods to his right.

Tarass silently cursed the man when he watched his wife take a few stumbling steps, collapse in a mound of snow, and glance around confused. The trees would appear as gray blurs to her and she wouldn’t know if he was among them. And if he dared call or move to alert her, an arrow would pierce her back. But if he didn’t do something, they both would die here. He was no fool. Conall didn’t intend to let them live.

Snow pressed her hand to her stomach, the cramps having grown dreadfully painful. She was losing the bairn. There was no denying it. And if she had swallowed too much of the liquid that had been forced on her, she would lose her life. She had to get to her husband, if it was only to have him hold her one last time.

She looked around and almost cried with joy at how clear everything appeared to her. The fuzziness that had been there was gone and while her vision blurred now and again, she still could see things almost as clearly as when she had full sight.

Relief filled her heart when she turned her head and spotted Tarass. He was a distance away and she worried she didn’t have the strength to reach him.

“You can do this, Snow. You can do this,” she heard her mum’s voice encourage in her head.

She struggled to her feet and felt a warm liquid run down her leg. She didn’t want to think about what it meant. She had to get to Tarass as fast as possible.