Many smaller shapes ran, scampered, and fell before the rising flames and were swallowed up. Vince could no longer tell the difference between Kin and human.

“When will it stop?” he asked.

“Maybe she’s burning the whole world,” Angela said. Still nursed in Dastion’s strong arms, she rested her head against his chest and watched.

“Not quite,” Sammi said. “Even she doesn’t have that much power.”

“Look,” Bone said, pointing downhill. “Look!”

“Oh, no,” Vince said, because the shape rushing at them between the trees was unmistakable. Its limbs were thin, its movements jerky but strong, and even with the light and fire filling the valley he could see the glimmering yellow spark of its eyes.

“That’s my father,” Bone said, and he did not hesitate. Without pause, and without once looking back, he left Sammi’s protection and dashed downhill, dodging between trees and heading directly for the Kovo-infected Mohserran.

Vince tensed to go after him, unsure whether he was going to hold him back or help him grapple with the selkie and bring it down. But Angela somehow reached out and grasped his arm, despite her injuries, and her eyes bore into his. Don’t leave me ever again, they said.

He watched Bone sprinting downhill. Now fully exposed to the waves of heat rolling up the hillside, his clothes began to singe and smoke, and he waved his hands at his head as if his hair was already aflame.

“He’ll expect us to go with him,” Vince said, feeling a terrible shame at leaving the man to tackle the infected Kin on his own.

“No, he won’t,” Sammi said. “He didn’t look back even once. This is what he came here for.”

Bone shimmered in his vision, and for a moment Vince thought it was heat haze. Then he realised that he had truly found himself. As Mohserran saw him and ran at him, Bone became sleek, slipping between trees as he darted past the Kin and sprinted downhill.

For a second Mohserran stood rooted to the spot, glancing left and right as if trying to catch something from the corner of its eye. Then Bone appeared again down the slope and closer to the flames.

That was the last Vince saw of them. Bone the son, running towards flesh-searing fire. Mohserran the father, changed and made monstrous, chasing him as the conflagration grew in strength and violence.

Flames boiled and rolled, rising up the hillside like glaring water refilling the emptied reservoir. Sammi kept them sheltered from the effects, but around them leaves shrivelled on branches, bark was singed, and grass withered and died. Even beyond the scope of the flames, the effects of Grace’s furious return to the world were being felt.