“I don’t want to leave her here unprotected while I find her a safe place,” Ian said. “I don’t know if Kyle will be conscious when he arrives. If Jeb shoots him, it will upset her. But you and Doc should be able to handle him. I don’t want Doc to be on his own, and force Jeb’s hand.”

Jared spoke through clenched teeth. “Doc won’t be on his own.”

Ian hesitated. “She’s been through hell in the past couple of days. Remember that.”

Jared nodded once, teeth still clamped together.

“I’ll be here,” Doc reminded Ian.

Ian met his gaze. “Okay.” He leaned over me, and his luminous eyes held mine. “I’ll be back soon. Don’t be afraid.”

“I’m not.”

He ducked in and touched his lips to my forehead.

No one was more surprised than I, though I heard Jared gasp quietly. My mouth hung open as Ian wheeled and nearly sprinted from the room.

I heard Doc pull a breath in through his teeth, like a backward whistle. “Well,” he said.

They both stared at me for a long moment. I was so tired and sore, I barely cared what they were thinking.

“Doc —” Jared started to say something in an urgent tone, but a clamor from the tunnel interrupted him.

Five men struggled through the opening. Jeb, in front, had Kyle’s left leg in his arms. Wes had the right leg, and behind them, Andy and Aaron worked to support his torso. Kyle’s head lolled back over Andy’s shoulder.

“Stars, but he’s heavy,” Jeb grunted.

Jared and Doc sprang forward to help. After a few minutes of cursing and groaning, Kyle was lying on a cot a few feet away from mine.

“How long has he been out, Wanda?” Doc asked me. He pulled Kyle’s eyelids back, letting the sunlight shine into his pupils.

“Um…” I thought quickly. “As long as I’ve been here, the ten minutes or so it took Ian to carry me here, and then maybe five more minutes before that?”

“At least twenty minutes, would you say?”

“Yes. Close to that.”

While we were consulting, Jeb had made his own diagnosis. No one paid any attention as he came to stand at the head of Kyle’s cot. No one paid any attention—until he turned an open bottle of water over Kyle’s face.

“Jeb,” Doc complained, knocking his hand away.

But Kyle sputtered and blinked, and then moaned. “What happened? Where did it go?” He started to shift his weight, trying to look around. “The floor… is moving.…”

Kyle’s voice had my fingers clenching the sides of my cot and panic washing through me. My leg ached. Could I limp away? Slowly, perhaps…

“’S okay,” someone murmured. Not someone. I would always know that voice.