At his words, a chill stole through the air, followed by a soft, slithering hiss of sinister intent. The wind grew around them, building to a howling crescendo, and Aurora forced herself up onto her feet. Her legs wobbled painfully beneath her weight, and the rapidly dropping temperature sliced at her bare skin. The wind grew fiercer, tearing at her clothes and hair and bringing tears to her eyes. Above them, the sky was churning, clouds darkening as if they had been beaten and bruised.

Slowly, she began to notice tiny tufts of white caught up in the gusts of wind. She squinted, trying to discern what they were, but after a few moments, she did not need to see. She could feel. The cold kiss of snow touched her forehead, then her cheek, then her bare hand. She blinked, and the scant little flakes became an avalanche.

Bits of snow and ice claimed the wind, turning the furious gusts into reaching arms of piercing cold. The ground around her was covered, and her bare feet felt as if she had walked into a pile of needles.

She sucked in a breath, and the cold burned deep into her lungs. Her eyes and nose too felt like she had stuck her face into a fire instead of a snowstorm. The air around her had been swallowed up by white, and she could barely see more than a few paces in each direction.

She tried to search out the Stormlord, but she could no longer see him in the hazy winter he had created. Her body shook violently, the thin layers of her shirt and pants doing nothing to stop the stabbing pain of the frigid air around her.

Aurora tried to think of what Kiran would do in this situation. She needed to find the storm’s heart or she would never be able to end this. And given enough time, these temperatures would kill her. She was not sure if the Stormlord would interfere before then, but considering his tendency to disappear, she did not plan to rely on him for help.

Find the heart.

How did she find the heart?

She had to either get to the middle of the storm, which was impossible considering the apex of the storm was high in the sky above her, or she needed to trick the heart into coming to her. The hunters did this by convincing the storm that another tempest was nearby with the use of Stormhearts. She did not have one of those. But she had something better.

Closing her eyes, she tried her hardest to shut out the cold and focus on the electric heat of the skyfire storm inside of her. It leaped to her attention as soon as she reached for it, and she let it fill her. For a few moments, it completely drove away the cold.