Free Away From the Sun by Jason D. Morrow Page A

dead. You can kick us out all you want, but to Shadowface, you are responsible for us getting away. If you turn us over to him, then you are with him forever.”
    “I’m starting to wonder if that’s such a bad thing,” Stephen smirks. “Endless supply of food, weapons. Protection to the highest degree.”
    Jeremiah laughs loudly, shaking his head. “All in exchange for complete allegiance to Shadowface. Do you think Shadowface won’t one day call up these allegiances? Of course he will. And you will answer to him, or you will die.”
    “Well, what am I supposed to do?” Stephen asks. “I can’t command my people to fight them, but I can’t turn away. Either way, we’re dead.”
    “Maybe not,” I say. “What if we could get help?”
    Heads turn to me, waiting for the solution that I’ve come up with in my head. I don’t know if it would work, and part of me just knows it isn’t right. My eyes look to Lydia. She clenches her jaw, and after a moment she starts to shake her head violently.  
    “No,” she says. “No! No!”
    “Crestwood will help us,” I say.  
    Jeremiah gives me a confused glance. “That’s Paxton, right? He’s allied to Shadowface.”
    “I’m not going to allow it!” Lydia snaps, standing now. She points her finger at me from across the table. “You’ve wanted to come in and ruin my life ever since you got here!”
    “What is it?” Jeremiah asks.  
    Lydia drops to the chair and slumps low, tears falling down her cheeks.  
    “I used to live in Crestwood,” I say. I try to ignore Lydia, but it is difficult. “I was kicked out, but before I left, Paxton said he would let me come back and stay if I found any information about his daughter who he hasn’t seen in four years. Well, I never found his daughter, but his granddaughter, Evie, lives here in Elkhorn.”
    Eyes brighten all around the table.  
    “Blood relative,” Jeremiah mouths.  
    “I just think I could go there,” I say, “not to give Evie up, but to let Paxton know that she’s in danger because of Shadowface. I can tell him that Shadowface is going to attack us. I think he’d have men here in a heartbeat.”
    Stephen shakes his head. “I’m not giving up one of my people to help your little operation.”
    “It wouldn’t be giving her up,” I repeat.  
    “What if he decides to take her by force?” Lydia bursts. “What if he decides to contact Shadowface and come in with him to take Evie away from me? Then you’ve accomplished nothing! In fact, you will have doubled our enemy’s size.”
    “Gabe,” I say, “you know Paxton better than any of us. What do you think?”
    “I think for the most part,” Gabe says slowly, “Paxton is a good man. I think he wants what’s best for his people. But you’ve seen it, Remi. He won’t easily oppose Shadowface. So far he’s done nothing but listen to him.”
    “But he hasn’t had anyone tell him that he should oppose Shadowface,” I say.  
    Gabe just shrugs. “I don’t know what to tell you.”
    “Well,” Stephen says, “it doesn’t really matter because I’m not going to let you do that.” He nods at Jeremiah. “You said you can get us weapons?”
    Jeremiah looks at Ashley and Mitch who nod at him. “Yes,” Jeremiah says. “We can. But I think you should reconsider Remi’s idea. You could use more men.”
    “Shadowface doesn’t know Elkhorn like we do,” Stephen says. “We have home field advantage.”
    Jeremiah looks from Stephen and then to me as if I’m the only one on his team. “Home field advantage won’t matter when Shadowface gets here.”  

    Gabe and I are alone in the room when the meeting is over, but the two of us haven’t moved. Though the chairs are empty, it still feels like we have to whisper in case the others are listening to us.  
    “I thought your power was amazing,” he says after a minute of silence. “But it seems pretty useless with a fight coming.”
    “Thanks for the vote of confidence,” I