Under the Same Stars by Libba Bray(132)

He groaned. Not dead. But even in the deepening dark, I could see the blood. He reached for the gun, but I kicked it away. I picked up the branch again and stood over him. He moaned and put up a hand to block the blow. And in that moment, I understood what he meant about letting your prey know that you hold the power. For I held it clenched in my hands and it was terrifying and intoxicating. I wanted to hurt him as he had hurt Oskar and Sophie. As he had hurt Karl and Leon and countless others he never even saw. I wanted to kill him and yet even killing him wouldn’t be enough.

“Hanna. Don’t.” It was Sophie. “Don’t. You can’t take it back.”

It was as if she had stared into the future and undone the weaving I meant to do. All at once, I saw the stars. Not gone. They had only been hiding. Still there, still bright. Herr Jaeger wasn’t going anywhere. But we had a boat to meet and time was precious. Flashlights bounced in the mist rising through the forest. I dropped the branch and reached for Sophie instead.

“We have to get to the boat!” I hooked my arms beneath Sophie and hoisted. She cried out and slipped back to the ground. I shone my beam over her leg. The splintered bone stuck out from the bloody hole in her skin.

“Hanna, I can’t walk.”

“Yes, you can! I’ll help you.”

“No. I can’t. I’ll only slow you down. And the snow will give us away.” Sophie nodded to her blood. It stained the snow like grisly breadcrumbs in a fairy tale. “You have to go, Hanna. Before the ship leaves.”

“Please, please come with me, Sophie. I can’t go on without you. I promised Karl I would protect you and the baby. We can make it.”

“I can’t walk, Hanna.”

“Then I will carry you!”

“All the way to the sea?”

I could not imagine life without her. You understand? I began to cry. Sophie took my hands in hers. “See the world as it is, Hanna. Not as you wish it could be. And when you are safe, make the world as you wish it could be.”

There were flashlights in the forest and shouts. The soldiers coming. The dark, the spreading fog, would slow them. But not for long.

Sophie pointed to Oskar. “Put on his clothes. Disguise yourself.”

Even in her pain, Sophie helped me. While I untied my boots, she unbuttoned his jacket, careful not to look above the collar at his wound, at his blood seeping into the new snow. She only seemed undone when she needed to remove his trousers and discovered that he wore no underpants. I threw off my dress and left it crumpled in the snow. The cold hit my body, sharpening my reflexes. When I put on Oskar’s clothes, I told myself to be grateful for the warmth, not to think about his blood on the collar. Not to think that I was wearing a dead man’s clothes. Not to think.

“Take my papers and Karl’s or they will know the plan,” Sophie said, handing them over.

Night fell like a guillotine blade, hard and all at once. The soldiers were nearly there. Another minute.

“Please, Sophie,” I begged, one last time.

Sophie burbled out a small laugh. “It’s sort of tragically romantic, isn’t it?”

But I knew what it was: It was the truest love I have ever known. Her life for mine.

She kissed my hands. “Go now.”

I had waited too long. The soldiers were nearly there. If I broke for the trees, they would see me. There was only one way. Up. I climbed the Bridegroom’s Oak, clambering into the cover of its limbs. I flattened myself against its massive trunk, grateful for Oskar’s dark jacket and trousers, and watched through a cage of spindly branches and stubborn, brittle leaves.

The soldiers’ flashlights fell first on Oskar, then Herr Jaeger, and finally, Sophie. Two of them raced to the commandant’s side; the tallest soldier aimed his gun at Sophie.

“Where is Hanna Schmidt?”

I held my breath.

“It is the solstice and I am a queen of the forest. I am Skuld. A witch,” Sophie said. “With my magic, I turned her into a hare, quick as the wind. You will never find her now.”

The soldier cocked his gun. “Tell us or I will shoot.”

“We do not have the authority,” one of the other soldiers reminded him. I had never been so thankful for their love of hierarchy.

“I killed Oskar. And I tried to kill Herr Jaeger. It is my fault. I am solely to blame,” Sophie said. Her words tumbled out of her mouth, words that needed to be spent quickly.

Herr Jaeger kept trying to speak but he was not able. He pointed and I held my breath because he was pointing at the tree. The ranking officer misunderstood. He thought Herr Jaeger pointed at Sophie. The soldier was a soldier; he mistook it for an order. The bullet screamed from the gun, a tiny golden bird of terrible speed. That bullet pierced her heart, and a phantom bullet pierced my own. I bit my cheek to keep from crying out.

The soldiers carried Herr Jaeger out of the forest. He was still trying to speak but it was no use. Speech fled; his legs failed him. Then his bowels. I took no satisfaction from this. That would require feeling. And my heart had stopped like the clock brought to Herr Gerber’s shop on that fateful April morning. I heard later that the commandant lingered for a month or so but did not survive his injuries. I did not mourn.

“What should we do?” the youngest soldier asked.

The ranking officer holstered his gun. “They were never here. Take care of the mess.”