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Page 362

| gripping the porch rail so hard her knuckles were white. |

| Ashton turned and glared at her. "Save yourself, Sasha," he said flatly. "Save our child!" |

| Sasha nodded. She hurried back inside the house and grabbed blankets from their storage places. She took one last look at her belongings inside the cabin, then fled and began running toward the shine of the river in the distance. |

| Her breath was stolen away when something else grabbed her quick attention. She was no longer just smelling smokeshe was seeing fire! |

| The sight stunned her for a moment, so much that she felt frozen to the ground. Her lips parted in a quiet gasp as she stared with horror at the approaching fire. The wind had picked up again, and the fire moved through the dry summer forest at an appalling ratea cliff of flames moving forward speedily, igniting treetop after treetop. |

| "Ashton!" she cried, turning to yell at him to come with her now, for she feared that if he didn't, he would not have the chance later. Her heart sank, for he had already ridden away to the pasture to warn the others. |

| "Oh, Ashton, please hurry," Sasha sobbed, then with tears blinding her she broke into a run again. She could hear the crackling and popping of the fire in the trees as it made its quick approach. The smoke was thickening, moving like drum rolls of black toward her. As quickly as the red torrent was rushing over the plain and through the forest, she very well understood that no human power could ever restrain it. It was going to burn everything in its |

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