Dove Strong
Page 24
I loved Heathen.
My grandpa strode into the blaring light, a hand to his heaving chest. “Gilead. Grandson. Will you never learn to pause? To check with the Spirit before lashing out? Is that what’s in your heart...such violence?”
“He attacked her, Grandpa. Micah and I—we both saw it.” But doubt crept through the shock in Gilead’s voice.
“Rot.” I heard my grandpa jam the fallen knife blade into the maple while I kept my gaze on the scary white face drenched with sweat and tight with pain.
Micah sidestepped behind my brother. “Sir? Sir, your grandson’s not lying. I promise you.”
Grandpa’s knees cracked as he knelt and laid a hand against Wolfe’s heaving chest. “You both saw what you wanted to see. What I saw was a young man drive Dove to the edge of our property and escort her to the garden. That she came to see him off the property would be clear to any lamebrain numbskull who paused and watched a moment.”
“Nice, Dove.”
I hunched a shoulder at Gilead’s sarcasm and glanced over at the shadows. Someone impatiently crouched there. “Is he going to die, Grandpa?”
Jonah Strong stood. “No, thank the good Lord. The knife missed his lungs and everything major as far as I can tell. Don’t pull the weapon out, so he doesn’t lose more blood. Where’d you find him, Dove?”
“Sisters.” I told him the numbers on the home and described what I could remember of the roads we’d taken. I took a deep breath. “It’s at least a three-day walk there, Grandpa. What...what if I drive him?”
My face flamed at Gilead’s curled lip.
“Leave the driving to me.” My grandpa gestured at the camper. “Boys, get that sheet metal leaning there. And keep him off his wound when you carry him. Since you caused this, you will deliver him to his mother yourselves. With an apology.”
“No mom.” Wolfe spoke for the first time. While my brother and Melody lifted him onto the make-shift stretcher, he gripped my fingers until they numbed. “Only my grandma.”
Grandpa bent over him, his face etched. “I’m sorry, son. Truly. For you to have to face this world without a God and without a mother. And now...this thing we’ve done to you. I’m sorry.”
Wolfe’s fingers slid from my grasp and dangled.
I trailed after his unconscious figure, but my grandpa motioned at the spotlight. “Go home, Dove. Tell Sarah I’ll be back before first light. Celebrate your return, but remember to pray continually and keep watch. Satan may use this night to his advantage. If this turns into a Dead Night, keep to the trees and use the buckets. Don’t be afraid. The young man will live.”
I wanted to go with them. “Yes, Grandpa.”
The trio moved down the road, working to keep Wolfe from sliding off. At the bend where the path wound into deeper forest, Gilead told Micah to wait.
“We thought he was hurting you, Dove. And if he had, I promise his whole family would’ve died for it. But whether he dies now doesn’t matter so much, does it? He’s going to die in a few months anyway.”
“What?” My nails pressed my cheeks.
“I saw the Council’s decision. We’re going to war.” They rounded the curve and disappeared.
War.
The silent forest became loud with red.
I’d flown. And failed.
Over the Jeep’s engine, words I’d once heard—and shrugged at—now repeated themselves in Stone’s thoughtful tone.
“Maybe the answer is more complicated than any of our puny human brains can understand. Maybe you’re both right...just...only God knows how.”
I squared my slumped shoulders. Then I dragged myself past the heaps of garbage to where my homecoming squash and crow pie cooked.
Melody. Saul.
The war would come and maybe the red. But I had messages to deliver first. Then my brain would be free to decide...to choose my side.
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