Aurora wore a thick cloak, but when the night was dark between bolts of skyfire, she could still see the faint glow of her own heart beneath the fabric. It flickered faster, reminding her with every frenzied heartbeat that she was about to go home. She was about to get all the answers she had been desiring and dreading. She was not the same girl she had been last time she stood this close to her home. She’d left powerless with nothing more than hope in her hands, and she’d come back with a storm wrapped around her heart.

The skyfire storm approached from the southwest, and while it was not directly upon the city yet, she could already hear the voices of the remnants carrying on the wind, begging at the city gate for admittance. She ached to go back to them, to do something, but as soon as she turned her head in their direction, Kiran was there. His voice was a low whisper as he said, “There’s no time. We must go now, while there’s a distraction.”

She understood that, understood that Kiran and the rest of the hunters were doing this all for her, and she hadn’t even gathered the courage to tell them why. But she had not realized that once she came home with magic, she could still feel as utterly powerless as before.

She opened her mouth to argue, but it was Duke who stopped her this time. “We can’t fight the storm either, Roar. This is Stormling territory. We would put everyone in greater danger if we tried to interfere.”

For the thousandth time, she wanted to throw back the hood that covered her hair and declare to the world that she was a Stormling, that she was home. That she wanted to make things better.

But just as she had been shaped into something new by the wildlands, Pavan too had changed.

Aurora had done what she could to help in her time among the remnants. Kiran kept scolding her for giving food and supplies away for free rather than trying to barter, arguing it made them stand out too much. But after that display by Casimir, she knew these people had nothing to trade, and even if they did she would not take it from them. Each hour had heaped more guilt upon her shoulders, until she wondered how she could still walk upright. Once they were inside the city, she would tell Kiran the truth. She would tell them all the truth. Even if it meant they all left her behind.

Tonight, she had led them through what remained of Pavan’s famed wheat fields. They were largely scorched or otherwise destroyed by storms, and in the few untouched areas, they clearly had not been tended to in weeks. The land was overgrown with weeds and other plants.