The outpost burned. The stones cracked and expanded, smoke billowing through the openings of the building. The observation tower was a beacon of flame in the dark night, Theo and Gordan screaming in the nest.

Kenneth—his horse panicking without him, galloping off into the wood— screamed Asa's name from within. Lightning crashed, splintering trees and setting them aflame. Yet no rain fell to douse the flames destroying the life Zander had led this past moon.

Zander glanced around, seeking survivors, Aldius, his Sapphire allies, and whatever wizard conjured this rainless storm. The flames cast a glow over their wooded yard. Edrea moaned on the ground, her freckled face battered and bloody. Beside her, Erina was cut from shoulder to waist. Zander recognized the stroke, the same Aldius had used to kill River.

Feeling like his own life had ended, panic briefly seizing the reins from his anger, he sought the bodies scattered on the grounds. Gabor's head had been severed. Emeric lay beside his master, a gaping hole in his neck. No Vernon. No Asa.

Zander felt like he couldn't breathe. He needed to find them. And he needed to find a way to save Gordan and Theo. Their continuous screams echoed between bursts of thunder and trees being sundered and set alight.

Zander was in the first layer of Zamael's Hells, where infernos tortured everyone you had ever loved and you could only watch and await your turn. Well, Zamael wouldn't find him freeze, he wouldn't helplessly stand here while people he loved suffered, while Kenneth braved the flames and smoke. He had to fight.

Clenching his fists, looking to his dead friends and the one still clinging to life, he dashed toward the nearest entrance to the outpost, two words repeating in his mind.

Finish strong.

The flames scalded his skin and singed his hair. Such heat. It threatened to overpower him, to send him crashing to the ground and waiting for the fire to roast him. His armor felt like it weighed a thousand pounds. But he kept pushing. Shielding his face, unable to shout for his friends without swallowing smoke, he pushed through the building. Ancient furnishings burned, wooden supports cracked and split, stones charred and melted. This place would fall, crushing anyone inside of it, at any moment.

But he couldn't leave Asa or Vernon. He had to try and see if there was a way to rescue Theo and Gordan. He moved, squatting low, seeking anything in the smoke.

Something slammed into him, driving him back until he was shoved outside. Zander, catching his footing, threw his attacker aside, sending the form tumbling to the ground. He drew his blade, ready to kill. But it was Kenneth.

Kenneth stumbled to his knees. His eyes brimmed with tears that he barely held in. "She's gone! Vernon's dead!"

Zander's squire roared into the night sky and at once the whole scene was lit by lightning bursts, crashing from above and destroying whole swaths of theccia trees and lighting the rest of them aflame. They'd need to vacate these woods soon if they didn't want to burn with them.

Deafened by the thunder, Zander screamed, cursing that evil, smarmy divinedamned liar. He wanted to march on the Sapphire encampment and demand Aldius's life, killing anyone in his path. Instead, he reached for his locket, hearing Theo and Gordan's shouts, seeing Edrea crinkled on the ground still alive.

"I'm going to check inside the building. Try to find something to get them down," he told Kenneth, gesturing toward the observation tower, the nest giving off smoke as the wood glowed orange.

Kenneth made no sign of hearing, punching the ground and making a strange noise that wasn't quite a sob but more of what you'd expect when a sob was being strangled.

Zander was far less cautious as he crashed through the flames the second time. He shielded himself, counting on the steel plate to keep his skin shielded and holding his breath to keep the smoke from filling his lungs. It still seeped in through his nose, a horrid scent that choked away life. But Zander felt like he'd have no life if he couldn't find Asa or save the other Hometown Heroes.

He could barely hear Gordan and Theo shouting between the bursts of thunder and the din of the inferno. But he battled his way to the ladder, only to find that it had been destroyed and ripped down. The pillars supporting the tower were thick enough that they'd endured this long, but the wood was cracking as the flame spit.

Tears stinging his eyes, Zander surrendered hope that he'd free them from within the outpost.

The ceiling collapsing behind him, he rolled forward, debris falling all around him. Tears stinging his eyes—eyes inflamed by smoke and death—he searched for Asa and Vernon, and for a pathway out of hell.

He pushed through a wall of flame, burning within his heated armor, toward the bunk room. This room had been more preserved than the others, the fire having started on the opposite side of the outpost.

Zander heaved in a breath of air, taking in smoke too, then let out a whimper.

Blood in the bed.

The horn was in his hands still. Vernon's last moment of life had been spent calling for help. Zander couldn't leave him behind. Lifting Vernon's lifeless body, he sought an escape. Gordan. Theo. Asa. They all needed him. He couldn't give up and die.

Finish strong.

The doorway he entered from collapsed and a great chunk of the ceiling. Zander told himself not to panic, but his eyes sought escapes and found none. The ancient windows had been walled in. Zander rammed into one with his shoulder, the whole building seeming to shift but the stones only cracking a little. He slammed again, and again, and again, each more desperate. Another chunk of ceiling fell. Theo and Gordan screaming, the flames seeming to laugh with Aldius's voice, images of blood in the bed, Alexia squealing his name.

Rubble slammed into his back, knocking him down, Vernon spilling from his hands. The whole room was smoke, all-consuming blackness swallowing him whole.

I'm not going to die here. I can't die here.

Zander pushed, toward the sealed window with all his might, straining as smoke filled his lungs. Hacking, heat exhaustion, smoke inhalation, he slipped to his knee, still pushing against those stones.

White light burst, blinding him, thunder deafening as if the world just exploded beside his head, a stone slammed into his head, as if thrown by a giant. He couldn't move, but he was moving.

Blinking his eyes open, he was being dragged through a hole, the flames and smoke chasing him out of the building. Dazed, he found Kenneth's arms.

Zander reached for Vernon, but the hole he'd been dragged through closed as stone collapsed.

"Vernon!" He reached his hands toward the wreckage of his life, tears spilling from his stinging eyes.

"He's gone!" Kenneth boomed.

Zander heaved for air, fire and smoke consuming the outpost and the woods surrounding it, there wasn't much to be found.

"Edrea said that Aldius took Asa! If we go now…"

Kenneth trailed off as Theo and Gordan's screams split the night. The observation tower shook, wooden beams snapping and falling into the flames.

Zander howled their names, but the sound was likely lost in the thunder and the flames. All around him, trees were burning or falling, cracked by a vengeful sky. Paladin and Storm were gone. Zander realized he'd never seen Gabor or Asa's horse since returning.

None of that was important now. He'd chase after Asa, find a way to get him, Kenneth, and Edrea out of Zamael's Hells, but first he needed to finish strong for Gordan and Theo.

"We can't help them," Kenneth said, his voice cracking, as Zander rushed toward the flames. "We can help Asa!"

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Finish strong.

Zander reached deep for whatever strength he could muster from the depths of his fractured soul. A fallen tree had crashed into their burning hideaway, catching fire itself. He lifted it, steel hands bearing the flames as he slid it over to create something to climb up to the second story roof.

"Zander!" Kenneth yelled over the thunder. "We have to go! Asa needs you!"

"You think I don't know that?"

Angry tears trailing down his face, he scaled the burning tree. The flames were hot beneath his steel heels and hands, but he powered through, refusing the pain. For now.

Atop the roof, stone crashed, but he kept his steps light, hoping they held for just one more moment. Leaping through flames, passing through smoke, he made his way toward the tower.

Beneath him, stone cracked and expanded, giving way beneath his feet. He vaulted aside before he went crashing into the flames below. He scrambled over the roof until he reached the highest point of the burning house.

"You need to jump!" Zander yelled up, lightning bursting against a tree just off to the side of them. "I'll catch you!"

Gordan looked down, his eyes reading with certainty that the drop was fatal. Either gravity and ground or flame would be his end. Theo, eyes bawling, leapt without any such analysis.

Zander had to move to the side, pulling the lanky warrior out of the air before he slammed into the roof. Yet, even a man as relatively light as Theo felt much heavier after falling thirty feet. Zander stumbled, the roof surrendering under his feet.

They fell through, rubble raining down on them, into the flames. Loud snaps heralded the breaking of bones. Zander's plate would shield him for a few turns, but Theo screamed as the flames licked him.

Ignoring pain, determined to resist Zamael, Zander fought for life. His arms ached from the catch, the fire kissed him like a vengeful lover, smoke tried to suffocate him, and his legs felt spent from the fall. It didn't matter.

Finish strong.

Zander wrapped Theo tight, trying to shield him from the inferno, but even touching the exterior of Zander's armor was like touching the first layer of Hell. Theo screamed, but Zander saw a path through the wall that had crumbled. He jumped up the rubble, crashing over the wall and landing into the yard.

Forcing himself back up, he lifted Theo over his shoulder and set him beside Edrea. The boy, usually the silliest soul, bursting with eccentric joy, alternated between whimpers and screams of agony.

He would survive. Zander couldn't wonder whether he'd ever hear his friend's laugh again.

Kenneth, so much like Theo, lay rigid on the ground staring blankly up at the dark sky as lightning crackled sideways through the clouds. Zander couldn't wonder about that either. Theo, Kenneth, Edrea, even Asa. He'd die before he gave up on them. But one more person needed him first.

Gordan, the soft-spoken. Gordan, so often a voice of reason and compassion. Gordan, a good man, was trapped in the tower, waiting to die. First River. Then Vernon. Behind him, Theo cried their names. Erina. Gabor. Emeric. Zamael wouldn't take Gordan too.

One of the tower's pillars collapsed—the one that had cracked earlier when Zander slammed Aldius into it. The tower tilted farther to the side, leaning just over the flames kicking up from the roof. Gordan hollered for help, his voice raw and hoarse from screaming.

Zander pushed through the aches in his arms and the miasma in his lungs. He pulled himself up over the tree he'd moved, then raced across the roof as more of it collapsed with each moment. He managed, leaping from section to section.

He held out his arms for Gordan. The leap wasn't as far now as it had been for Theo and Gordan was even lighter. Twenty feet to Zander and another twenty from where he was on the last vestiges of the roof. But the flames were worse now. If they fell through…

Zander had to catch him better. If he jumped.

"Let me go," Gordan cried. "I didn't even see them coming. This is what I deserve for letting his killer live. Leave me, Zander. I'm going to join River. If Leverith will have us."

A second pillar cracked, the tower slipping several more feet to the side. Gordan clung to the rail, the last thing left untouched by fire it seemed in this whole entire world.

Zander remembered a true Leverian hero. Words shared among four men beneath a tree in a field of flowers. He knew what River would want here.

"You have a purpose here, Gordan," Zander shouted, his arms open. "To grow old and wise, to spread love and kindness through the world, to shine the light where he cannot. River loved you, but he wanted you to live. If he were here, he'd tell you to leap. Leap, Gordan, for a true Leverian hero."

Sobbing, Gordan leaned over the railing. Then the observation tower collapsed, plummeting to the flames like a tower of blocks.

Gordan was thrown over the edge, no control over his trajectory, he plummeted toward the ground. Zander raced through flame, leaping off the roof. He intercepted Gordan in midair, shielding him as the roof he leapt from gave out. Zander clasped his arms around Gordan, then hit the ground like a stone flung from a trebuchet.

The air rushed from his lungs, as did the will to move. His back ached like every layer of Zamael's Hells. He was burning, trapped inside this heated steel that would serve as oven if he didn't escape it.

Gordan rolled off Zander. He stumbled to his feet, then staggered back to a knee. "Vernon!" Gordan cried. "Vernon!"

In response, the last stones of their hideaway collapsed. All that remained of their place was a pile of burning stones and ashes nestled in the center of a forest that had been ravaged by the lightning.

His innards cooking, Zander cried for Kenneth. The squire remained catatonic on the ground, staring up at a few stars breaking through the smoke now that the storm had dissipated.

Gordan fought to regain his footing but fell down, coughing. Theo whimpered, body burnt, bones cracked, heart broken. Edrea moaned, crying her sister's name, bloodied and bruised like a little girl victimized by her drunken uncle. Asa was being dragged away, out of reach. Vernon. Blood in the bed.

Zander wasn't done. Until Aldius was dead, Zander couldn't stop fighting. Crying from the flames, from the agony, he pushed once more. Because somebody had to finish strong. And that would always be Melody's son.

Zander gripped the locket. He couldn't leave Alexia with this mess. He couldn't abandon Asa, letting her star burn out. He couldn't leave Alfread to make his shots alone.

He drew strength from the love that connected him to this world. The heat, the pain, the sorrow, they couldn't match this. Zander of Mirrevar would not die, cooked by his own armor, and abandon everyone he loved. He wouldn't abandon himself.

Zander crawled to a fallen tree. Using it for leverage, he willed himself to his feet. Piece by piece, he extricated himself from the protectors turned killers, shedding steel. His skin was already scalded, the pain was blinding. But he kept looking forward. Always. Gordan, Theo, and Edrea needed him before the forest fire killed them. Then he'd rescue Asa and murder Aldius of Lelac. He'd do whatever it took to keep Iceheart from turning his homeland into a battleground. He'd reunite with Alexia, and help her reforge a peace shattered for too long. After they made Leveria safe from monsters within and without, they'd live happily ever after.

But first, he had to free himself of these flames. "Kenneth," he called, hoping the squire could come to his aid. "Kenneth!"

The bastard didn't answer.

"Kenneth! We're going to get Asa. Snap out of it, Thunder."

Kenneth rolled to the side, eyes going wide and alert. "What if she's already inside their encampment? What if Aldius has killed her?"

This hollow in his heart, this dark pit that yearned for destruction, was unlike anything Zander had ever felt. Hate. This is what it felt like to hate. Not even Werner Bearbreaker had awakened this deep of a feeling within Zander. When he found Aldius, there would be no mercy. He would rip him limb from limb and make him suffer the pain of a thousand deaths as he was erased from this world. The same went for anyone who aided him. They would all die and be thrown into the deepest layers of Zamael's Hells.

Hatred could power a person in a way that mere anger couldn't. The forest burned around them beneath a moonlit sky. The flames spread wide, and would devour thousands of trees before they exhausted their strength. Mirrevar's flowers, once a panoply of a thousand vibrant hues in this paradise, withered in the heat, all fading to black.

"I don't care if we need to cross the world, climb the highest hills, and fight armies," Zander said. "We will destroy Aldius and all who try to stop us from saving Asa."

He turned to Theo and Gordan, hoping they saw Aldius and Asa from the observation tower. "Which way did they go?"

"We didn't see them coming," Theo howled.

"He killed River, and we trusted him," Gordan said viciously. "He planned it all. His capture, his men tracking us here, goading you out of the building, the escape, capturing Asa. He planned it all!"

"I know," Zander said, the words bitter. Zander's hatred couldn't rise any higher. As much as anyone had ever hated a person, Zander hated Aldius. Nothing could compare. No love could ever touch this heightening of sensation. He felt a flicker of understanding for Asa's hatred for Alexia, then buried the thought beneath his own all-consuming hate. Because hatred didn't understand.

"Which way did they go?" he repeated.

"East," Gordan said.

"Goddess Hill," Edrea muttered, as if she'd used up all her emotions. "He told me to tell the red devil to find his vengeance on Goddess Hill. He said he would prove who the better man is."

Zander grabbed his blade. "Come on, Kenneth."

"There will be an entire outpost of soldiers waiting to snare you in their trap!" Gordan objected. "They want you dead, Zander!"

"If you go, who will protect us?" Edrea asked. "He will send soldiers for us, looking for you. We need you, Zander."

Zander surveyed them. Gordan, Theo, and Edrea were in no condition to fight. If Sapphires tracked them out of here, if they waited for Zander to leave, they wouldn't be able to protect themselves.

Zander didn't care. Hatred does not protect. That is the providence of love. Hatred only seeks out the next person to hurt.

Zander drew his blade. "Aldius wants the red devil. I will show him what happens when he wakes."

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