Kaelin's mind flashed to the slums, to nights when fire from careless Guild skirmishes had leapt from roof to roof. He remembered standing in the alley, choking on smoke, the bodies carried out wrapped in burnt cloth. He had been powerless then, just another face in the crowd of survivors.
But now the cold in his veins surged, no longer shrinking from the heat. It was a tide rising against a burning shore.
Sova moved to Kaelin's side, his staff ready. "This is no brawl in an alley. If you fight, you must fight to win, or you will not leave here breathing."
The fire enforcer's gaze swept over the hall. "I will start with the banners, then the stones, then the bones." She thrust her arm forward, and a wave of flame shot across the hall.
Kaelin reacted without thought, pulling the cold up from deep inside. Frost spread from his palms, meeting the fire in a violent hiss. Steam burst between them, filling the hall with a choking fog.
Through the haze, lightning cracked. The storm enforcer had joined the attack, his bolts cutting through the mist toward Kaelin. He twisted aside, the electricity scorching the stone where he had stood a heartbeat before.
His breath came hard, each inhale pulling the cold tighter into his chest. The circlet in his hand felt alive, its blue stone glowing brighter, as if urging him to draw deeper.
The fire enforcer advanced, her steps slow, deliberate. "You are no heir," she said. "You are kindling."
Kaelin's pulse hammered in his ears. He thought of the vision when he touched the circlet, the woman crowned in ice leading her warriors. She had not flinched before the fire. She had made the storm her ally.
The cold roared through him, and the air around his hands crystallized. "If you want to burn it all," he said, voice low, "you will have to burn me first."
Snow began to fall inside the ruin, each flake catching the glow of the fire as the two forces met.
The battle for the outpost had begun.
...
The hall was chaotic. Fire lashed toward him in sweeping arcs, scorching stone and splintering the ancient pillars. Lightning forked through the haze, striking wherever it found a shadow. Heat and thunder battered the walls until the Aeryn outpost groaned like a dying beast.
Kaelin's arms ached from deflecting blow after blow. Every time he raised frost to block the fire, the storm enforcer's lightning pierced the opening. His lungs burned with every breath of smoke. The cold inside him was strong, but it was being dragged thin, stretched between too many enemies.
Sova fought near the entrance, his staff spinning as he kept the storm enforcer from closing in. The clash of wood against steel echoed, but even Sova's movements were slowing. They were both being pushed toward the edge.
The fire enforcer advanced again. Her steps were steady, her eyes locked on Kaelin with an unshakable hunger to destroy. "Your blood will be the last drop of Aeryn that stains this world," she said, her voice rumbling beneath the crackle of flame.
Her next strike was different. Instead of a single burst of fire, she gathered the heat into a sphere above her head, the light so bright Kaelin had to shield his eyes. The air trembled around it. It was the same type of attack that had once set half the slums ablaze, the kind that consumed everything it touched.
Kaelin's thoughts raced. If he tried to block it with frost alone, the force would crush through. If he dodged, it would still hit the walls, the relics, and Sova.
Something in him pushed back against the fear. It was not a thought, but a memory — the vision he had seen when he first touched the circlet. The woman crowned in ice had stood before an army of fire, and she had raised a shield of frozen walls so high they touched the clouds.
Kaelin closed his eyes for a heartbeat, drawing the cold up from his chest into his arms, into his hands, into every breath. The air snapped, and the temperature dropped so suddenly that the steam in the room turned to frost in midair.
The fire enforcer roared and hurled the blazing sphere forward.
Kaelin thrust his hands up and shouted, the sound ripped from somewhere deep in his soul. The ground shook as ice surged from the floor, slabs of it locking together in jagged lines until a towering wall of frozen blue stood between him and the fire. The sphere struck it with an earth-shaking crash.
The ice screamed as it cracked, the heat pouring over it, but it held. Shards burst into the air, glittering in the firelight, and the flames guttered against the cold.
Kaelin did not wait. He pushed forward, letting the wall open just enough for him to step through. His right hand formed a spear of ice, its edges catching the light. The fire enforcer tried to summon another wave, but she was too slow. Kaelin's strike drove into her chestplate, shattering it with a burst of frost. She staggered back, gasping, her flames flickering out.
Sova's staff cracked against the storm enforcer's jaw at the same moment, sending him sprawling across the rubble.
The hall went still, except for Kaelin's ragged breathing. His hands trembled, his vision swimming. He had won, but the effort had drained him almost to collapse. The cold inside him still swirled, but it felt heavier now, almost unwilling to settle.
Sova stepped to his side, his voice low. "You are not ready for the power you are calling. But you will have to be... soon."
Kaelin looked down at the fallen enforcers, then at the cracked ice wall still standing between the ruins and the fire's path. He felt no triumph, only the faint, dangerous pull of the cold urging him to reach deeper next time.
And in his heart, he knew he would.