She exhaled and twisted in her seat to see if the others had reacted in time. Jyx, Ferro, and Kita were right behind her, close to Pixit’s tail. She thought she saw sparks that could be the others.

She turned back around and peered ahead of them. The outpost should be near . . .

«I see it.»

Mina squinted and tried to wipe the rain from her eyes. Where?

«There.» He circled once, and Mina saw the structures, shadows against the mountain. He flew over the houses, low, skimming above their roofs as the rain pounded down.

He landed beside the buildings, and Mina jumped off his back. Mud splattered. “Neela! Varli! Eione!” She ran to Neela’s house and flung the door open. “Neela?”

No one answered.

The house was empty.

She ran to the next building and pounded on the door. “Hello? Anyone?”

Joining her, her friends shouted at the top of their lungs and thumped on other doors. The rain was falling harder now, slapping the ground, and she heard a sound in the distance like a howl.

She looked west—​the clouds looked as if they’d been twisted around a giant’s finger. They swirled like black cotton candy. Deadly candy. She’d seen pictures of such cloud formations and heard stories.

«Oh no. Mina!»

Tornado.

We can’t stay!

“Neela! Eione—”

Maybe they’d escaped. Maybe—​

Pixit roared, as loud as he had when he’d stopped the fight in the dining hall.

And Mina heard a voice, faint, from beside Neela’s house: “Mina? Pixit!”

“Neela!” Mina ran across the mud toward the voice. She saw a hatch in the ground—​this must be their storm bunker. We found them, she said to Pixit. Tell the others!

“You shouldn’t be here!” Neela cried, climbing out of the hatch.

“We came to evacuate you,” Mina told her, “to bring you back to Alorria, all of you!” Crack​—more thunder. And then another crack, right on its heels.

In a flash of lightning, Mina saw Neela’s face, wonder etched plainly on it. Neela grasped Mina’s hand and squeezed. “You risk yourselves.”

Jyx was just behind Mina. “Not if we leave right now. Come on. You know that bunker won’t keep you safe—​it will flood if the storm is bad enough. And this—​it looks bad. You’ve got to come with us!”

At Neela’s order, men, women, and children began to clamber out of the bunker.

Mina shot a look over her shoulder and felt as if her eyes had failed her. Pixit, please tell me you don’t see what I see.

He looked.

«I could tell you that, but it would be a lie.»

Bearing down on the tiny outpost, only at most a mile beyond, was not one tornado but two. They seemed to be dancing with the sky. Lightning crackled between them.