Fire.

"Okay," Dania exhaled, bringing her hand to her chest. "Shit. Okay. Jake, mantle up and—"

"No! Dani, don't pull your deck!"

"What?" She stared at his pale face, wide-eyed.

"The deckbearer will get the notification, and he'll know we're awake. He'll be on his guard. I don't know how strong this guy is, but I bet we can take him if we catch him by surprise." He coughed and covered his mouth with his sleeve. "But I think we do need to go."

"Shit, okay, you're right. No cards. But get your gun and your extra ammo. Still got your go-bag packed?"

Jake nodded and turned back toward his room. As he moved, Dania saw the smoke billowing up the natural chimney of the stairs.

Shit, she thought as she let her bedroom door close and turned to get her own stuff ready. This is gonna be rough. Okay, first things first. Clothes, gun. Get safely out of the house. Maybe we can sneak around the yard to the garage and get 8-ball out without being spotted…

Her thoughts continued circling as she pulled a pair of fleece-lined cargo pants over her leggings, changed her tank top out for a sports bra and added a long-sleeved jogging shirt and the heaviest jacket she had in her closet. She donned wool socks and her boots, grabbed her gun and slid her holster onto her belt, and then snatched her own go-bag from the bottom of her closet and slid her arms through the straps to settle it in place on her back.

Okay. Let's do this.

Dania opened her bedroom door again, and though only a little time had passed, the upstairs hallway had become a hellscape of heat. Smoke billowed into her with enough physical force that she reeled backward, coughing.

"Dani?" she heard Jake call out as she doubled over and fought to breathe.

"I'm…coming!" she managed to choke out. The air was marginally cleaner down closer to the floor as the smoke flooded in to fill her bedroom ceiling. She dropped to a crouch and began duck-walking down the hall. "Keep your door closed until I knock!"

Heat battered the exposed skin of her hands, neck, and face. She sucked in little sips of air as she drew closer to the blazing stairwell. She couldn't see actual flames yet, but superheated air flowed up from below, and a roaring sound loud enough to come from a freight train's diesel engine echoed through the small space.

Dania ducked her head and forced her legs and feet to carry her past the mouth of the inferno. As she did, flames erupted from below, reaching out to engulf her in agony so acute her mind couldn't register it at first. For one terrible moment, she felt like her skin might just crisp up and flake off, but her need to get to Jake prodded her on. She lunged, falling forward onto the floor, her hands and feet scrabbling like mad to get away from the flames.

Finally, she reached Jake's door. Her frantic pounding had him opening the door quickly, but not so quick that Machairi couldn't shove him aside.

"It is my purpose to protect you, my deckbearer," Machairi said as he reached down to half-haul Dania over the threshold of the door. "Kindly back the fuck up."

Jake snarled something at Machairi that Dania didn't hear because she was too busy hacking and coughing to try and clear her lungs. She heard the door slam, though, and when she looked up, Jake and Machairi busily worked together to shove what looked like Jake's wet bath towels against the bottom of the door.

"You okay, Dani?" Jake asked when she managed to halfway sit up. He stayed on his knees and scooted across the floor to where she sprawled.

"Yeah," she croaked. Slowly, she gathered her arms and legs underneath herself and pushed herself up to a sitting position. "Just a little crispy. We can't get out that way. I wish you had a balcony like mine with stairs leading down or something. I shoulda gotten you an egress ladder—"

"No need." Jake shook his head and gave her a grim little smile that didn't reach his eyes. "We can jump."

"Jump?" Dania felt her eyebrows—if she still had any, that was—go halfway up her forehead in surprise. She lifted her hand and gingerly touched the tight, hot skin of her face. "Kid, that's gotta be twenty feet!"

"More like eight to ten," he said, walking over to the window. "The ground slopes up on this side of the house. And more importantly, my room is above the kitchen and mudroom… you know, where there are no windows because that's where…"

"The snow drifts!" Dania finished the sentence with him and managed to grin back. "Okay, kid—kids," she corrected herself, glancing at Machairi. "I don't think we've got long, so let's move."

Despite their attempts to block off the door, smoke still seeped in around the edges and pooled along the ceiling, so none of them bothered standing up. They crawled across the room to the wall of windows similar to the one in Dania's room. She had Machairi hit the light switch, so she could see better out of the glass, and squinted until she could see the faint gleam of starlight on snow below.

"All right," she said. "Here goes nothing. Jake, hand me that dumbbell there. Think it will break this window?"

"Probably," Jake said, reaching across himself to grab a twenty-five-pound dumbbell and hand it to Dania. She hefted it in two hands, and then scooted into position: kneeling with her hips perpendicular to the window, holding the weight in two hands by one of its ends. With a deep breath and a prayer sent to whomever might be listening, Dania twisted her body and slammed the weight through the pane of glass.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

It shattered, rippling down into a cascade of deadly shards. Dania let out a yelp and barely had time to drop the weight and cover her head with her arms. A thousand burning lines etched themselves into the uncovered skin of her hands.

"Fuck," she whispered, lifting her head. "That was a terrible idea. Jake, you okay?"

"Yeah," he croaked, coughing. "But we really gotta go, Dani!"

"All right," she said, shaking her arms out away from her body. Tiny shards of glass tinkled as they fell hit other pieces all around her. "I'll go first. You follow, and then Machairi. Watch out for the glass."

Before she could think better of it, Dania crawled forward and kicked the remaining pieces of glass out of the bottom of the window frame. Then she took a deep breath and eased her legs over the edge, then pushed off and dropped into the darkness.

Her stomach flew up into her throat, but she landed softly enough in the drift. For a moment she foundered, unable to stand up in the deep drift. But then common sense reasserted herself and she coordinated her movements to "swim" out to the edge of the drift.

"Dani?"

"I made it, come on, kid, hurry!" She turned and waved Jake on, hoping he could see her in the deep gloom on this side of the house. Clouds obscured the moon, but she could just make out his figure as he followed her example and dropped into the drift. She stepped forward to give him a hand out of the piled snow and then Machairi followed.

"Okay," she whispered once they'd collected themselves and brushed the worst of the snow off. "Let's back up in the trees a little ways. Then we can work our way around to the garage and—"

"Theyyy willl ssseee youuuu."

Hush's voice, close behind her ear, made Dania jump. She swallowed hard, one hand on her chest, and turned to include him in the conversation.

"What do you mean?"

"Theyyy havvve crrreaturrres watchiiing the garrrage. Theyyy willll ssseee youuu ifff youuu emerrrggge frrromm the trrrreees. Thisss isss a trrrap. Theyy arrre herrre forrr youuu."

Fuck. Dania inhaled slowly and closed her eyes. Then she rolled her shoulders and opened them.

"Okay," she said, her voice empty. "Then we fight."

"Waiit. Oneee of the deckbearrrerrrsss isss leaviing sooon, heee ssssaid. Let hiim goo, and fiiight the one who remaaaains."

As much as Dania hated the idea of letting someone go who had helped set fire to her home—attempting to kill her and Jake in the process—she could see the sense in Hush's words.

"Fine," she said. "I want to work our way around and get eyes on these assholes. Can you guide us?"

"Yessss," Hush said. "Beee quiiiiet."

Dania nodded again, even though she wasn't terribly worried about making too much noise. The fire that was beginning to engulf the front exterior of the cabin continued to roar like industrial machinery. Thus far, no one had come to investigate the sound of a twenty-five-pound weight smashing a twelve-foot pane of glass, so they were probably safe. But stealth made sense, under the circumstances.

She ached to pull out her deck and don her mantle. When she wore it, it enhanced her movement and grace and made her prowl nearly as silently as the cat she resembled. But Jake's warning rung in her memory. They couldn't pull their decks until they were ready for the enemy to know they were there.

So why didn't we get a notification when these assholes pulled theirs? Dania wondered. But then she shoved the thought away. She could figure it out later.

When they were safe.

Hush led them back into the trees, and then cut sharply left to lead them around behind the cabin into the thickly wooded section that bordered the open yard. Dania stepped softly, careful to stay in the deepest shadows.

"There," Hush said a few moments later. He'd stopped and beckoned for her to join him next to the massive trunk of a pine. The lower branches of this tree had obviously been trimmed at some time in the past, because there was a gap large enough for the whole group of them to share under its sheltering needles.

Or maybe Hush is out here creating observation posts to watch us… or worse, something else…

She shoved that unhelpful thought away and crouched to get a clearer view. Across the yard, next to the garage, a single vehicle idled with its headlights on. She could barely make out the silhouette of a person in the driver's seat. In front of the car, two men stood side by side, watching the fire that consumed her home.

Dark hair, long. Glasses. Medium build. Expensive wool coat. Dania squinted at the man who stood closest to the car. Three cards hovered in front of his chest, limned in red, a coppery rose gold, and blue iridescence.

The man next to him was shorter, scruffier, and not nearly as well dressed. He slouched with his hands in his pockets and one of those furry hats with the earflaps pulled low over his head. His cards were a less exotic red and tawny brown blend. As Dania watched, a swirl of matching light spiraled around the corner of the garage and into this deckbearer's chest. He touched one of the five cards floating in front of him, and Dania blinked in surprise. For the briefest second, she'd thought that he'd played a Scimitar Cat similar to her own…but this feline was larger, and moved more like a standard lion. It was also bright red and wreathed in flame where its mane should have been.

"Hellcat," Jake breathed in her ear. Dania concentrated, until she, too, could make out the card's information. "Decent attack, and a brutal magical attack. Probably fire, if I had to guess."

"I could take one," Machairi said from right behind Jake. "Easily. Two would be harder. Three will put me back in the deck."

"How many are out there?" Dania asked.

"I ssssawww fourrrr earrrrlierrr. He isss cyyycling them ouut tooo watch forrr youuu."

"Where?"

Hush pointed, and Dania followed the line of his claw to spot a cat at the front and back doors of the house, as well as on either side of the garage.

"Damn. We got lucky those two by the house didn't spot us when we jumped out."

"He wasss chaanging them ouuut," Hush said.

Dania was about to ask another question, but the sound of a car door slamming echoed across the clearing to her. She looked back out to see that the taller man was gone, and the car was busy backing into a three-point turn. The remaining deckbearer lifted a hand as the headlights swept over him, and then flipped his wave into a one-finger salute as the taillights disappeared around the bend.

No love lost there. Interesting.

"Okay," Dania breathed as the man turned around and started walking toward the burning house. "Here's what we're going to do. If he keeps moving this way, I'll get an okay shot at him. Jake, get ready to pull your deck as soon as I fire. Machairi, take out as many of the cats as you can. Hush… can you help keep them off Jake long enough for him to get mantled?"

"I wiillll dooo what I caaan tooo prrrotect youu both."

"Good enough. As soon as I get my shot off, I'll pull my deck and we're in business. This guy may be powerful, but there's four of us, and remember that you're armed, too, Jake. If you've got the shot, take it."

Jake nodded, his face set and looking so terribly, achingly young. Dania shoved that thought away and drew the Beretta. She crouched lower, sighting along its length, and bit her lip.

He's maybe twenty yards away? Doable… but not easy. Okay, Ellis, don't fuck this up.

Her mental voice took on the gruff demeanor of her old firearms instructor, and she almost smiled. Instead, she refocused on her front sight, lined it up center mass, pulled in a breath, let it halfway out…

…and squeezed the trigger.