Natasha turned to Ethan and tried to ignore his stunned look. Instead, she shrugged off the cloak she had been wearing, revealing a sleeveless form-fitting dress. She reached out to him and sent another tremendous jet of flames in his direction. Ethan recoiled at the attack, pressing his back against the stone pillar behind him, but he was a captive target, and the fire washed over him. The Elemental aura protected him, and the fire instead raced around his body and detonated against his shackles and the anchor in the stone that secured him.

Within seconds, the iron restraints softened and were soon dripping off him. The heat flowing out and away from his body protected his skin, and he quickly pushed away from the post. His first instinct was to reach for the sword lying before him, and his second was to search out Sera. Her head was up at the commotion, but she hardly cared about the chaos around her. Natasha was on her feet and tugging at his arm. “We have to go.”

“No,” Ethan resisted. “We can’t leave without my friends.” His eyes turned to Emoyen too, who wasn’t nearly as heartbroken as Sera, and she cried out in agreement with Ethan to free her.

“I can’t burn their shackles without burning them. Unless you think you can cut through iron with your sword, we must leave. I didn’t kill him.”

Ethan looked at her with a puzzled face. He had seen the tremendous power with which she had hurled the prince into the cavern wall but now heard the rattling of rocks as the small cave-in stirred, and Dantell stood from the pile of stones 100 feet away.

“He can’t complete the ceremony without all the Elementals,” Natasha insisted. “If we keep yours away from him, he will have to catch us before he continues.”

She kept pulling on his arm, and Ethan finally allowed himself to be dragged behind her. They jogged across the wide circle and down the steps to the cavern floor. “How did he survive?” Ethan asked.

“As long as he has the water elemental, my fire can’t really harm him.”

“But the impact with the stone?”

Natasha shrugged. “He has the life Elemental. I think that makes him immortal.”

Ethan feared they would never be able to kill him, but he would have to worry about that later. Right now, they had a much bigger problem. As they ran toward the middle of this portion of the cavern, dozens of island warriors stood before them, and more circled in behind them.

Laughter came from behind. “Foolish woman,” the prince said, having climbed back up onto the altar. He was bruised and bloody, but the wounds had no effect and healed quickly. “I would have made you my queen. You would have had all the power in the world. But you throw it all way. And for what? A few more minutes with the man of your dreams?” he laughed. He also saw that Ethan was holding the sword. If the young man died, the Elemental would return to the blade. Then the prince would just need to use it to kill someone else. He looked over at Quisha; the pregnant woman was horrified at the events around her. She wasn’t a heart disciple, but neither was the assassin Ethan had killed.

“Kill them both,” he commanded his men. “And bring me the sword when you are done.”

Natasha and Ethan had stopped running a few moments ago and now stood side by side as they spun around, looking at the mighty warriors closing in on them. Ethan knew he was not skilled enough to fight off Yori, much less 50 island warriors. He looked over at Natasha and saw fire enveloping her hands and climbing halfway up her bare arms. That threat was the only thing keeping the men at bay. The woman let them know the flames weren’t just for show and threw a few concentrated blasts that took out several men. It didn’t look like she had killed them, but the others paused several dozen feet from the pair.

Their hesitation didn’t last long, as one of the men gave off a primal scream and charged. Instantly ten other men screamed as well, and Ethan saw they had barely three seconds before they would each be run through by a dozen different swords. Natasha didn’t look at the men, but spun around to face Ethan, embraced him, and kissed him passionately.

The young man’s heart nearly leaped out of his chest and the explosive kiss, and he hugged her back tightly, determined to appreciate this one last moment of emotion before they were both killed. But death didn’t come. Ethan lost track of time in the arms of the beautiful woman and felt wave after wave of desire pulse through him. At the peak of the power that rushed through them, Ethan felt Natasha start to go limp in his arms, and he lifted her off the ground, clutching at her even more tightly, insisting that this passionate union continue.

Up on the dais, Dantell watched as the couple embraced, and then, just as the first islander was about to run them through, a tremendous ring of fire exploded out from them, tossing the front line of fighters back into the air. This tripped up the attacking men several ranks deep but wasn’t enough to stop them, even if the warriors who took the brunt of that first wave never got up. But the first wave wasn’t the last one. Ring after ring of fire flowed out from the passionate pair, each one seemingly more powerful than the previous.

The prince looked on as his army of mercenaries was decimated, their screams echoing through the cavern as they were burned up and tossed about the chamber like rag dolls. Eventually, the waves of fire became so strong that they reached the base of his platform, and Dantell needed to fight back, summoning billowing clouds of water vapor to weaken the blasts and save the sacrifices still tied to their pillars.

But in the end, those were the only ones in the cavern who survived. When Natasha had spent the last of her energy, Ethan stood holding her in the middle of a sea of charred, dead bodies. The young man hardly noticed the carnage; instead, he cradled Natasha in his arms, their kiss ending when he felt the last bit of energy flow out of her.

“Natasha,” he said breathlessly, “you didn’t have to . . .”

She cut him off with a weak smile. “It would have been nice to love you.” And then her eyes closed.

Ethan’s heart cried out to him, and he echoed that scream with his lungs releasing a peel of anger into the cavern ceiling, reverberating through the whole mountain. With the outburst spent, he gently laid the woman down on the stone floor and noticed for the first time that she had been cradling a large ruby between them. He picked it up, and flame enveloped his hand. With a grim sense of determination, he picked up the sword where he had dropped it and – with fire in HIS eyes now – turned toward the prince, who was still shocked at what he had seen. Natasha had done that without the Elemental inside her. Yes, she had accessed it through Ethan, and she had used the natural elemental, which she had apparently stolen from the place where the prince had put it, but the effort had killed her. She was mortal. How much more powerful could he be once he had the heart Elemental inside him and the limitless life force of the Elemental he already had.

But first, he had to deal with the angry young man who stalked toward him.

Terrance struggled up the backside of the snowy peak. The plan Persephone had outlined an hour ago had sounded crazy, and it wasn’t looking any saner now as he clung desperately to the edge of a cliff, the weight of his armor doing him no favors. A few minutes later, he scrambled up to his destination: a small ledge wrapped around the pinnacle that would lead him back toward the temple. Creeping gently on the slick surface, the paladin slinked around the rocky wall and peered toward the gathered army below him.

Sure enough, he was now up and behind the crowd that guarded the temple’s entrance. They were all looking toward the valley before them with the building to their backs, and with the bright spring sun rising above them, they were unlikely to look up any time soon. Terrance also saw the aqueducts that Persephone had positively identified, one of which stretched out to this high peak and formed a bridge back to the top of the temple.

Heatwaves rose visibly from the black tiled troughs baking in the sun, and Terrance saw the ingenuity of the design that would allow workers to come up here, scoop snow into the conveyors, and have it melt and slide down to the building’s roof, where the water would fill several aquafers. Now the paladin only hoped the hot tiles wouldn’t melt the bottom of his boots.

He looked to his right and saw Persephone ascending her own peak. It was taller and further away, but the former acrobat had made quick work of it. Terrance saw her scooping up snow with her bare hands and dumping it onto the trough she had access to. The ice and snow quickly melted and slid down the chute, cooling it slightly. The paladin agreed with this wisdom and soon dumped a considerable amount of snow into his own aqueduct.

Tentatively, he climbed up the short sidewall of the trough, put one foot down onto the black surface, and instantly slipped on the wet tile and flopped to his back. The ride down was terrifyingly fast, and the still-hot surface below him added an extra element of pain. It was a short ride over a dizzying height, and soon he crashed unceremoniously into the stiff metal grating on the roof. The steel mesh was designed to let water through but prevented birds and other large animals from entering the temple’s water supply. It wasn’t intended to repel fully armed knights, but it withstood the punishment.

Terrance wasn’t prepared for the collision, and the domed roof covered with melting snow didn’t offer him many handholds. He rolled off the grate, clawed desperately at the wet shingles, and then stopped suddenly when a strong hand grabbed him by the wrist. He looked up and squinted at the dark silhouette above him. Persephone’s dark skin was further cast into shadow by the sun behind her, but Terrance knew who it was. As his feet found a few dry shingles to help him gain purchase at the top of his domed roof, he glanced over at where the woman’s aqueduct had taken her. It was a tower over 30 feet away, where she had apparently landed gracefully and then leaped over here to save him from certain death. He shook his head in amazement.

Now that they were both perched safely at the top of the domed spire, they took stock of the rooftop before them. The crowd below in front of the temple was no longer visible at this angle, meaning their movements would now be shielded too. Understanding the purpose of the aqueducts they had just traversed, they knew there must be rooftop access for workers to come out and shovel snow. Sure enough, a door with several raised walkways branching out stood before them.

By sliding down the far side of their tower, Terrance and Persephone landed gently on one of these catwalks and sprinted toward the door. This brought them closer to the front of the temple, and while they still didn’t have an angle to see down to the ledge before the entrance, they could see across the valley to the distant peak where Gerhold and Celaina hid.

They waived emphatically in the right direction and soon saw the motion mirrored across the way. Having successfully signaled their counterparts, Persephone turned to the door and wrenched the handle. It might have been locked, but it snapped open under her strength, and the two invaders crept in quietly.

Celaina saw the motion on the top of the temple and waved back to acknowledge that they were about to enter phase two of the plan. Gerhold’s eyes weren’t as good and needed a verbal update. “I think they are ready for our diversion,” she said.

The two older paladins were perched high up on a ledge in clear view of the front of the temple. They were straight to the east of the entrance, the morning sun having just risen over the range behind them. It would have been difficult for any of the guards below to see them normally, with so much scenery before them to observe and their relative motionlessness, but with the sun behind them, the knights doubted anyone would even look in their direction.

Gerhold hadn’t fired a bow in a while and wasn’t confident he had judged the distance right but was willing to give the shot a try. The goal had been to find a position that put the guards below just within range. Since they were over a hundred feet above their target, that range was much further than usual. It also meant that any return shot would have to fire uphill. Taking careful aim, Gerhold pulled back hard on the string and let an arrow fly into the unsuspecting crowd. It was almost impossible to miss with the men gathered so tightly below, and he hit one of the men in the leg, though, admittedly, not the man he had aimed at.

Either way, the reaction was what they wanted. The man fell to the ground in pain, rolling around and preventing the guards around him from accurately judging the angle of the attack. Gerhold didn’t waste time and put several more arrows to flight. To the men below, it almost appeared that the sun itself was shooting at them, but they quickly reasoned out what was actually happening. A few men lifted their bows in reply but had nothing to aim at, and the desperate shots fell pathetically short.

The supplicant fighters weren’t complete fools and understood the superior positioning of their attackers. They had no way of knowing how many archers there were, but they had been warned that the knights of the Elemental Order might attempt a rescue, and it would be foolish to attack with any less than a dozen. The number of arrows Gerhold sent their way didn’t signal an attacking force of more than ten, but they could be disguising their numbers on purpose.

The open ledge offered no cover, and several of the men retreated to the safety of the temple entrance, but if they all did that, the invading force could easily march across the narrow bridge, and the guards’ superior positioning would be lost. In fact, the relatively few arrows they saw coming in might be a sign that the majority of the attacking force was preparing to race across the narrow ledges once the supplicants were hiding inside.

So, while some took cover inside, more men raced off their ledge and onto the winding path away from the temple to try and root out the attackers. Soon, more fighters emerged from the temple, now carrying tower shields, and stood their ground. Gerhold only had a handful of arrows left but felt they had gotten the reaction they wanted. Soon, the sun would rise higher in the sky, and they wouldn’t be afforded its protection. And, even sooner, two dozen fighters would be swarming their location. It was time to move to a more defensible position.