Ellery panted as she clutched him tight. “I already have.”
“Then swear it again. And I’ll swear it to you.”
Domenic tried not to count the seconds of her silence.
“I swear it,” she rasped finally. “We’ll survive this together. Just like we’ve survived everything else.”
“We’ll thwart it.” He snaked his arm around her waist and crushed her against him. “We’ll save each other. We’ll save everyone. And I swear, we’ll make our own destiny when this one is through.”
He’d meant their words to steady them both, and indeed, the weight of their future lifted slightly. But the promise was so exorbitant as to have a weight of its own, and soon, there was no restraint from either of them. Ellery hitched her breath as he squeezed her thigh. Her hands roamed under his shirt, and wherever she touched, his magic scorched beneath his skin, so hot he almost swore he could taste smoke.
Then, outside, a siren blared.
XXIVELLERY
WINTER
Instantly, Ellery and Domenic broke apart and scrambled to the door. As soon as Ellery threw it open, they both cringed as the alarm pierced their eardrums. Shouts cried out down the halls. Magicians barreled past, combat boots pounding, wands raised. Ellery wrenched Iskarius from its sheath.
“Are we under attack?” Domenic asked. Even beside him, Ellery could barely hear him over the siren’s blare.
“I don’t know,” she yelled. “Let’s go—”
BOOM!
Somewhere beyond the barracks, sound exploded. The ground shook, and Ellery and Domenic caught themselves against the wall. Then both the siren and the lights cut out, plunging them into blackness.
They hastily lit their wands and bolted after the flood of magicians, careening through the hallways until they burst through an emergency exit. They were greeted by a winterscurge of horrendous proportions. Cold lanced through Ellery’s skin, and although it didn’t harm her, she could still feel its bite. Winds howled, and an oppressive darkness descended upon the compound. The more distant buildings were invisible to her, swallowed by the storm.
This was already a category four. At least.
To their right, fire poured through a warehouse’s windows, engulfing the roof in an inferno that glowed a terrible beacon against the scurge.
She turned to the nearest magician and demanded, “What happened? What building is that?”
“It’s the generator,” squeaked the magician. She rapidly yanked on layers of gear, her pale fingers already violet from the cold. “It’s supposed to be scurgeproof, but as soon as the storm descended, it blew up.” Then she balked as she took in Domenic and Ellery. “Uh, ma’am, sir.”
She stiffened as she stared at Ellery, who was suddenly hyper-aware of her and Domenic’s swollen lips, their mussed clothes. A pink mark bloomed on his neck, scattered amongst his freckles.
“The generator?” Domenic choked. “But they… They couldn’t have…”
Rather than finish, he caught Ellery’s gaze, and she knew they were thinking the same thing: it was no coincidence to attack the one building that would make the entire compound vulnerable. It was strategy.
“What are we supposed to do?” the magician blubbered. “I-I’m just a volunteer. I only just got here, and I…” Her words became gasps. She clutched her training wand to her chest—she was a hedge magician.
Ellery and Domenic didn’t have time to linger, but Ellery said anyway: “We’re here to protect you. You’ll be okay. We’ll make sure of it.”
The woman nodded, but she didn’t meet Ellery’s eyes.
“Listen to me,” Domenic told her. “If you go find the nearest NDC soldiers, they’ll know the protocols, even if you don’t.”
At his voice, strained but steady, her expression changed—fear shifting into hope.
“A-all right.” Her gaze flickered once more to Ellery, then Iskarius. But Ellery shook it off as the woman rushed away. There was no time to dwell.
“I don’t understand. There hasn’t been a scurge in weeks,” Ellery hissed to Domenic. “And the same day we get to the border, there’s an attack?”
“Even if a bunch of ghasts—I don’t know—plannedthis somehow, we fortified the alban network. How did they break through?”
