Wesley dropped his hand back to his side.

Tavia felt the cold absence of his touch.

She wasn’t trying to sound ungrateful, but Tavia had been the one to let Nolan escape and it was her fault he’d been able to come back here and hurt people.

She’d wanted to deal with him herself, like she hadn’t been able to before.

“I’ll let you kill the next one, if you really want,” Wesley said, like a peace offering. “I didn’t realize you’d become so bloodthirsty.”

Tavia rolled her eyes. “Just stop talking and start saving people,” she said.

“Yes,” Bastian said eagerly. “We must help the others.”

Wesley cast a glance to Saxony’s father and nodded.

“We’ll help them,” he said. “You stay here and find shelter.”

Bastian looked offended. “I shall help to protect my people.”

“You shall get yourself killed trying,” Wesley said, in a blustering mimic of Bastian’s voice. “So stay here and stay alive. If you die, your daughter will blame me. So for my sake, try not to get stabbed or shot.”

“Or hit by charms,” Tavia added.

Wesley took his gun back out of the holster, reloading.

“Come on.” He grabbed Tavia’s hand and she felt that old warmth return. “Let’s play heroes.”

20

SAXONY

In the center of the forest where Saxony’s family and her Kin had made their home for decades was a damn tornado.

Saxony didn’t know which of their enemies had conjured it, but she hadn’t exactly been given training on how to quell magical storms.

“Need a hand?” Wesley asked.

Saxony’s teeth gritted under the strain. “I can’t keep it at bay.”

Her hands were held up into the air, creating a force field around the beastly thing, but her entire body shook with the power of it.

Her feet skidded back against the soil as it pushed her away, refusing to bow down to her powers.

“Where are your Spiritcrafters?” Tavia asked.

They were the only ones who had dominion over the weather and nature’s spirit, and Tavia was right to think that if one of the Kingpin’s Spiritcrafters had conjured this, then they’d need a Crafter with the same specialty to stop it.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t in the cards right now.

“People are a little preoccupied,” Saxony said.

Every person in the camp was fighting for their lives, and for all they knew, every Spiritcrafter on their side had already lost theirs. Some kind of acid charm had rained down from the sky on the other side of camp, and by Saxony’s count, at least two dozen people had died from that magic alone.

“Then I suppose it’s up to us,” Tavia said.

Saxony turned away from the tornado to raise an eyebrow at her. “You got a charm in there that can make nature bow to your whim?”