Elshana watched from her balcony as Isidro practiced his magic in the training grounds below. He angrily whipped arrows at their targets, never missing a single bullseye. Even in his rage, his aim was flawless. Vashti paced back and forth behind Elshana, her boots tapping against the marble floor.

“Is it safe to assume that yesterday didn’t go well?” Vashti asked.

“King Tanno is a dick,” Elshana replied without turning around. “But I’m guessing you already know that.”

“When things get dire, I have no doubt that the king will deploy his entire military to fight Kerrim,” Vashti replied.

“But what if it’s too late by then?”

Vashti stopped pacing. “I have no control over the king’s actions. If I did, I can assure you Prince Isidro wouldn’t be taking out his frustration on those poor arrows right now.”

Elshana returned her attention to the training grounds and saw a group of guards approach Isidro. His expression went from sour to distraught as the guards prodded him until he left the training grounds. When Elshana turned around, she saw that four guards were standing in the doorway.

“Elshana Devere,” one of them said, “by order of his highness King Tanno, you are hereby evicted from this estate and are forbidden from reentering this property at any time.”

“What?” Elshana seethed. “The king can’t just kick me out.”

“Unfortunately, he can,” muttered Vashti.

Elshana didn’t get the chance to say goodbye to her comfy bed or spacious bathtub as she was led out of her bedchamber to the front lawn of the estate. Isidro and Mazidi were there too. Vashti was the only one to willingly leave the estate. The gates slammed shut with a reverberating clang! The group stood in shock, none of them able to believe what had just happened.

Mazidi placed a hand on Isidro’s shoulder. “We will get through this.”

“Maybe you guys will, but what about me?” Isidro asked, his despair palpable. “My home, my crown, my future…how could my father do this to me?”

“It will be nightfall soon,” Vashti said at last. “We need to find some sort of shelter.”

“If we travel through the night, we may be able to reach Cinder City by the morning,” Elshana suggested. “Once we’re there, we can find a place to rest and figure out where to go from there.”

Vashti nodded. “That’s not a bad idea.”

“I may be old, but I think I can make the trek,” Mazidi replied.

Everyone glanced at Isidro, awaiting his reply. He shrugged and said, “Fine. Let’s just go.”

Vashti clasped her hands together. “Do you think you’ll have trouble making it through the forest in your wheel—?”

“I’ll be fine,” Isidro cut in.

“In that case, we’d better get going.” Mazidi stretched her arms above her head. “Vashti, can you make us a light make us a light?”

Vashti cupped her hands together. When she opened them, a small flame sat in her left palm. She couldn’t make it larger because they were in a forest, and the first lesson in light mage school was that trees and fire don’t mix. The flame she produced was just bright enough to illuminate the path in front of them. Seeing into the distance was impossible.

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The group trooped through the forest for a few hours, none of them saying a word to each other. Isidro encountered more than a few protruding branches, and Elshana was impressed by his perseverance and adeptness at getting over the pesky obstacles. Whenever Vashti’s flame came close to him, Elshana saw the sorrow etched on his face. She could only imagine the pain and confusion he was experiencing. He’d just lost everything he ever had. It had to be unbearable.

The trees above them began to shake, and low hoots rumbled all around them. Elshana looked up and saw dozens of eyes staring down at her. It took her a moment to realize what the creatures were, but once she did, she went into panic mode.

It was blood owls.

Blood owls were foul creatures. As the name suggests, their sustenance was the blood of their victims. Every so often, Elshana would hear a report of a weary traveler being sucked dry by a brigade of blood owls. It was unpleasant to think about, but never in a million years did she think she’d be in the exact same situation.

Mazidi was the first to strike. She forged an ice spear and impaled one of the owls in one quick blow. Isidro came next. He had a few arrows on him and he sent them flying toward the owls. As expected, he didn’t miss. Then came Vashti, who scared off the last of the creatures with quick flashes of light.

Feeling useless, Elshana said, “Well that was easy. For you guys, I mean. I would’ve died.”

“I had a great teacher,” Vashti replied.

Mazidi blushed. “Vashti, that’s very sweet.”

Elshana had spoken too soon. Hundreds of blood owls emerged from the trees and attacked them. Vashti, Isidro, and Mazidi were able to hold them off for a few minutes, but there was just too many of them. Elshana tried to get her magic to work, but she couldn’t manage to make even the tiniest of shadows appear.

An owl was inches away from Elshana when something slammed her into the ground. It was Isidro. He was using his body as a shield to protect her. A couple owls embedded themselves into his flesh and he cried out in pain as his blood was sucked through their claws.

“Elshana,” he said, “we need your magic.”

“I can’t—it won’t—” she watched in horror as Isidro’s face grew paler by the second. She held his face in her hands. “Dammit Isidro, it can’t end like this.”

Inches away from her face, he used the last of his strength to whisper, “Then don’t let it.”

“Elshana, listen to me” Mazidi yelled over the chaos. “Remember the flames you extinguished during your Harmony Ceremony. Now relight the candles with things that give you strength.”

Elshana imagined three candles in her mind. If Isidro was willing to suffer an onslaught of blood owls for her, the least she could do was get her magic to work. After a few seconds of intense focus, the first flame lit. Then she remembered Vashti and how she left her job at the estate even though she didn’t have to. The second flame lit. Elshana thought of Mazidi and how she’d sewn her the most beautiful shonjan she’d ever seen. These people—these flames—were all she needed in order to access her magic.

Elshana placed her hands on the ground and pulled shadows from the deepest part of the ground. When she stood up, the shadows gathered behind her, waiting for her command. She took a deep breath and released the shadows onto the owls. Some of them turned to dust, others made it out of the shadows alive. But one thing was clear: the owls were gone.

Elshana wasted no time in celebration. She knelt beside Isidro. He was still awake, and his entire backside was covered in scratches from the owl claws. In his weakest moment, he said, “See? I knew you could do it.”

“The city isn’t far from here,” Vashti said. “I can use heat to stop the worst of the bleeding until we can get him to a medic.”

Mazidi gently pulled Elshana away from Isidro. As Vashti cauterized a few of his wounds, the smell of burnt flesh filled the air. Elshana placed her fingers on her brand and forced herself not to think about the terrible scent. She had to focus on saving Isidro. Nothing else mattered.

Vashti and Elshana propped an unconscious Isidro up in his wheelchair. They pushed him through the remainder of the forest until the outskirts of Cinder City came into view.

“I know where the nearest hospital is,” Elshana said. The memory of her mail route was quite useful. “It’s not the nicest place in the world, but it’s clean enough and the nurses are competent.”

“Blood owl attack,” Elshana explained as she pushed Isidro through the hospital door. “He needs help. Now.”

The group spent an agonizing couple of hours in a waiting room. When the doctor finally came out to update them on Isidro’s condition, Elshana held her breath.

“Give him a couple days and he’ll be fine,” the doctor said. “He’s asleep right now but he should be up soon.”

Elshana smiled. “Thank you.”

When no one was looking, Elshana nabbed some blankets and pillows from a supply closet and led Vashti and Mazidi to the roof of the hospital. “We can camp out here until Isidro is healthy enough to leave,” she said. “After that, we can go to a homeless shelter and figure out what to do about...well, everything really.”

“A homeless shelter?” Vashti asked with a hint of disgust. “You can’t be serious.”

“You got a better idea?” Elshana asked.

When Vashti didn’t answer, Mazidi said, “We’re all frazzled. Why don’t we get some rest and talk about this when we wake up?”

Vashti and Elshana nodded in silent agreement. When Elshana laid down, she expected herself to fall asleep quickly. Instead, she laid awake for what felt like hours. When she could no longer take the feeling of concrete against her back, she stood up and reentered the hospital. Maybe Isidro was awake.

Being careful to dodge the nurses in the hallways, Elshana made her way to Isidro’s recovery room. His green eyes were wide open, and when he saw Elshana, he motioned for her to come closer. His hospital gown did little to cover the fact that he was covered in bandages.

“You saved my life back there,” Elshana said. “I can never repay you for that.”

“You saved my life too, so we’re even,” Isidro replied. He pushed himself up into a sitting position. “Everything I’ve ever had is gone, Elshana. Everything.” He let out a bitter laugh. “Since my father refuses to take Kerrim seriously that means we’ll probably be dead in a few months. So in a way, it doesn’t even matter.”

Elshana sat down beside him. “It does matter.”

“We can’t beat Kerrim on our own.”

“We have to try.”

“We’re just a couple of dumb kids,” Isidro replied. “When Kerrim has his full power, we’ll be obliterated in seconds.”

“Giving up isn’t an option,” Elshana said. “As soon as you’re better, we’ll figure something out.”

“Whatever.”

Elshana sat by Isidro’s bed until he fell asleep. As she made her way back to the roof, she wondered if she even believed her own words. Was there a realistic way they could defeat Kerrim, or was it a pipe dream? Just when she was about to give up hope, she emerged onto the roof and saw Mazidi waiting for her.

“Elshana,” Mazidi said, “I have an idea.”