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I must have dozed off again, because when I woke, Leo’s cloak was gone, and the first light of dawn was approaching.

Cal, Simon, and Sigrid still slept, with Cal’s hand reaching toward Sigrid in sleep, and Leo still held me, his chest rising and falling against my back, his large arms wrapped firmly around me.

Sigrid’s undying flame at the center of camp was a soft yellow against the pink sky.

Snap.

My ears perked at the sound as I remembered a noise had woken me.

I eased myself out from Leo’s arms, setting them down gently by his side, before walking to the fire to warm my hands, looking for any sign of movement.

Back home, the woods were full of deer and foxes, sometimes even bears and mountain lions, although the tourism in Gray tended to push apex predators to more remote areas outside the city. Noises were common when camping, most likely animals passing through the brush of the woods. But I hadn’t asked Leo what kind of animals were native to Esmerelda, and I hadn’t asked if there was a possibility of a run-in with stray Deks lingering from a previous invasion.

I grew more alert, stepping away from the fire to peer into the trees surrounding our camp.

Crunch.

I looked for something to use as a weapon, but came up empty before movement caught my eye on the path leading down to the lake.

I paused as a shadow came into view, lingering twenty yards away.

My heartbeat quickened, my mind thinking through my options for defense, while I maintained eye contact with the dark form.

Where one shadow had stood, two more joined, along with a familiar yellow glow.

I took a step back to wake Leo, but when I turned, he was already standing behind me, looking over my shoulder at the shadows, a dagger held in each of his hands.

“Get behind me,” he growled under his breath, his eyes black.

I did as he said, watching all three shadows draw nearer.

Shadows that didn’t belong to animals.

But to humans.

“When I make my move, grab the Mag-Gun from your horse,” he ordered.

I eyed Holly and the other horses across the clearing, still resting, oblivious to our visitors, right as a pop of yellow flew across the sky, straight toward Leo’s head.

Before it could land, darkness from the fading night sky swallowed it whole, the neon color making a sizzling noise as it was snuffed out.

Leo took off toward the shadows at a sprint, his body becoming shadow itself.

I bolted to the horses, shouting for the others to wake up.

When I got to Holly, there was a gun there, strapped at her side—long, sleek, silver with a canister full of yellow liquid—the same weapon Leo and his team had used back at my base.

Leo had been concealing it this entire time.

I grabbed the gun, falling into step with Sigrid, who was now awake and wielding the same weapon of her own.

“Looks like our visitors have Mag-Guns, too,” she said, her voice calm amid the hectic wake-up call.

She aimed her gun toward the path right as Leo re-emerged, dragging an unconscious man by his ponytail with one hand, a silver gun held in the other.

No sign of his daggers.

Sigrid looked at me sternly. “Don’t get shot. One hit from the magma, and you’ll lose a limb, or die.”