As we get close, I spot the red crown of Amber’s hair. Her chest heaves as she wipes the sweat from her temples. Her jaw’s purple and swollen, but she smiles through the pain when she sees Fleur and me coming.
She tosses her knife to the ground, her face falling as she looks behind us. “Where’s Julio?”
Fleur’s hand tightens around mine. “We thought he was with you,” I say. We were supposed to work in pairs. I told them to stay together.
A cry echoes off the ridge.
Fleur rips out of my grasp and takes off running, with Amber and me tearing at her heels. She rounds the cabin and skids to a stop. Julio’s on his knees beside the well. Blood trickles between his lips and blooms through his torn shirt. He slumps, his eyes rolling back in his head as he falls facedown into a runnel of water.
A third Autumn—one none of us sensed—holds the fire poker in his hand. Amber roars. Fleur flies toward him like an arrow, and the Autumn bolts.
“Stay with Julio!” I shout to Amber as our strides converge. “Don’t let him go!”
Suddenly, she cries out and goes down. I turn to see her crawling, dragging Névé behind her. Before I can get there to stop her, Névé grabs Amber’s knife from the ground and drives it into Amber’s leg.
Amber screams, kicking out hard with her other foot. Névé’s head snaps back and her body goes limp. Her transmitter light flickers, disappearing in the fallen leaves a few feet away. Amber must have kicked it loose. I drop to my knees, scattering leaves as I search for it, but it’s gone dark. The signal’s dead.
I rush to Amber’s side, watching out of the corner of my eye for Fleur. Amber shrieks as I jerk the blade free. I push up the leg of her jeans, the wound bleeding through my fingers as I apply steady pressure, my grip slipping as she fights me to get to Julio. She barks at me to let her go. But she’s no good to him like this. She’s too weak. If she touches him now, we’ll only lose them both.
“Hold still! Let me help you!” She slumps, tears streaming down her face. This is my fault. I should have made Julio take the keys andgo. I believed Lyon when he said we should stay and fight them, but we should have run while we had the chance. Doug’s team hasn’t even shown up yet and we’re already crushed.
I search for Fleur over my shoulder. She’s close, hunched protectively over Julio’s body. She growls as the Autumn hurls a flame at her. I call her name as she goes down, but she grits her teeth and pushes herself back up again. Static crackles in the air. Her furious gaze locks on a high branch. A vine comes alive, snaking down above the Autumn’s head and coiling around his neck. With a quick snap of her wrist, he’s yanked off his feet. Amber and I shield our eyes from the flash.
When we open them, the branch swings empty.
Fleur collapses. I call out her name, torn between staying with Amber and rushing to her side. Fleur lifts her head. Her fingertips creep over the ground toward Julio as pinpricks of light begin to penetrate his skin.
“I’ve got you!” she rasps, catching his hand. Her eyes roll back in her head, their fingers still touching.
Blood roars in my ears. “Fleur, no!” They’re both too weak. They’ll burn each other out.
I drop Amber’s leg and scramble to my feet, tripping facedown on Névé’s lifeless body. Her vacant eyes stare up at me, her blue lips exhaling a thin thread of light.
Take strength from others where you can.
Lyon’s words hurl themselves against the walls of my mind.
...When we wanted more land, more power, more strength, we took it.
They’re going to die.
Fleur, Julio, Amber... all of them. They’re going to die at the safehouseIchose for them. Because I’m not strong enough to save them. All three of them will be in the wind, just like Névé. Just like Hunter. And it’s all my fault.
Did you take him?
Dying magic swirls from Névé’s lips.Winter magic, powerful and familiar. It calls to something inside me. A cold voice inside my head whispers,Take it, Jack.
I lean over her, flashes of the night I first met Chill coming back to me in a rush. Flashes of Gaia drawing the Spring girl’s magic into her lungs after her Termination.
Take strength from others where you can.
I position my mouth over Névé’s. It’s clammy and slack.
Fighting back my revulsion, I inhale deeply, drawing her magic inside me. I feel it spread, crystallizing down my throat, burning my lungs, the cold filling me until I can’t hold any more.
I reel to my feet, gasping for air. My arms are coated in ice. My breath billows white. With every lungful I draw, I smell smoke and death.
Autumn.
