The beast's grip tightened on Hina's wrist as it pulled her towards its gaping mouth. Its teeth were sharp and white, and its breath was hot and foul. She was going to die, and this thing was going to eat her. Her thoughts were a jumble of fear and pain—and anger.

Her vision flashed red and white. How dare it. No. Not now, not like this.

A hint of a twisted shape came to her mind, unbidden. Hina reached out for them, solidifying the wicked angles and sharp lines into something that felt tangible. The light working. The thought flickered into her mind that the conditions weren’t right, that it was a risk to try.

She ignored the thought, and shoved a thread of power from her diminished well towards the symbol, and it connected with the writhing pulse of turning, twisting lines. She scrunched her eyes up, but the sudden flash of light burned even through her eyelids.

The huld roared in pain. It turned away from the light, but its grip on Hina didn't loosen. It clamped down more tightly on her wrist, sending new waves of fire through her injured arm.

Hina screamed, and the connection in her mind flared and then snapped, taking the light with it and leaving the memory of fire and an indistinct pain in her mind, a reverberating ache that she didn't have time to think about.

Her right hand held the knife—she didn't know when she'd drawn it, but it was there, her fingers wrapped painfully tight around the oiled hardwood handle. She swung herself forward, sharp pain flaring in her arm as she levered herself against the huld's grip.

She reached out with the knife. Stabbed. A motion that lit up her mind in memory. The point found something hard, something that gave way.

The knife slid home.

Anchored by her blade in the base of the huld's neck, Hina held herself out of reach of its snapping jaws.

It bellowed out a deafening roar of rage and pain. Its grip on her arm was still vise-tight, so she pulled the knife back and stabbed it again, the point finding its way through dense fur and into flesh.

Like an unripe lingfruit, it resisted the blade of her knife before yielding. The blade came to rest against something harder—bone.

Blindly, she stabbed again. The flesh was hard. Harder than Lagi's had been. The bursts of white and red light in Hina's vision grew brighter, and a rush of something intangible flowed into her. Power. Overwhelming power. She took it all, mind slipping into a trace of rage and pain and fear and power. She took until it felt like she was going to explode.

And then it shifted, altered, the sensation draining away, leaving her empty and cold, and her muscles were screaming in pain, her arm a blur of pain and white light. Hina was on the ground. She didn't remember falling. Her hand clutched the knife, and she thrust it over and over again into the huld's body. Her head was full of fading white light. She couldn't see anything other than the huld.

Hands found her shoulder and pulled her back.

"Hina!" Olivia's voice was a harsh whisper. "Hina, stop. Stop!"

"We gotta go!" Kai said.

Hina blinked and looked around. The huld was a huge and indistinct shape, a dark shadow against the dark. It was still. Silent. She looked down at her hand, and saw the knife, black with monstrous blood in her white knuckled grip.

Another body flashed into her mind, gasping breaths under harsh electric light. Hina let go of the knife, and it fell to the ground with a dull thud.

Kai bent down and picked it up. "Ugh." He wiped the blade on the monster's fur and stowed it safely on his belt before he grabbed Hina's arm and pulled her up to her feet. "C'mon."

Bean croaked from his perch on Kai's shoulder. Bean—Hina was overwhelmed with relief that he was okay. He could have been crushed in the scuffle. Anything could have happened to him. The strength drained out of Hina’s legs and she stumbled. Her stomach churned, and she felt like she was going to throw up. She fell to her knees, her hands on the ground. She retched, but nothing came up.

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Olivia was there, lifting Hina's left hand off the ground. She clucked her tongue and dug into her satchel. A cool, wet sensation splashed over Hina's hand and grew colder. The fire in her hand faded, the pain dulled, replaced by a numbness that burned in its own way. With dull, not quite pain that was fearfully close. But her concern felt distant. Hina's head felt light, and her thoughts were flitting everywhere, she couldn’t keep track of them.

Olivia wrapped something around Hina's hand in a series of firm tugs that pulsed through Hina's body. "There, that should do for now."

"Thanks," Hina said, her voice hoarse.

"Can you walk?" Olivia asked.

Hina nodded, and pushed herself up onto her feet. She swayed, and Olivia caught her. "I'm okay," she said. "I can walk."

"Come on—it's not far to the hedge," Olivia said. She took Hina's uninjured arm and led her on.

The hedge rose up high, a looming shadow in the moonlight. It covered the horizon on all sides.

In the distance, flashes of flame shot up into the air over the farm. The screaming had died down except for one voice that shrieked over and over.

And then that voice fell silent.

The night was still, except for the dull roar of distant flames and the rustling of leaves.

A figure moved along the wall, heading in their direction. Another figure joined it.

Light. They needed light now.

Hina felt for the well of power within herself and found it full, but—it hurt to touch it. She reached for it, and drew back in a shock of pain. Her mind ached. "Light. I can't—" she stammered.

Olivia nodded. "I can do it." She raised her right hand, and light bloomed on her fingertip, illuminating the leaves and the thorns in a flash. It cast shadows with clear edges.

She led them along the edge of the hedge, along the corridor of empty space between the hedge and the crops, shining her light into the curves and crevices of the hedge, looking for a path, looking for a way out.

Hina staggered along behind her, her head pounding, Kai's hand heavy on her shoulder.

"Over this way," a voice from behind them whispered.

Two familiar faces lit up in the glow of Olivia’s working.

"He—," Hina started.

"Nearest path is back a ways, next field over," Deyn said. "Follow us. Or don't."

He turned and walked away, Lonnie following after him like a shadow.

Olivia's light dimmed. She guided Hina by the arm after Deyn and Lonnie, Kai keeping watch behind them.

The flames rose high over the farm wall. The roaring grew louder, and the taste of smoke burned the back of Hina's mouth.

Nothing else moved as they followed Deyn and Lonnie across the open field.

Deyn led them into a gap in the hedge.

The shadows twisted as Hina moved forward, leaning on Olivia, following flashes of Lonnie's green dress. Someone held on to Hina's bag from behind.

The path was clear and well maintained, Hina didn't even have to duck as she staggered back and forth along it.

And then they were out. The grass stretched out in front of them. Olivia’s light went out, plunging them into darkness. The forest was to their left, so the city must be— Hina could see it, faint lights in its towers on the edge of the horizon, under a field of stars.

Deyn and Lonnie walked towards the city.

Hina hurried to follow, leaning hard on Olivia's arm.

And then she slowed her pace. What do you say when you've just barely escaped destroying someone's home, when the monsters that were chasing you have killed their whole family?

No, that wasn't fair. She didn't destroy anything. She couldn't be blamed. She didn't do anything. But they might not see it that way.

They had run away. But no one could have expected them to stay and fight when the monsters came. They weren’t soldiers. Not even real practitioners, not yet. But—. The farmers had given them food and shelter. They'd been kind.

Some of the others must have made it out too. Surely most of them had.

Hina looked around. She didn't see anyone else moving through the grass.

They walked for what felt like an hour, until the sounds of burning grew faint, and the smoke was carried away on the breeze. Until Deyn stopped walking, and then after a moment, Lonnie stopped too.

The two of them sat down in the grass, the tops of their heads just barely visible over the leaves. They were still.

As Hina and the others caught up to them Deyn turned. Hina couldn’t meet his eyes. Lonnie stared into the dark, like a puppet with her strings cut.

"Keep walking," Deyn said, his voice thick. "You ain't welcome here."

"Everyone's dead, Deyn. Laura and Hattie and Luke and," Lonnie’s voice went small. She listed names in an endless stream.

"You did this," Deyn said, staring at Hina, Kai, and Olivia. "You did. You all did this."

"No," Kai said. "We didn't—"

"You killed everyone. My whole family. All of them, gone." His voice broke. "Why—why did you do that? Why?"

"Surely some of the others—" Olivia started. "We didn't—it wasn’t us–"

"Everyone is dead," Lonnie continued in her painfully small voice. "Everyone! Everyone."

"We gave you shelter. Food and water and a place to sleep. And you brought beasts to us. Right to us."

"No," said Kai. "No, no."

"Go away! Just go. Get the fuck out of here, you bastards. You destroyed our home."

Hina didn't have any words. Her thoughts were a fog. Her guts twisted. And then she was walking, one foot after the other.

"That's right, go!" Deyn was yelling from behind them. "Go destroy someone else's life. You ungrateful fucking parasites."

Hina walked until she couldn't hear either of them anymore.