El’s chattering teeth woke her from her slumber, a cold chill permeating her entire body.

  I’m still alive?

  Her eyes struggled to open, the weight of fatigue and… something else holding them closed. Numb, she moved her hand to her face, her fingers refusing to obey her thoughts, and rubbed the back of her sleeve across her eyes. The usually soft leather of her Firestorm jacket was rough against her skin, but it did the job and freed her eyelids from whatever held them closed.

  El cracked her eyes, but pure white stung her vision, and she winced back, the inviting darkness once again offering her the blanket of its safety. If she took that offer though, something told her she may not wake up again, and she forced her eyes open.

  The painful glare was all around her, and El brought her arm in front of her eyes to block at least a bit of it. The frozen sleeve—that’s why it was so rough on her skin—cut the glare enough El could acclimate her eyes, and she slowly lowered her arm again.

  Snow, lots of snow, surrounded her. She was practically buried in it.

  Eyelashes must’ve been frozen.

  El shifted and put her hands underneath her, pushing herself up to her hands and knees, the heavy snow cascading off her back. Sluggish, chilled body resisting her brain, shaking and numb, she couldn’t stay there, even if it would be easier to just lie back down.

  She’d never been so cold, it wasn’t something people with the Spark dealt with, but the lack of feeling in her fingers and toes couldn’t be good. If she could find another member of the Firestorm, even some groundies, they’d be able to get her back to camp. Somebody there would be able to help her, right?

  El stood on shaky legs; large, heavy flakes of snow still falling all around her. Once she got her bearings, she could…

  Where are the buildings?

  El spun in a slow circle; she had to be seeing things. She’d been in the middle of the town, fighting for her life. But, now, all around her, stood massive trees, each so wide she wouldn’t be able to touch her hands together if she reached around them. Her head tilted back, looking up, up, up through the gently falling snow. She couldn’t even see the tops of the gigantic trees.

  Where the Blaze am I?

  The thick trees spread in every direction, easily spaced wide enough for her to pass through, but which direction would she go? Other than the divot in the snow where she’d been, the white all around her was completely untouched.

  Maybe other Firestorm had flown through there? Flying would sure be easier than walking, and El ignited her wings.

  Tried to ignite her wings.

  Pain exploded across her back, like her shoulders burst from the inside, twisted her spine, and seized her limbs. Her body completely out of her control, she flopped face-first into the snow where she convulsed and twitched as the pain had its way with her. Cold fire seared through her veins. She bit her tongue, and smacked her head off a rock hidden beneath the snow.

  Agonizing seconds stretched while crimson soaked the snow until, all at once, it stopped, and she was left with a vast emptiness in her chest.

  El coughed, spitting blood from her wounded tongue, then gently sobbed as she curled up in the snow. Her whole body hurt like never before, scoured from the inside, but that wasn’t even the worst of it. That gentle warmth that should’ve been in the center of her chest, the energy she’d known since birth, was noticeably absent.

  Had her Spark gone out?

  The tears froze almost immediately on El’s cheeks, and she blinked quickly to keep her eyes from icing over completely again. First her friends, then Nexin… oh Blaze, Nexin… and now this?

  It was too much. Too much. Too much.

  She rocked herself in the snow, shaking her head, and let the tears flow. Maybe it would be better to just let the cold have her. Even if she got up, what could she do without her Spark? Who was left for her? What was left for her?

  Nobody. Nothing.

  What was the point of being Sparkless? Of being worthless?

  El’s eyes snapped open and she stopped rocking. No, that wasn’t fair. It wasn’t even true. Sol was Sparkless, but he’d saved Lilin and Oril. Admittedly, maybe that last one was a mistake, but he’d done it, even without a Spark. He’d walked thousands of miles to warn the capital of the attack. If he hadn’t, would they have found out about the blue newts before it was too late? Probably not.

  He was Sparkless, and he’d made a difference in people’s lives. Even before the attacks started, he’d lived.

  How could she even consider giving up? Nexin had rushed in to protect her, giving his life to save hers against unbeatable odds. Would she insult his memory by letting herself die in the snow like some beaten animal?

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  “No,” she said, and pushed herself to her feet again. Red stained the snow where she’d lain, and she gingerly reached up to touch her head. A wince at the pain, but the bleeding seemed to have stopped. Probably because it was all frozen.

  “I’m not going to give up so easily,” she said. “It doesn’t matter where the Blaze I am.”

  A shiver wracked her body, reminding her that her choices may not mean much, and El brought her numb hands up into her armpits. She’d have to worry about where she was or how she got there later. For now, she needed to get moving. It would help warm her up.

  Picking a direction, El simply started walking. The knee-deep snow resisted every step, but one step became two. Two became ten. Ten became one hundred.

  Snow piled on her shoulders and in the crooks of her arms, but she simply kept trudging forward. The furthest tree became her goal, and as soon as she reached it, she picked the next furthest tree beyond.

  El lost count of her steps, of the trees she used as guideposts, while snow and fatigue weighed heavy on her. Literally, and she gently shook her body to shed some of the white. Snow fell from her head, and she leaned forward to get the rest of it off before standing up again… and stopping.

  Were her eyes playing tricks on her? There, between the trees, was the unmistakable shape of a cabin of some kind, light flickering in the windows. The building wasn’t large, maybe only a single room from the looks of it, but it would protect her from the wind. And that flickering light, could it be…?

  Fire! Heat!

  Her body practically leapt forward on its own, craving something other than the numbing cold that filled her.

  Who could be living out there? Would they help her?

  The questions in her mind didn’t matter, and she plowed through the snow like her life depended on it, right up to the single door. No other tracks marred the snow around her, so the owner had to be inside.

  “Hello?” El called, and knocked on the door with a fist she could barely close. “Hello, can you hear me? I need help!”

  No answer.

  El knocked again. “Please, if anybody is in there, I just need to warm up. I won’t stay long, I promise.”

  Still no response. Was the owner sleeping? Were they even home?

  El glanced down at the doorknob. Now wasn’t the time for propriety, and she reached for the handle. She could barely feel the metal that should’ve been ice-cold on her skin, and her fingers wouldn’t grasp it properly. Using her other hand to cup the doorknob, she leaned her shoulder against the door.

  “Please don’t be locked,” she whispered to the door, and twisted the handle.

  The door opened without a sound, and El toppled into the cabin in a puff of snow and a muffled grunt.

  Thick carpeting broke most of her fall, and the two people in the center of the room didn’t even stir at her entrance.

  “I’m so sorry,” El said, and got up to her knees. “I didn’t know anybody was in…” she trailed off.

  The two people in the room, a woman and a child, weren’t going to answer her.

  They were frozen solid.

  The cold wind whipped through the open door, blowing snow through the room, and El shook her head and twisted from the ice-covered pair to close the door.

  That done, El turned back to get a good look at the room.

  “Nope, this isn’t normal at all,” she said quietly. Between the two frozen people, blue flame danced in a small firepit, the flickering light El had seen from outside. Bereft of heat, the strange flames raised the hair on El’s neck, and she pressed her back up against the door. Maybe she shouldn’t stay there after all.

  Besides the two kneeling by the strange firepit in the center of the room, the only other thing of note in the room was the table in the back corner, a single, leather-bound book sitting open to the first page. A window sat on each wall, even one beside the door, and El peeked out of each as she circled the room toward the table. Nothing but white outside, and some weirdness inside. Really, where the Blaze was she?

  “So, what’ve you got to say?” El asked the book, and leaned over to read the first page.

  If you’re reading this, there’s something you need to know. To understand. I’m here to destroy everything you love. To bring your civilization to ruin.

  And there’s nothing you can do to stop it.

  A shiver ran down El’s spine as she looked at the handwritten scrawl, and it wasn’t from the cold

  Her eyes turned back to the woman and child by the “fire.” A young boy, maybe five? In the middle of a storm? Was it one of the same storms the blue newts came from? And, didn’t Lilin say something about Oril leaving his wife and son behind?

  El reached out to the book to turn the page, but her fingers wouldn’t obey her enough to flip to the next, and a soft crunch from outside snapped her head toward the door.

  There it was again. Why did it sound so familiar?

  El’s eyes widened.

  Because it was the same sound she’d made walking through the snow.

  El quickstepped to the wall and peeked out the window by the door. If there was somebody out there, would they see her tracks? It’d only been a few minutes since she came in, but it was snowing pretty heavily.

  Crunch- crunch.

  There it was again. It sounded like it came from… there!

  A shadow moved between the trees. Wide shoulders, thick frame, and the hilt of a massive sword extending behind his armored helmet.

  The Stormbearer.

  Burn it!

  She needed to get out of there. Now.

  El dashed back to the table and flipped the book closed, her fingers could do that at least, then picked it up and moved to the back window. Only a simple latch kept it closed against the wind, and El fumbled at it with her free hand. All she had to do was lift it, but her fingers just wouldn’t cooperate.

  Crunch-crunch.

  Crunch-crunch.

  Crunch-crunch.

  The footsteps got closer with every beat of her racing heart. Well, at least that was warming her up.

  “C’mon, you burning thing,” El cursed at the latch.

  Crunch-crunch.

  The Stormbearer had to be close.

  El’s shaking hand finally flipped the clasp out of its nook, and the window flew open in the wind, snow slapping El in the face.

  Her body remembered the bone deep cold—it hadn’t left her—and hesitated to leave.

  Crunch.

  The footstep was right outside the door, and El practically threw herself out the window, rolling over the sill and head-first into the snow.

  She jumped to her feet and glanced through the open window, the doorknob across the room starting to turn. El didn’t wait to see who came through that door, stuffing the book securely under her arm, and ran off into the woods. It didn’t matter which direction she was going, as long as she got away from the cabin.

  The snow fell heavy all around her, maybe even heavier than before she’d gone into the cabin, and drifts up to her waist slowed her escape. She avoided them where she could, skirting close to the large trees that blocked the wind, and found a narrow corridor where the snow was only up to the middle of her shins.

  El ran as quickly as she could, more hobbling than anything else, to put distance between her and the cabin.

  Crunch-crunch behind her, and El spun to find the source of the sound while she backstepped. Nothing. Only her own tracks behind her.

  “Just keep running,” she told herself, and turned again to dash off.

  Right into a low-hanging branch.