Chapter 34 #3
Then soldiers were there, pulling Ransom up by both arms, and the commander's voice cut through the clearing, giving orders Jem barely registered. Irons. A horse. Somewhere to put him until they could sort out what came next.
Jem knelt in the dirt and watched them lead his brother away. Ransom didn't look back at him. Jem pushed himself up, every part of his body screaming protest, his ribs grinding with each breath. He scanned the clearing.
Theda.
He found her near the tree line where she'd landed, already on her feet, moving toward him. The soldiers, the prisoners being rounded up, his own brother disappearing toward the horses, none of it mattered to him in that moment.
His legs gave out before he reached her.
He went down hard onto his knees, the strength finally leaving him all at once, like something inside him had been holding the line and had just stopped.
“Jem!” she screamed, her voice growing distant.
She reached him a second later, dropping to her knees in front of him, her arms going around his neck before he could say a word. She held him tight, her face pressed against his shoulder, and he felt her whole body shaking.
“You did it,” she whispered, her voice breaking against his collar. “You saved everyone. You saved me.”
He didn't have the strength to hold onto her the way he wanted to. His arms came up slowly, settling around her, and even that small effort cost him more than it should have. She was safe; he was holding her once more. She would be okay. No matter what happened to him, she would live.
“Theda.” He said her name as if it were the last thing he’d ever say.
“I'm here.” She pulled back just enough to look at him, her hands framing his face, careful of the bruising along his jaw. Her green eyes were wet, full of emotions, for him. “I'm right here.”
The clearing around them had gone soft and distant, the voices and movement fading. His vision narrowed at the edges. The cold that had soaked into him hours ago seemed to be rising up from somewhere deeper now, pulling him down with it.
“It's over,” he murmured.
“It's over,” she agreed.
He felt himself tilting, the world losing its solid footing beneath him, and Theda's arms tightened instinctively, trying to hold him upright.
Am I going to die here? After everything?
The thought drifted through him.
“Jem. Stay with me.” Theda's voice sharpened, cutting through the haze. “Jem!”
He wanted to answer her. He wanted to tell her that he loved her, that he was sorry for all of it, that whatever happened now had been worth it a hundred times over.
But the gray at the edges of his vision was spreading, and the ground was tilting again. Theda eased him down onto the ground. She pulled his coat open and pressed her fingers along his ribs, her face tight with concentration.
“Don't move,” she said. “Let me look.”
He didn't have much choice in the matter. He lay still and let her work, watching her face instead of looking at his own injuries. Her brow furrowed as she checked each rib, her touch gentle even where the bruising was worst.
“What did they do to you?” She stifled a sob as she took in all the pain his own brother had put him through.
Past her shoulder, he could see the soldiers finishing with Ransom.
They had him on his knees near the supply wagons, wrists bound behind him, two men standing over him while a third checked the ropes.
Ransom knelt there with his head down, all the fire gone out of him, looking smaller than Jem had ever seen him.
Jem watched until Theda's hand on his chest drew his attention back.
“Cracked,” she said. “Maybe two of them. Nothing life-threatening, I think.” She let out a slow breath. “You're going to need rest. A long while of it.”
“I've heard that before.” Jem winced.
A faint, watery laugh escaped her despite everything.
Footsteps approached. Jem turned his head and found the commander standing over him, his weathered face unreadable.
“Josiah.” The commander said the name Jem had come to dread.
“Your help today, taking down this outfit, going back in alone for her…” he nodded toward Theda, “Combined with what your wagon train people are willing to say on your behalf, I expect it'll weigh heavily in your favor when this gets sorted through.”
Jem looked up at him. “Thank you.”
The commander gave a short nod and turned to oversee the rest of his men, leaving Jem staring up at the pale sky.
A smile tugged faintly at his mouth.
Maybe there was a future in store for him somewhere. Maybe, after everything, there was a version of his life still ahead of him that didn't end in irons or in the ground.
Theda was kneeling beside him, her hands steady on his chest, her green eyes fixed on his face like she had no intention of looking away from him again.
She was alive. She was safe. Whatever came next, whatever the future held or didn't hold for a man with his past, none of it would ever matter as much as this single fact.
She was here.
And for now, lying in the cold dirt with his ribs aching and his brother kneeling bound in the distance, that was worth more than any future he could have imagined for himself.