Chapter 121: She Had Been Practicing for a Reason

Dove stayed behind the concrete corner. "We were doing fine until you showed up," she called, keeping her hands out of sight because they had started shaking. "Go bother someone who invited you."

The man in the trees laughed and raised a length of chain. Behind him, footsteps moved through wet leaves. Thorne drew his knife while Edrik stepped toward a discarded steel workbench top beside the hut.

The first shot struck the outer wall, spraying grit across the empty place where Dove had been standing. She ducked hard enough to hurt her knee. Edrik tipped the steel plate upright and kept his palm against it as his power took hold.

"Stay behind the concrete," he told her. "This is for the gap, not an invitation to stand up."

The gunman had come from the van, leaving one man beside its doors and another with the long blade moving through the trees. Four attackers that Dove could see, including the one with the chain. She counted them because four was a problem she could understand better than shapes moving everywhere.

Thorne pressed his hand to an old metal support fixed beside the hut. It bent outward across the narrow passage, blocking the blade man’s approach. The attacker struck it once, swore, and had to step back around the corner.

Edrik fired from cover. The gunman fell behind the tree where he’d stopped to aim. Dove couldn’t tell more than that, and she wasn’t going to step out to check.

The chain man rushed the other side, apparently deciding she was easier to reach than either of her companions. Dove lifted the slingshot and sent a stone toward his face. It struck his shoulder instead, but he flinched long enough for her to move.

He caught the loose strap of her bag, not her body. She turned toward the clear patch Edrik had shown her and put her hand on the bag. It vanished into her space, leaving him holding nothing.

The surprise on his face lasted just long enough. Thorne pulled him away from the corner and drove him down behind the bent support. Dove heard the struggle end without trying to watch through her husband’s back.

Dove crouched against the wall with her empty hand still reaching for the bag she’d stored. A second later she remembered she could stop. Thorne had the man. She pressed her palm against the concrete, breathing hard, and looked for Edrik because standing still and staring at her own fingers wasn’t going to help him.

The blade man tried to reach Edrik while he held the reinforced plate. Edrik shifted enough to fire once more, then stayed behind cover until the attacker stopped moving. He didn’t leave Dove exposed to admire the result.

At the van, the fourth man looked from the hut to the bodies and ran down the open road. Thorne watched him go without chasing. Dove was grateful before she could make the words work.

Edrik kept the plate steady while Thorne checked the approach. When he finally released it, ordinary steel sagged against the ground. He flexed his fingers once and put the handgun away with four rounds still loaded.

"Dove?" Thorne called.

"I’m here. Can you come here, please?" Her voice shook, and she was too tired to hide it. She wanted her husband, not another chance to sound brave.

He came to her slowly enough that she could reach for him first. She put a hand against his chest and let him hold it there while she got her breathing under control. Edrik stayed close, watching the road where the fourth man had disappeared.

Three attackers were dead. The fourth had escaped without his bag. Nobody called that a guarantee he wouldn’t return with someone else. They needed the pickup past the van and somewhere with a door before dark.

The van’s keys were still inside. Its engine wouldn’t start, but Edrik freed the brake while Thorne bent a jammed rear step away from the wheel. With the road watched, they pushed it onto the firm shoulder by hand. Dove called when the wheels neared soft ground. They stopped with enough pavement clear for the pickup.

Edrik drove through slowly while Thorne guided him, keeping the tires away from the ditch. Then they collected the attackers’ weapons: a handgun, the long blade, the chain, and a knife. Edrik checked the abandoned bags before letting Dove touch them.

Most held food, clothes, and tools. She recovered six meat cans, two unopened cracker boxes, a clean sweatshirt, and a roll of heavy tape from their unmarked packs. Edrik put the awkward toolbox in the pickup bed. She wanted the crackers with lunch and the tape for the torn cover over their crates.

A name was inked inside one flap, and Dove wondered if it belonged to the driver they’d watched being robbed. She set that bag aside, noted what was in it, and asked Edrik to keep it separate. She touched the raiders’ unmarked supplies one at a time to store them, resting beside the truck when she needed to. They weren’t coming back for their canned peaches.

The drink mix hadn’t sold. Dove paid four Favor to keep a pack and returned the rest, losing four normal coins. Sprout settled it quietly. She put the retained pack beside their water and left the shop closed. They had survived the road; she could stand losing money on a few unsold drinks.

Once the truck was through, Dove looked at her little pouch of stones. She’d felt ridiculous picking them beside men who could change metal with their hands. One had helped her get away today.

"Don’t you dare tell me it was only a distraction," she warned Edrik when he noticed.

"It was a good distraction. You moved while he was looking at the wrong thing." He fastened the loose edge of the pouch for her. "You used your head, Dove. That’s why we practice."

She wanted to kiss him for sounding proud instead of surprised. Later, she decided, when her knees stopped trying to collapse and there wasn’t a dead man’s van behind them. For now, she held out her hand, and he helped her into the cab without making her ask twice.

They reached a closed roadside appliance store before sunset. Thorne checked its office and rear exit while Edrik parked the pickup on the loading apron and brought their handcart inside. Dove warmed chicken, rice, and a large pot of soup from their owned supplies.

Edrik said he only needed to check one more strap. His glove had torn across the palm, and his hand stayed stiff when he reached for the knot. Dove caught his wrist before he could pretend she hadn’t seen.

"Sit with me," she said. "You can be useful again after you’ve eaten something and let me look at that."

For once, she didn’t make it sound like a suggestion he could politely avoid.