Even in Darkness She Chose to Rise (Tatiana and Jasper) novel Chapter 30

Chapter 30 Rising Tide

He reached

medicine.

up

and touched his forehead, finding it bandaged and a little sticky with herbal

Looking down, he saw the injured ankle had been treated too – the dressing had been done professionally.

He hesitated. “You did this?”

She nodded.

“When did you learn?”

She didn’t answer.

Learn? Where would I have learned? I just treated myself after being sick for so long.

The people at the reform facility were afraid she’d die; after each bout of torture they would clean and dress her wounds. Over time she picked it up.

“Have you gone mute?”

His irritation at her silence made his tone unconsciously sharp.

She was afraid of him and blurted out an excuse, “I learned from reading.”

“Seems you learned to read in the reform facility.”

She kept quiet, letting him believe she’d been treated well in there.

He pressed a hand to his throbbing forehead and asked, “Did anyone come for us?”

“No. Because it was raining, I brought you in out of the rain.”

He glanced at his watch

—

more than three hours had passed. His people would have noticed

he’d gone missing by now.

His expression turned serious. “Help me out.”

“No! It’s pouring, it’s too slippery outside, you’ll roll off there’s a river below!”

—

When Jasper had been unconscious she’d already gone out and checked; there was no other way down. They’d only found this cave by luck.

He frowned. “A river?”

1/4

“Yes, yes.”

“How long has it been raining?”

She thought hard. “Over two hours.”

His face changed. “Move! Right now!”

She froze. “But-”

“The water level will rise. If we don’t leave, this place will be flooded.”

Jasper struggled to stand; the pain made him groan.

She hurried over to steady him. “But it’s pouring. If we go out, your wounds-”

“If you don’t want to die here, then move!”

She had no choice. Supporting him, she helped him out of the cave.

The sky was dark and the rain showed no signs of easing; they could barely see the path.

She glanced down and her pupils shrank the river below had really risen.

It was spilling over the embankment, heading straight for the cave!

If they hadn’t left in time, once the water reached the cave it would have been too late.

“Go this way. Don’t stand there dazing.”

She snapped back to herself and hurried in the direction he pointed.

But the further they went, the farther they moved from the spot where he had fallen.

She worried, “If we go too far, will they not find us?”

“Make marks.”

Since waking, Jasper had been unnaturally calm, issuing orders in an orderly way that made him seem reliable.

Even Tatiana’s panicked heart steadied. She picked up a stone and scratched a cross into a tree trunk.

She didn’t notice how ghastly pale Jasper’s face had become, nor the way his fist clenched so tight.

2/4

“Keep moving. Faster.”

The rain was worse than he’d thought.

This storm had been mentioned on the forecast a few days earlier; no one paid it any mind now it had become a deadly natural disaster.

They supported each other the whole way, painfully climbing uphill.

Because the ground was slick, one twisted a left ankle, the other a right; both limped and fell several times.

The last time they fell, she was exhausted and tried repeatedly but couldn’t lift Jasper.

Breathing hard, trembling, her clothes sodden and heavy, she reached to pull him up again only to be shoved away.

–

—

“Go! Head up and left. The terrain’s higher there. Find a raised platform near the road, climb up, stop a car, call for help.”

His voice sounded especially weak in the downpour, on the verge of being drowned out by the rain.

Tatiana, as if she couldn’t hear, kept straining to drag him up.

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