There was nowhere to go but forward. I looked back only once, just in time to see the villagers hold their torches to our home and cheer as it caught fire. The entire house was up in flame in moments, scorching the small empire you had built. Everything, our clothes, our letters, and the memory of the long days we had spent confined in the country house were consumed by the flames. “Gone,” Alexi babbled, the fire flickering in his wide eyes. “It’s all gone.” “We will rebuild,” I said, urging him forward. “We will survive. It’s what we’re best at.” We pulled each other through the muck and the
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