It should not worry her that no barrier had been thrown up to guard against the storm yet. What did she care for Cassius Locke? She meant to bring him to justice in the end. But time and again over the last week, no matter how many times a storm broke through, it had never been long before she felt his icy barriers go up, before his fighting gave her a much-needed reprieve.

But there was no barrier now. Nothing to stop whatever storm this violent soul controlled, and she feared what they would find if, no, when they made it outside the palace. They hastily crossed through the Hall of the Ancestors and the servant’s hall, but when they swung the next door open, Jinx slammed the door before the thick cloud on the other side could leech inside.

“Fog,” Sly was the first to supply. They all knew it was part of the infiltration’s plan. But none of them had the supplies to walk through it unharmed, as they were all supposed to be out of harm’s way.

Aurora did not have time for this. They still had to get back to her mother. This task had seemed so … well, not simple, but direct when they had begun. But the problems just kept unspooling further and further until she lost all sense of the thread.

She had to stay focused. She said, “We either need to find a way to neutralize the fog, or we need an alternate route.” The fog outside the door was collected magic, and thus had no soul for her to influence. She turned to her fellow hunters. “Either of you happen to have any fog Stormheart on you?” They both shook their heads.

Sly reached for something on her belt and slid it free. She held out her palm, revealing a gray cylindrical stone.

“Wind?” Aurora asked.

“If we can’t negate it, we move it,” Sly said.

“And do you have wind magic on hand?”

“No, but you do.”

Aurora’s eyes skipped to Nova, who looked too exhausted to have caught the hunter’s meaning. And even if she had, Aurora could hardly insist on holding back secrets from her friend, not after all she had been through. If there was a way her abilities could get them through this, she would do it.

She held out a hand, and Sly slapped the Stormheart against her palm. As always, she did not feel the call other Stormlings felt. She could sense no connection to the defeated storm it came from, nor would it enable her to channel the natural magic that other Stormlings manifested as children. Those gifts had never come for her. But she knew now that did not mean she could not utilize it for magic of a different kind.