The women of Mount Ruin raised their fists and their voices. Serina didn’t see defeat anymore. She saw defiance.

By the time they retrieved their weapons from the compound and marched en masse down the path to the pier, the sun had risen fully and the boat was nearly upon them. Val handed out the firearms to the women he deemed the best markswomen, including Maris, who stepped forward with the others, her chin held high.

“Thank you,” Serina said. “Thank you for being a part of this.”

Maris’s lips trembled, but her dark eyes held Serina’s gaze steadily. “If I have to kill more people to keep Helena safe, to protect us from Asa, I’ll do it.”

Serina nodded.

Helena pulled Maris to her, tangling her hands in her black curtain of hair, and kissed her. When they separated, Maris’s ivory skin was flushed and her eyes bright.

“I love you,” Helena said.

Maris smiled. “I love you too.”

Maris’s glow reminded Serina to tell the women with firearms to darken their skin so they wouldn’t stand out against the cliff. With all the ash and char, no one would have to go looking for mud.

“All right,” Val said. “Markswomen, take your positions. Everyone on the cliffs.”

Val hefted his own firearm. Serina took a cue from Helena and threw her arms around his neck, pressing her face into the hollow of his throat. When she raised her head, he kissed her, a promise, not a goodbye.

Please, not a goodbye.

“Be safe,” he said softly, and then left to get into position.

Anika handed Serina a homemade blade, this one with a sharp point and ugly serrated edge. “You should be able to do some damage with this,” she said, with an equally pointed smile.

“You seem to welcome violence,” Serina replied. It wasn’t that she envied Anika, exactly, but Serina felt so scared all the time. She wished she could forge ahead without thought, without fear. “How do you keep the fear at bay?”

Anika laughed, but it wasn’t a joyful sound. “I don’t. I’m terrified.”

“But—” Serina started, eyes widening.

“Despite what you may think, I hate fighting,” Anika said. “But violence has saved my life and the lives of my sisters. So I do welcome it. If fighting—killing—keeps me alive, if it gives me the chance to make my life my own, to someday save my family, then I’ll do it with a smile.”

Serina didn’t know what to say. She squeezed Anika’s arm briefly, then headed down the hill.

Her makeshift army halted at the stretch of path where the whirls of lava rock looked like the surface of the moon. She held up a hand, and the women behind her stopped. Then she crept forward to get a better vantage of the pier.