Relax.”Allie wobbled a bit in her heels, but aside from her unsteadiness with her eyes being shut, she didn’t feel any different. Still, she was d...etermined to keep up with the facade that this was actually working and relaxed her face, affecting a compliant, passive expression.Wyatt continued to speak to her softly between the chime of his phone. After a while, he asked, “Allie?”“Mm?” she replied dreamily, continuing to play along with her eyes shut.“Do you still feel me holding you?”Allie felt. They were soon enjoying the July sunshine out in the back garden, where we tended to eat our meals when the weather was warm enough.I hadn’t seen Jasmine or Claire for many years. I vaguely recalled that shortly after I left home to find work the other side of the country, Jazz had married – a showman, I understood – in a travelling circus. Every few weeks, the whole kit and caboodle would move on, a convoy of trucks loaded with dismantled rides – dodgems, waltzers, chairoplanes, and so on –. The thick smoke choked them but it saved their lives, concealing them from the merciless militia attackers who swept into their village without warning in the pre-dawn darkness.Thirteen-year-old Sadiya, a tall, skinny girl with fierce dark eyes led them, laying flat on the ground, her long legs and bony knees pumping frantically against the hard-packed dirt and litter, her fingers clawing and pulling herself through the gaps between the thorn bushes. Zareb stayed beside his injured friend,. I HAD ALSO SET OUT THE BLANKETS AND PILLOWS SO THAT WE WOULD BE COMFORTABLE LAYING UPON THE FLOOR FOR A WHILE. I HAD NO PLANS OF MOVING FROM THAT SPOT TILL WERE WARM AND HE WAS ALL WARN OUT TO SAY THE LEAST. HE CAME ON AND I GOT ON MY BOOTS AND JACKET HE GRABBED MY HAND IN HIS AND WE STARTED DOWN THE SNOW COVERED TRAILS JUST WALKING HAND IN HAND LOOKING AT THE ICE HANGING FROM THE TREE LIMBS IT WAS JUST BARELY DUSK AND SO PRETTY WE WERE HOPING TO COME TO A CLEARING TO BE ABLE TO WATCH THE.