“Mama! Mama! It worked!”
Jade forced her eyes open. Had she been asleep? “What worked, baby?”
“My prayer. When I asked Jesus to give me a dream.”
Jade waited for her brain to snap to alertness. “What are you talking about?”
“Remember when I prayed that God would tell me which way we’d have to go to get out of the woods? Well, he did. I was just falling asleep, and I remembered. I remembered looking out the window when I was in the car with Auntie … with that mean lady. When we got to the place where the road turned real bumpy, the mountains were behind us. I could see them behind us in the little mirror on the side of my door. I just thought it all of a sudden while I was starting to feel sleepy.”
Jade glanced around to see if there was enough moonlight to make out the mountains from here. If Dez was right, then Jade had been walking the wrong way. The Glenn would be in the opposite direction.
“How long have we been resting here?” she asked, still slightly disoriented.
“Just a minute. I stopped praying, and then I shut my eyes and felt tired. Then all of a sudden, I pictured myself sitting in that car and looking at the mountains behind me.”
Jade still wasn’t sure if they should try to rest a little more. Without any coats or proper shelter, it was probably safest for them to keep moving, and Dez seemed energized from her answered prayer. Jade, on the other hand, wasn’t sure she had the strength.
“I may just need to rest a little more,” she muttered.
Dez squirmed in their shared sweatshirt. “But, Mama, I think if God answered my prayers like that to let us know which way we’ve got to go, then we should follow him and go that way, right?”
Jade sighed. “Yeah, baby. You’re right. Let’s go.” She hated to think about how far they’d headed in the wrong direction and prayed that it wouldn’t take them nearly as long to get back to the highway.
“Wait a minute.” Dez tugged at Jade’s sleeve. “We can’t go yet.”
“Why not, baby?”
“Because God answered my prayer. Don’t you think we better thank him?”
“Yeah, you’re right. You go ahead. You pray, and I’ll listen, and then we’ll start walking.”
A familiar voice from the woods answered, “I’m not sure that’s the best idea.”
Jade jumped up, spilling Dez out of her sweatshirt. She pushed her daughter behind the trunk of the spruce. “How’d you find us?”
Sapphire shrugged. “Your tracks are all over. It only took me this long because you’ve walked yourselves in circles. But I knew my persistence would pay off. God honors the patient, right?” She took a step forward. “Now, about my husband’s daughter.”
“You’re not going to lay a hand on her.” Jade pulled Gabriel’s gun out of her pocket.
Sapphire let out an undignified snort. “You think that will frighten me? You may have turned your back on my husband’s church, but you’re still a child of Morning Glory whether you acknowledge it or not. And you’d never go against me. I’m your pastor’s wife, the first lady of …”
Jade pulled the trigger. The snow muffled the worst of the echo.
From behind the tree, Dez screamed.
“Stay there, baby,” Jade shouted back at her. “Stay right where you are and keep your eyes shut or you’re grounded off the TV for three whole months. You understand me?”
“Yes, Mama.”
Jade’s body was trembling. She ran behind the tree, scooped up her daughter, and ran. She kept Dez’s face covered with her hand until they were far away from Sapphire’s body. When she got too tired, she set Dez down and they raced together toward the mountains.