I stand watching. I don’t need the little voice to tell me how utterly useless I am.

“We have to run!” Toivo yells.

“Not until we have Hannah,” Morgan shouts back before drawing a shimmering shield of air around them using a sigil combining raido and algiz.

Clearly Toivo has learned more than just history from the battle mage handbook as he sends a ball of fire zipping toward the creature. The monster slaps it away with a hand that looks more like a paw. The orb of energy hits a tree and the whole thing turns into a tower of blue flame.

The tingling in my body becomes a sudden burning, a torrent of heat flaming up through my soul and crisping my skin. Involuntary tears leak from my eyes. The trees aren’t the enemy and they’re the ones getting hurt.

“Stop burning the trees.” No one can hear my breathless sobs.

“We can’t help Hannah if we die here,” Aoife yells.

“I have to find her.” Morgan dodges the creature’s claws only to trip over a snarl of burned branches and land on his butt in the snow. His face is flushed and peppered with sweat.

A column of earth shoots out of the ground to his right, stopping the creature from swiping claws through his face.

“I’m almost spent.” Aoife clutches her injured shoulder and blood slicks her fingers.

Toivo carves sigils in the air I don’t recognize. More battle magic, maybe. The wind rushes in a violent whoosh toward him, which he somehow manages to direct toward the monster In a display that’s definitely not basic elementalism where runes can only be used defensively. This is an attack spell.

The wind hits the monster with the force of a high-speed train, knocking it back through the pines. Every tree it hits turns to splinters and I cry out, feeling as if my bones are being shredded.

“Stop hurting the trees!” The scream leaves the taste of copper down the back of my throat.

The others turn toward me as if only now noticing I’m here. “Stop hurting the trees,” I say at a more reasonable volume. “You’re upsetting the forest and the trees aren’t our enemy.”

Toivo gives me a perplexed look as he hauls Morgan to his feet, but at least he doesn’t argue.

“It wasn’t Hannah, was it? She’s not here.” Morgan sounds so utterly broken.

Aoife staggers over to him, leaving a trail of burgundy in the snow.

“We need to go, right now. Back the way we came. Go!” Toivo says, his gaze riveted on the broken branches as if the monster could jump out any moment.