“Look after the littles,” I said, hating that we accepted fae as young as thirteen into the military school. “Keep them away from the buildings. If the fire comes this way,move everyone.”
His nod was firm and full of determination. I gripped his shoulder, squeezing once before I bent space again.
Back and forth, I went through the dormitory, taking each youngling I found to the courtyard. The last three groups I’d found had been unconscious, and I could only carry two at a time.
My magic started waning by the time our warriors arrived, with my friends close behind them. By then, two of the dormitories and our training gym had collapsed. But it was the dormitories engulfed in flames that we couldn’t get into that held my attention and made my gut turn and twist in terror.
I tried. Guardians help me, my friends and I tried to find a way in. We each slipped completely into our primal instincts to hunt for a way that didn’t exist.
Teddy rested a hand on my arm. Although the weight of her hand was light, my knees threatened to buckle under the slight pressure. Her lips pressed together in concern as we watched another building raptured by the unforgiving flames.
“Alastor thinks we can help,” she said, her voice soft.
I shook my head, and that tiny movement made the pain in my head worsen. I blinked a few times to rid myself of the dizziness that overtook me. Still, the black spots remained. “How?”
“We’re going to sit over there,” Alastor said, pointing at a group of trees not too far from where the dormitories still burned. “I don’t know how your people will react to us using our magic, but if you give us a few minutes, we’ll create a path into the buildings so you and your warriors can go in to get the younglings out.”
“Whatever you need,” I said, rubbing a hand over my neck.
It did nothing to soothe that suffocating feeling engulfing me. Who? Who did this? How had it happened? How many young fae lives had been lost? How many more would die? I shook my head, not wanting to think about it, but those thoughts continued to torment me.
I followed Teddy and Alastor to the trees, careful to keep an eye on the burning buildings. The screams that echoed from the worst building were haunting, only made worse when the wailing stopped. My stomach dropped at the silence that followed.
When Teddy peered back at me, pity and sadness evident in her eyes, my heart shredded until it was nothing more than a bloody mess in my chest. “They could still be alive in there.” But even I didn’t believe my words.
Niev wasn’t a small kingdom. But even with a sprawling population of over one hundred thousand, we had only one military school. The barracks housed the entire student body, totaling less than three hundred students. And the majority of those younglings were trapped, scared, and hurting. Or already dead.
We couldn’t lose any more children. We couldn’t.
My chest burned with rage and grief, but with no one to direct it to, all I could do was close my eyes and pray to the gods I didn’t know by name.
“Make sure your people stay back,” Alastor said, his voice cool but edged.
His gaze flickered toward the gathered fae, catching the way many eyed him with open suspicion. One female in particular sneered, malice written across her face.
Alastor smiled, slow, calculated, and unblinking. “Stare harder, and I’ll assume you wish to be ash.”
Teddy tugged his hand, drawing his attention from the female, who flinched at his threat.
“Once you’re in, we can’t be interrupted,” Alastor continued, “or you’ll be trapped. At least, until we clear a path through the buildings.”
I gave him a jerky nod.
I wasn’t sure how he and Teddy could possibly clear a path when the entire building burned with a fire that wouldn’t die. It was as if the fire itself had a spirit forged from the flames that ravished without end.
“Can we put a protective barrier around us?” Teddy asked, casting a worried look around.
More civilians stopped to watch them. An unease built inside me, but it wasn’t the fae who’d attacked today. It was the humans I’d permitted into our home and the people they’d hidden within our borders.
“A protective barrier would keep our magic contained,” Alastor explained.
Teddy sighed. “Okay.”
From his inner pocket of magic, Alastor pulled out a small white porcelain bowl, and when he pricked Teddy’s finger, she held it over the bowl. Once Alastor drew his own blood, they each let three drops of their blood spill into the bowl. Slowly, Alastor began speaking a language I didn’t understand while Teddy repeated those words back to him with slow precision.
A small funnel of smoke whipped around them. The smoke snapped across Teddy’s cheek, carving a small cut over her skin.
Alastor’s eyes opened. Depthless and cold. He didn’t stop chanting. Didn’t blink as he stared past me.
