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The children slept during our night on the boat. Finn and I didn’t.
I had no idea how to steer a boat, so it became my job to get the children settled inside the cabin, and watch the shadows on either side of the river, searching for anyone coming to kill us.
I stole a spare blanket from the cabin. There were two beds, but all four children had insisted on piling into one.
The tallest tended to the others well enough that it felt wrong for me to hover. Evie waved goodbye, but the others didn’t even seem to notice as I crept out of the cabin with my pilfered blanket.
I spent the night pacing the deck, searching for signs of approaching death. By the time the sun started to rise, my clothes had changed from a sopping-wet cold mess, to a damp cold mess. But somehow, pacing the deck in
