From Gallows Pole, Part One:

“Death is forever, you know.”

Sudden wide eyes didn’t make the room any brighter. They hadn’t since the beginning. Her heart did its damndest to dash itself to death on the cage of her ribs.

A fleeting hope for the ramblings of a man asleep was just that: fleeting. The voice had come clear and alert, yet casual. Almost conversational, as if what Emmat was doing at the door was almost incidental.

She dropped her hand. Exhaled.

“Are you planning to murder me, as well, then?”

Even quiet, her words rippled out into the room.

“You traded yourself for your brother’s death,” he said. “You expected one night would be a fair exchange for an eternity?”

It was as if a fist had landed in her gut.

So he doesn’t intend to forget in a few days.

Emmat stood there like a fool, absorbing the darkness, the disaster.

But her hand went back to the latch. Right. Perhaps a mad chase through the countryside would make a fitting end to her stupidity.

“You can run if you like, Red Bird.”

Fists came in pairs, oh yes they did. The second one landed, winding her.

He knows. He knows who I am.

“As of this morning,” he went on. “your brother’s a dead man. At least as far as the sheriff knows. No one’ll be looking for him.”

Emmat swallowed, her eyes hot, prickling.

“Unless I tell them.”