Thanus89

It was early that morning, and Kiromir and I woke in a tangle of limbs and blankets. We didn’t have the energy to repeat the hours before but having him there was enough. So we didn’t have to start getting fancy.

I ran my hands through my hair. “I’m going to find them today.”

“Just do your best.” Kiromir’s hand moved to mine and squeezed. He gave me a lick of his fire.

“I think if we get them back… I’ll…” Kiromir pushed his face up against mine and went quiet. I cut him off.

“Shh. You’ll do what you want when you want to. I’ll wait, even if we have to stave it off.” I don’t know why he felt such pressure. What was I going to do, leave him? Hah!

He gave me a parting kiss and jumped up to get ready. Then, I rose, showered again, and in the twilight morning hours met my group to find Rehn already waiting there for me—surly but willing.

I rested my hand on his shoulder. “Any more reservations?”

“Nah. Let’s go find the kids.” He didn’t meet my eyes, but pride was hard to set aside.

We locked hands with a goal in mind, starting with the sentinels that day, then the barracks, and then back to the Songbirds. We could technically have one more stop, but I wasn’t going to chance anything.

We arrived in the barren fields. The hollow shells of campers lay split and burned from the inside out. Collapsed tents flapped limply in the breeze, and in the distance, rows of houses, once kitschy and quaint, lay in ruins.

“Kah!” Balester said. Kah was very applicable, our swear that meant ‘what’s left after the fire.’ It meant cinders, ashes, dashed hopes, and dreams, far more severe than poop or sex words, which were just funny. Instead, this had meaning. The worst swears always did.

I wandered across the flat expanse with my team at my back. The grass crunched underfoot, and grey skies threatened rain above. We walked to where Kiromir’s camper had been and stared at its burned-out form. A crooked parking post stood right before it, and I had an idea. “Anyone have paper and a pen?”

Everyone rummaged in their pockets until someone found an old punch card from a car wash place and an almost dried-out pen. I hastily scribbled on it a single silhouette of a songbird and slid it into my wristband to get my ault over it. I tucked it between the sign and the post. Then, thinking better of it, I pulled a feather from my hair and tucked it in. The feather would only last a day or two without enough of our mana around. They burned to self-contained ash when there wasn’t enough around to sustain it.

The desolate area made Kahera tear up. “I had family here.”

Lerrin patted his shoulder consolingly. I had known that same grief and comfort these past few days.

We wandered the grass and stepped over the ash of fires and our burned kind. I wondered who the sentinels were without magic, without wings. This annual excursion they’d been taken from would have surely broken their spirits. They were so broken already, and my heart ached for them in ways I couldn’t understand. They were so weak.

Senson sniffed at the air. “This doesn’t even feel like Wildling lands anymore.”

I nodded. “It hasn’t in a while.”

I’d left my mark and fought sadness at everything around me. “We wanna salvage anything?”

Collectively we shook our heads, then took our hands and left.

We went to the Barracks next. I knew what to expect, but then again… It hurt just looking around and seeing the destruction around us. The little paradise we’d worked to make for ourselves had been reduced to just Kah.

“They got here too,” I said as I broke from the formation and walked across the lawn.

“My home…” Nodak breathed softly. Krell teared up. I felt so vulnerable that I was shaking, and Kahera patted my shoulder consolingly.

I almost started to cry when I lifted my head sharply. I smelled ault.

“Anyone smell that?” I turned in circles, narrowing my eyes.

“Smells like… Salt, sand…roses.” I knew parts of those scents.

Kiromir… No… Family but not Kiromir…

Kahera’s lip curled. “Smells like rose cough syrup.”

Bingo.

I hadn’t smelled that particular ault in years.

I didn’t want to jump the gun. I didn’t want to assume, but I had to know. “Let’s get to Rev’s. I think I smell something.”

They bolstered up behind me, and we ran full force the mile and a half to Revik’s old office. Curious onlookers watched our ragtag group run through. Of course, they never got to see us decked out in war gear—lucky them. As we got up to the office, my heart twisted in my fucking chest. A car sat behind Revik’s, something new and fancy. The scent of Roses, salt, and sand permeated the area, almost intentionally so. Amid the scents wafted the smell of winter steel and, if I wasn’t mistaken, an old grill.

The kids.

Revik.