“He’s moving forward for the fight,” Sammi said. “He must be, because I sense Grace going forward too. It has to be now. We have to go to them now!”

“You’re ready?” Vince asked.

“We’ll soon know,” Sammi said. “Come on!”

There was no doubt which direction they had to take. The initial scatter of gunfire had increased, and the rattle of small arms echoed around the valley. Two more choppers were twisting and diving, venting long bursts of gunfire at enemies unseen. Sammi thought she caught a faint glimpse of a winged thing, but it might have been a shade in her eye, a shadow crossing the stars.

Dastion took the lead, his heavy pike held across his chest. Sammi felt bad for him, because Grace had taken him to the Fold for one thing only. Now he was still helping them save a Kin who had taken bites out of him. She didn’t understand how such madness could have overtaken a creature with so much power.

I only have a little of it, she thought. There’s no saying how much more there is, but maybe I’ll learn, and maybe I’ll have no choice. Maybe it’ll drive me mad too.

The sound of the battle changed. An engine coughed, roared louder and spluttered, and a second helicopter spun down in a crazy spiral, spitting flames from its engine and lashing at the air with its traumatised rotors.

“Everyone down!” Vince shouted, and Sammi realised the plunging shape was far closer than she’d thought. They hit the ground just where silt gave way to grass, and seconds later the stricken aircraft made impact in the woods above them. Trees snapped and shattered with a deafening crunch, then the helicopter exploded, the detonation thumping up through the ground and winding her. A chunk of debris—perhaps a spinning rotor—smashed through the trees above and around them, showering them with fragments of split wood and bark. A wave of heat washed over Sammi and she squeezed her eyes closed, curling into a ball and thinking, I just heard people die.

Every second that passed, every moment between now and her freeing the fairy, might doom more people and Kin to a fiery death.

Screams came from ahead. A shape emerged from the shadows, running at them, and Dastion raised his pike.

Vince caught the dwarf’s arm at the last moment, and Bone skidded to a halt before them.

“We have to get close to Mallian and Grace,” Vince said. “She can help.” He pointed to Sammi, but Bone barely glanced her way.

“They’ve come to capture them,” he said. “The three infected Kin. The army’s no idea how dangerous they are, and they’ve come here to catch them, take them away.”

“Only two now,” Dastion said. “Fer killed one of them.”

Bone’s eyes went wide.

“The werewolf, not Mohserran,” Vince said. “He’s still out there somewhere.”