She almost did, but just then, words her father had spoken to her when she’d fallen on some sharp stones and ran to him, bloody and hurting, filled her head: “You are strong because you are your mother’s daughter. And my daughter. Because of this, you are as strong as iron.” At the time, she didn’t know whether the pain had abated because of his words or simply because enough time had passed since the injury, but whatever the case, she’d stared down at her bloodstained knees and felt nothing.

Mother needs me, she thought now. I won’t abandon her like Father. “I am as strong as iron.”

Her father’s words echoing through her head, she turned and ran back toward what was left of her home, now a wall of flame. She skidded to a stop, raising an arm against the oppressive heat. Then she took a deep breath, covered her nose and mouth with her shirt, and charged through the door.

The explosion came without warning, a thunderclap of noise that rang in her ears even as the fiery force of it tore her house apart and rendered her airborne, arms flailing. She flew twenty feet away, body bouncing like a doll that had been thrown by an angry child. The breath was punched from her chest. Stars twinkled at her as she stared skyward. But then they started to move, dancing before her very eyes like fireflies. Not fireflies or stars, she realized. Sparks and charred debris flung free by the detonation sailed overhead, most of them bitesize chunks of wood or unidentifiable objects. Something loomed larger, spinning end over end. An entire log, still aflame, picked up by the explosion like it weighed nothing.

Bryony could tell from its trajectory that she was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Still unable to pull more than a wheezing gasp through her throat, Bryony tried to move. Everything hurt, even her teeth, which had clacked together violently when she’d landed. She felt like an invisible hand was pinning her to the ground.

The flaming log spiraled closer.

Come on, she growled, though no words spilled from her lips, just a croaky “Urrr…” Come on come on come on you are iron you are iron you are—

She rolled, the pain excruciating. All the way over she went, face jammed in the mud but then rotating free to look into the sky again where—

The fiery log was upon her now, still too close for comfort so, with another groan of pain and determination, she rolled again.

BOOM!

The log landed with the force of a falling tree, showering her with sparks that nipped at her flesh, sharp burning bursts of pain that she didn’t feel, because they were nothing compared to the pain that erupted from her leg. She screamed, immediately blinded by her own tears.

She writhed and howled, trying to drag her leg free of the pressure and the burn and the endless pain. But she was pinned by the log’s weight, its fire licking at her skin.