“You shouldn’t have brought me here, Claire,” he whispered. “It isn’t safe anywhere.”

“We had to get out of the city,” I said, rubbing his hand to warm it. “Julian has eyes on every road, every airport. This is the only place they don’t know about.”

He shook his head slowly, a grim smile touching his cracked lips.

“Julian knows everything I know,” Alexander said. “We shared everything once.”

“Why did you do it, Alex?” I asked.

The question had been burning in my chest for hours, keeping me awake on the long drive north.

“Why did you let him take your life? Why did you let him take *us*?”

He stared at the growing fire in the stove, his eyes reflecting the amber light.

“I didn’t have a choice,” he said. “Not if I wanted to keep you alive.”

He paused, coughing dryly.

I got up, poured a glass of cold water from the hand pump at the sink, and handed it to him.

He drank it in greedy gulps, water dripping down his chin and onto his collar.