“I am the one who has been fighting for your people in your absence.” She held up her arms and waved at the shelter around them. “Welcome to the rebellion.”

Aurora looked to Taven, and then down at the blue uniform he wore. Now she understood. She wanted to demand he tell her everything, but there was something else she had to know first.

“What are you?” she asked Zephyr.

Jinx, whom Aurora had forgotten in the chaos, dropped down then from her place at the top of the ladder. Dust rose at her landing, swirling around her feet in a way too perfect to be natural. Her eyes were on Zephyr as she said, “Water witch.”

Zephyr crossed her arms over her chest in response, cocking her hip casually. “Earth witch.”

They studied each other for a few moments—Jinx with narrowed eyes and Zephyr with a purse of her full lips. Then one after the other, they turned to face Aurora.

It was Jinx who said, “And a princess too. Who knew?”

Jinx’s tone was even, but it was missing the warmth and effervescence with which she always spoke.

“I can explain,” Aurora croaked, her throat still parched from what she was only now realizing had been a dangerous case of rapid dehydration, courtesy of Zephyr’s magic.

But when she opened her mouth to continue, the words dried in her throat. A tingle of foreboding skipped up her spine, and she tilted her head back to look up through the open shelter door at clear sky. She took one breath, then two, then another soul’s consciousness slammed into hers.

Malice curled around her like the tentacles of some monster from the deep. She pushed at the soul’s presence, but the day’s events had weakened her, and by the time she’d shored up her defenses against one intrusion, another was already coming. She gritted her teeth as fury—hot and thick as tar—clogged in her veins. A thirst for vengeance stole across her tongue, and she only had time to say, “Someone close that door!” before the sky ruptured and bled out fire.

There were no sirens, nor Stormling barriers. Beneath her clothes, her crystal necklace burned in warning, but the first flaming embers were already scorching through the sky. At least a dozen slipped through the opening overhead, which no one had been quick enough to close.

All of Aurora’s focus was on enforcing the boundaries around her mind, and she only avoided getting burned because Taven took hold of her elbows and dragged her back into a corner.