Winnie turned back to the screen.

  Another massive blast went off near a group of people fleeing down a side street, trying to escape the explosions.

  Several were flung from their feet, surely dead upon landing.

  Others farther away from the initial explosion were caught in the strange blue flames expanding outward from the blast.

  Then Winnie saw what the lieutenant meant.

  As the flames caught up to each of the survivors, they were enveloped then transformed into one of the hideous beasts Kane had summoned during their day-long battle at Fort Brick.

  The beasts then turned on the few remaining survivors.

  Winnie turned away from the carnage.

  “When did this start?” Maria asked.

  “About fifteen minutes ago,” answered one of the techs. “We have to do something, commander. We have to save at least some of them.”

  “It’s too late,” Garraldi said. “By the time we assembled our forces, Baltimore will be gone. Widen the view on that window to show the whole city and you’ll see what I mean.”

  A tech manipulated the magical stream feeding the monitor until the view widened and they were looking down on the city from miles above. The center was already in ruins. Smoke and fire consumed the central districts.

  Winnie could also see the widening circle of blue flame and explosions expanding outward toward the city’s edges. Garraldi was right. The attack would be over in less than thirty minutes. They’d never get there in time.

  Winnie concentrated, focusing her magic to open a new window. Explosions came from Winnie’s window as well, but more muted than the other feeds. “Artos,” she called out. “Can you hear me?”

  The old mender stepped into view and smiled at Winnie. She saw Mr. Gunderson in the background, holding a tactical shotgun, pointed at a position out of view to the left.

  He racked the slide and fired a shot.

  A howl of pain. Gunderson smiled, working the pump to slide another shell into place.

  “Hello, Winnie,” Artos said.

  “Yeah, hello to you, too,” Winnie said. “Let me open a portal to your location and you can join us here. The city is lost; you won’t be able to hold off the beasts.”

  Gunderson fired another two shots then shouted a warning.

  Winnie watched in horror as a scaled creature with a crocodile’s snout hurled itself on top of the butler, knocking him flat.

  “It’s too late for me, my dear,” Artos shouted. He paused to launch a bolt of energy at the creature attacking Mr. Gunderson. The beast heaved once then stilled.

  No sign of Mr. Gunderson.

  Artos turned back to the window. “I’ve done my job. My time is done. Now you must finish it, Winnie.”

  Winnie drew in the energy to open a portal. But another three beasts charged into the room and leapt atop Artos before she could.

  There was a high-pitched scream, then the snarls and growls from a horde of creatures rushing into view.

  The spell was no use. Winnie couldn’t reach Artos in time.

  She closed the window, not wanting to see the creatures eat her old mentor. Artos was the heart of Baltimore. If he was dead, the city was truly lost.

  Victor stood nearby, holding Morgan as she sobbed.

  Winnie turned, looking for Danny. She found him watching the wide-view window, his eyes locked on the western outskirts and the line of blue fire advancing in that direction. Toward his parents.

  “We could try and save them, Danny,” Winnie said.

  He shook his head. “They chose their side. Let them live or die by that decision.”

  Winnie recoiled from the cold words. Danny had never forgiven them for not petitioning Kane to release him, and instead permitting his torture.

  The command room was weeping.

  “Turn off the Baltimore feeds,” Garraldi said. “Shut them all down. It’s all but over now. We don’t need to see anything else.”

  Winnie wasn’t sure what she could say to those assembled, didn’t know how she could bolster their morale in the face of what they’d witnessed.

  The wave of energy struck her.

  Her knees buckled.

  She closed her eyes against the pain.

  But the planet’s shriek of agony was defeating.

  Hands lifted Winnie back to her feet.

  “What’s wrong?” Maria asked.

  Winnie shook her head. It couldn’t be.

  “What is it?” Elaine asked.

  Winnie tried to say the words but couldn’t answer.

  A tiny voice nearby answered for her.

  “It’s the crater,” Seelie said, hovering nearby. No one had noticed her arrival. Tiny tears rolled down the fairy’s cheeks. “It’s been destroyed. My friends are all gone.”

  Winnie finally found the words to speak as she found her feet. “Kane.” She spit the word as if it was cursed. “He’s cutting off our access points to the Fae.”

  She looked around, meeting the eyes of each of her closest friends and allies.

  “He’s found a way to stop us.”

  Chapter 12

  Four hours later, the command team sat at the large, round table looking at the familiar overhead view of the chanter safety camp. The mood at the table reflected the mood across all of Promise Point. Word had spread so fast, Winnie thought the base was wired into the command center during the Baltimore assault.

  Techs opened a surveillance window to the city an hour ago. The bombardment was over, its terrible work completed; Fell creatures now roamed the streets of the city that Winnie called home. Scant survivors were being hunted by nightmarish beasts.

  And there was nothing that any of them could do.

  Some of the Dusters tried to formulate a military response; others advocated for them all to remain on their former timetable. Winnie sat and listened to everyone, still weakened from the crater’s destruction.

  Seelie sat on Winnie’s shoulder, arms wrapped around her neck. The fairy had finally cried herself to sleep. Winnie reached up and stroked her hair while listening to Maria argue her points.

  “The camp is still as it was days ago,” Maria said. “There’s no evidence that Director Kane or General Couch have reinforced it.”

  “Yet,” Garraldi pointed out.

  “Yes, and that’s my primary concern,” Maria continued. “Kane has revealed himself. And now we have a choice: react defensively or go on the attack.”

  “What’s the difference,” Tris said. “It’s still reacting. Isn’t anything we do at this point a reaction to Kane’s moves?”

  “We’re not reacting at all,” Maria argued. “We’re only pushing up the timetable a bit on our original plan.”

  “But we’re not ready,” Tris complained. “I have my techs and a few elites working around the clock to finish charming the transport containers. But we still have a day or more to go before we can finish.”

  “What’s to keep Kane from launching another attack before then?” Elaine asked. “He could be preparing to bomb another city into oblivion as we speak.”

  “I don’t think so,” Victor said. “Kane has taken this long to move because he needs time to create these weapons. I bet he needs another month or two before he can do this again.”

  “That’s an assumption,” Garraldi said. “What are you basing it on?”

  “I know him. Probably better than any of you. Kane isn’t a patient man. Look at the timeline. He used some sort of magically enhanced explosives in the final attack at Fort Brick. At that point, Kane thought he’d killed us all. Why not proceed with his plans and take Baltimore then? Because he couldn’t. Over two months have passed, and now he deploys more magical weapons, using similar tactics on Baltimore that he used at the Brick. I don’t think that’s a coincidence.”

  Everyone at the table started speaking at once, shouting opinions in unison.

  “Stop it!” Winnie slapped her hand on the table, her patience finally snapping.

  Everyone stopped arguing and looked her way.

  Seelie woke up and fluttered into the air, startled.

  “We go. Tonight,” Winnie said.

  “The containers aren’t finished,” Tris said.

  “I’m aware. But we have two reasons to move sooner rather than later.” Winnie stood and circled the table as she spoke. “First, Kane needs to know we’re back and not giving up. He thinks he has a big victory on his hands. We need to show him that we’re victorious, too.”

  Winnie stopped and gazed around the table at her command team.

  “What’s the second reason?” Danny asked.

  “We need more chanters, now more than ever. I can now sense other … let’s call them ‘points of light’ around the country. I didn’t realize they were there before. But now with the crater destroyed, I know what they are: this world’s remaining connections to the Fae. Kane has a way to destroy them with magic from the Fell. We have to gather every man, woman, or child who can wield magic and help us to defend those locations. If we fail, then the good magic will be gone forever.”

  “You make it sound so simple,” Maria said.

  “Simple, maybe,” Winnie said. “Easy, not a chance. That’s why we have to go tonight. Even if we’re not ready, we have to show the remaining cities—rebel and occupied—that we’re back and ready to defend them.”

  Winnie looked at Garraldi and Maria. “How soon can you equip everyone for the mission?”

  They traded a glance, then Maria said, “Two hours, at the most.”

  Winnie nodded. “Good, then we kick off this operation in two hours.”

  Then she turned and left the room.

  Winnie was still dressed for a wedding, now indefinitely postponed.

  Her thoughts turned to Morgan. Winnie was worried.

  Morgan was pregnant, her wedding interrupted before it really began, before learning that her parents were likely dead or transformed into monsters.

  Winnie diverted her path, walking past her door to the room that Victor and Morgan shared down the hall. Winnie rapped on the closed door several times.

  “Come in,” Morgan finally said.

  Winnie opened the door. Morgan was lying on her bed, eyes bloodshot and rimmed red from crying.

  “Hey, sis, just checking on you.”

  “Is the meeting over?” Morgan asked.

  Winnie nodded.

  “What did you decide to do?”

  “We’re assaulting the camp in two hours,” Winnie replied. “You don’t have to come. We have plenty of people to handle logistics.”

  Morgan sat up, swiping a few tears way from her cheeks. “No, I want to be there when we attack. I need to see some of Kane’s people bleed.”

  “This isn’t about revenge, Morgan. It’s about winning a war. We’ll make sure people remember Baltimore, but we have an entire nation to save.”

  “Fine, it’s not revenge,” Morgan said. “But I should still be there. I know the plan and what needs to be done better than any of my assistants.”

  “If that’s what you want, then I won’t try to talk you out of it. We’ll need your talents more than ever. We won’t have enough containers. We’ll have to figure out how many we can carry if we stuff them to capacity, and what that leaves behind. Then we can see if the rest can be returned using portals.”

  “I can do that,” Morgan said, standing up then eyeing her attire. She gripped the skirt of her wedding dress. “I have to change first.”

  “Sorry, Morgan. I can’t imagine how I’d feel if my wedding was interrupted like this. It’s horrible.”

  “I guess it was wishful thinking that Victor and I could hope for a honeymoon,” Morgan said. “Or even a peaceful wedding.”

  “We’ll reschedule the ceremony as soon as we can, I promise.”

  “Don’t make promises you can’t keep, Win. Once we’re all out there and back on the attack, there won’t be time until this is all over, one way or the other.”

  Morgan was right. Victor would be by Winnie’s side from here on out, and she’d be at the front of the fighting. There wouldn’t be another break for a while.

  “I’m sorry,” was all Winnie could say.

  Silence settled into the room, until it was broken by Seelie’s tiny voice.

  “Winnie, Danny’s looking for you. He says you need to come up with something to say to the Dusters before the raid.” The tiny figure flew into the room as she spoke, circling Winnie’s head. “What are you going to say, Winnie? You should—”

  “Now’s not the time,” Winnie said.

  The fairy was making her dizzy.

  “It’s alright, Win,” Morgan said. “I’m fine. I have to get dressed and head down to coordinate preparations anyway.”

  “If you say so.”

  “I promise,” Morgan said, taking Winnie’s hand in hers. “Thank you for coming to check on me.”

  “Of course. It’s what sisters are for.”

  “We’re not, you know. Not really.” Morgan looked Winnie in the eyes.

  “Nonsense, Morgan. You’re the only sister I have. I don’t care if we’re blood-related or not. We’re family. Period.”

  Morgan smiled, small but there nonetheless.

  “I’ll see you downstairs?” Winnie asked.

  “I’m getting changed and going straight there.”

  “Good. Me, too. I’ll see you in a bit.”

  Winnie turned and left the room, shutting the door behind her. Seelie still flitted about near her head, but Winnie ignored her as she entered her room.

  Danny was inside, changing into combat fatigues. He looked up as she came in. “Good,” he said, “Seelie found you.”

  “Yeah, I was checking on Morgan.”

  “How is she?”

  “About as well as can be expected. Ready to take over logistics for the raid.”

  “Is that a good idea?”

  “She’s good at what she does, Danny. We’ll need her to coordinate the evacuation. Besides, I think the distraction will be good for her.”

  Danny shrugged. “If you say so, Win. I know she’s been through a lot today.”

  “We all have. We haven’t talked about your parents at all. They were in the city, too.”

  Danny shook his head and pulled his pistol belt on, buckling it tight about his waist.

  “My parents cut me off a long time ago. They let Kane do terrible things to me.” He spun toward Winnie. She recoiled from the hardness in his eyes. “They got what they deserved.”

  Winnie said nothing.

  Danny grabbed his leather jacket from the hook by the door. “I’ll see you down below. I’ve got to check on my fire teams before the raid.”

  Winnie watched him go. She should have said something, made him see that it was alright to grieve for his parents. Instead, she’d let him leave without comfort. Maybe they’d have time to talk some more before the raid.

  She doffed her dress, then grabbed a pair of jeans, black knee-high boots, and a tank-top. After getting dressed, she grabbed her own short jacket. She didn’t need it against the cold. She could magically resist the weather if she wanted to. She shrugged it on over her shirt anyway, then looked in the mirror.

  The formidable woman staring back at her would’ve been unrecognizable to her eighteen-year-old self, before all this started two years ago. So much had changed since Winnie’s happy days running Charmed.

  Winnie reached up and pulled her hair back into a ponytail. That was then, this was now, and she had a job to do. Despite what she’d told Morgan, Winnie had payback on her mind as well.

  She grabbed Excalibur from its rack by the door, then left to battle Kane.

  Chapter 13

  The dragons flew much faster than Winnie expected, even those pulling the tow ropes with the floating metal containers behind them.

  Wind whistled past her ears as the massive winged beast beneath her flew onward in the moonlight over the wide plains below. Winnie wondered what someone looking up at that moment would say. The hundred or so dragons leading the charge across the sky had to be quite a sight.

  She looked to her left and saw Garraldi and Maria atop a dragon, strapped into a leather harness specially designed for this mission. Morgan had thought of everything, down to the flight goggles everyone wore against the wind battering their faces.

  “This is amazing, Winnie,” Danny called from his perch behind her.

  She reached down and patted the hands at her waist. Winnie was glad he’d been able to see this as the remarkable experience that it was. This was the first time any human had ridden dragons into battle, at least so far as she knew.

  Despite looking so fierce, Winnie’s experience with the dragons had been pleasant. They had been gentle giants around the people at Promise Point. On occasion, she and others had been able to approach them and stroke their warm, scaled hides while the massive beasts basked in the afternoon sun.

  Excalibur was required if Winnie expected any sort of meaningful communication. When she didn’t use the sword to control them, she had a faint awareness of their presence in the distance. She sensed no malice or anger at all, even when they hunted in and around Promise Point. The dragons were perfectly content to live their lives until Winnie called them.

  She’d called the hundred largest of the creatures to carry the riders in the initial assault. Winnie and two hundred hand-picked Dusters would land at the camp and start the attack, neutralizing the guards, soldiers, and Fell beasts.

  The other hundred and fifty dragons would come close behind, dropping the containers they carried at the staging area and joining the battle if needed.

  More troops would arrive once a new portal was opened to Promise Point. These would assume blockade positions on the road leading to camp against the possibility of a counterattack coming from the new army base several miles away. If needed, Winnie would send a few dragons to assist them once the camp was secured.

  The entire operation, including the evacuation of chanter prisoners, would take about an hour. Bullock, Frannie, and Parnell would hold the portals for evacuees who wouldn’t fit within the containers.