Kiran’s vision tunneled until he could see little more than the worried and fearful expression on the novie’s face. His world was so narrowed, his mind so focused on the idea of Aurora and Jinx and Sly, and all the things that could have befallen them, that he did not notice when the air changed, when the pressure dropped, and the world went quiet.

It wasn’t until everything burst wide open into color and light and pain that his hunter instincts kicked in and he realized what was happening.

A hole had torn open in the sky and flame rained down in enormous torrents, changing everything in an instant. The first ember hit his forearm, burning through several layers of skin before he batted it away, earning another scorching wound on his hand. The next skated by his face, searing his cheek on its way down.

He could not seem to think in the right order. He should do something about the storm, about the immediate threat, but his mind was caught up over the threat to Aurora. Ransom had to pull the firestorm powder from his utility belt for him and hold it directly in front of his face before Kiran even began to think rationally. He pulled the cork and emptied the powder on his tongue, trying not to think of how many of their resources they had depleted in this one mission alone. That was far from the most important thing right now. The next ember that hit him hurt, but didn’t burn, and that sharpened his focus.

He looked to his left to see that Raquim was already gone, the rope too. No matter; there was no way Kiran was leaving without the rest of his crew.

“Where did they go?”

They followed Bait at a sprint to the vine that Jinx had grown up to the queen’s balcony, but it had already burned down to ash in the ensuing firestorm. Parts of the palace were burning too, and no one seemed to be doing anything to fight the storm.

Kiran thought of the fog storms they’d left scattered around the palace. They might have grown by now to fill even more space, incapacitating even more people. What if they had unknowingly left the palace, and the entire city of Pavan, vulnerable to attack?

That, he knew, was something for which Aurora would never forgive him. So even though it went against his every instinct, even though it physically hurt him not to go after her, he turned and faced the sky instead.

“New plan,” he declared. “We deal with this, then we find our girls.”

Kiran was the only one among them with a firestorm heart, so he pulled that from his belt. But the other two had their own ways of helping.