My heartbeat exploded in my ears. The darkness pressed in on me. My body screamed to run, twitching as I forced myself to be still and wait. Where was Margo? This was the spot. We’d been over it at least ten times—follow the deer trail to the tree with all its bark stripped away. I had barely convinced Abner to let me sleep alone tonight. He hadn’t wasted any time trying to create the next soldier and planned to have me pregnant again by the time he left with Shiloh. I’d pretended to have the stomach flu tonight, and even then he’d tried to talk himself into staying in my tent. Gagging in front of him had finally made him leave me alone and pick someone else.

I scanned the forest line for her, terrified his voice would call my name out at any moment, summoning me back to him. What was taking her so long? We were counting on the lengthy discussions that followed his lovemaking sessions to give us a far enough lead before anyone realized we were gone, but they didn’t go on forever.

A twig snapped behind me. I whirled around to see Margo hurrying through the trees. Zed was pressed tightly against her chest, and she clutched her stomach with her other arm as she shuffled along. I raced toward her and hugged her like it’d been years since we’d seen each other.

“Thank God. I was getting so nervous, and every sound is magnified out here, which only made it worse.” I put my arm around her waist and tried to help her walk. “Come on, we have to hurry.” I tried to pull her along.

But she wasn’t moving. She stood still.

“No, Margo, no. Don’t.” The clouds made it impossible for the moonlight to penetrate the dense canopy above us, making it almost pitch black, but I didn’t need to see her face to know she was crying.

“I can’t leave him. I just can’t do it,” she sobbed. She held Zed out to me. “Take him.”

“I’m not taking him. That’s ridiculous. You’re just scared, but we have each other. We can do this together. I’m scared too. Come on, we have to go.”

She stayed rooted to her spot. I grabbed her and shoved her forward. She’d be grateful once we were gone. She pushed me back.

“Get off me!” she yelled.

We froze. She put her hand over her mouth, recoiling in horror. “Oh my God, I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.” She tried to hand Zed to me again, but I shook my head. We both knew she was dead if she went back without him.

Tears streamed down my cheeks. “I can’t leave you.”

“Go. You have to.” Her voice shook. “Run.”

“Come with me, please,” I sobbed. “I can’t do this alone.”