Theo gasps awake and coughs lightly. But no one is paying attention to him. As he gradually comes back to his senses, the sounds around him begin to filter in.

"Damn it! I can’t hold on!" Liam sounds panicked.

"Liam, you have to!" Maeve’s voice, just as panicked.

"Monfort, you better hold on! My shield won’t last much longer!" Sonia snaps.

"Guys, this is not good. Really not good." Julian states the obvious.

"We know!" Alicia’s voice is tight.

Theo blinks, trying to focus. His body is still in a great deal of pain, but the puncture wounds on his chest are no longer bleeding. They still hurt.

He tries to prop himself up enough to see what is happening.

When his eyes cooperate, all he sees is fire. Blue fire, orange fire, smoke, and things burning.

Everything around him is on fire. The other five are desperately trying to keep it from spreading to the nearby buildings.

It looks like Liam could not hold Arthur, and now everything is burning.

"Maeve." He calls out. Weakly. Maeve gives no indication she can hear him.

"Maeve." He tries again. Still too weak. He coughs from the smoke.

Then a shadow falls over him, and something is draped across his body. A coat.

"Thea! Are you okay?"

Theo squints up at the figure.

"Hawk?"

"Yeah, it’s me. Thank God you’re okay." Hawk answers.

He has only just arrived. After dangling off the wall, he had managed to haul himself back up and gone looking for Thea. His broken ribs, forgotten entirely.

There is dried blood on his face, his hands, his arms, his legs. Parts of his clothes are torn and stained. But Hawk does not feel any of it. He is too busy staring in horror at the destruction around them.

"What is going on?" He cannot begin to make sense of it. But he notices Theo trying to sit up and moves to help him.

"What are you doing here?" Theo asks as Hawk gets him upright.

"Long story. I’ll tell you later. Right now we need to get you out of here." Hawk says, urgency in his voice.

Theo shakes his head. "No. I can’t do that." He groans.

"You’re injured! There’s a hospital nearby. We need to get you there." Hawk tries again.

Theo shakes his head again. "I appreciate the offer, but I have to decline. Not now."

"But..."

"If you want to help," Theo cuts him off, "help me stand."

Hawk has no choice. He supports Theo until he is on his feet.

Theo stands. Wobbly, in considerable pain, but standing. Hawk’s arm steady under his.

He looks out at what is in front of him.

He appears to be inside half of a dome made entirely of Light. That female mage. Theo thinks.

It is flickering. It cannot withstand the heat and fire that is constantly battering it from outside.

Maeve is helping Sonia hold the shield. Huh. Theo thinks. Look at that. Two Lights working together. Good.

Julian is concentrated on the ground beneath all of them. It would have collapsed long ago if not for him holding it. Nice work, Jules.

Alicia is trying to strip the oxygen from Arthur’s Fire to smother it. But it is easier said than done. Her Wind is simply not powerful enough for that yet. She needs more practice.

Sonia, Maeve, Julian, and Alicia are sheltered inside the Light shield, together with Theo and now Hawk.

And then there is Liam. He is outside the shield entirely, drenched in sweat, covered head to toe in soot, dirt, debris, and dried blood.

His Water is still moving, still wrapped around something, but it is obviously not going to last much longer.

Arthur, meanwhile, is standing inside his Fire cocoon. Between all the fire, smoke, and debris, Theo cannot make out his face.

"Hawk, call Maeve for me." Theo says quietly. He knows his own voice will not carry. It is too weak.

Hawk does not question it. He just yells her name.

Maeve’s head snaps around. She sees Theo standing with Hawk beside him and gasps. She immediately runs over.

"Hey! Where are you going?!" Sonia yells after her. "Ugh." She braces and holds the shield up alone.

"Thea! You’re awake! Are you okay?" Maeve is already calling out before she reaches him.

"Let’s not worry about that. We need to stop Arthur before his Fire spreads any further." Theo says with urgency. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

Hawk blinks. Fire. He really can use magic.

Maeve nods. She is ready.

"First, tell Liam to draw in the rainwater and use it alongside his own Water. But before he does that, he needs to purify it. The rain is corrupted by the green mist. That is what has been making people angry and hostile."

Theo takes Maeve’s hand. "You need to help him purify it. He will not be able to do it alone. Ideally, that female mage helps too."

"Her name is Sonia," Maeve says. "But if she helps, who holds the shield to protect you?"

Theo gestures to Hawk. "He can."

"What?" Hawk startles.

"Don’t act like you don’t know. The cat is already out of the bag. You have seen us and heard us talk about magic. You know we can use it." Theo turns and looks at him directly.

"And I know you can too." Theo holds his gaze, unblinking. Maeve does the same.

Hawk swallows. He cannot really argue. He has not broken any oath to the Hunters. Theo figured it out on his own.

"What do I need to do?" He finally asks.

"Keep the fire away from all of us. Can you do that? I don’t know how strong you are, but you have been training in fire magic. Just keep the fire away. Don’t worry about the building burning. It will not collapse on us or under us." Theo says it with complete confidence. He knows Julian will make sure of that.

Hawk nods slowly. He is not entirely sure he can do this. He can feel the heat pressing in from all sides, and the power radiating from Arthur’s Fire is unlike anything he has encountered.

This is going to be a real test of his fire.

"Tell Alicia to redirect her energy to keeping the wind from spreading the fire. Keep it contained to this building. This floor, if she can manage it. Trying to draw oxygen from Arthur’s Fire is too much for her right now." Theo continues.

Maeve nods. "What else?"

"That’s it for now. I’ll move closer to all of you so the area Hawk needs to protect is smaller. It should be more manageable that way."

They nod.

"Let’s go." Theo says.

Maeve heads back to her position, relaying Theo’s instructions to the others. Sonia frowns skeptically, but the rest immediately move into action without question.

Maeve then calls across to Liam.

"Copy that!" He yells back without missing a beat.

Maeve and Liam begin working in tandem, drawing in rainwater, purifying it, and wrapping it around Arthur.

Hawk has no time to consider how bizarre any of this is. He helps Theo move closer to the group, then turns his full concentration to keeping the fire at a certain distance from all of them.

Sonia watches the fragile, frail young woman take command of the battlefield like a general.

She looks at the others, each of them doing exactly what the young woman told them to do.

Why do they trust her this much? She is clearly the youngest among all of us and she is not even a mage. So why?

Theo turns to her suddenly. Sonia startles.

"If you are not going to help with the purification, at least put the shield back up. Be useful. Or leave." Theo says it quietly.

The words sting anyway.

Sonia clenches her teeth, ready to snap back. Theo does not give her the opening.

"You caused this. The least you can do is help fix it."

Sonia clamps her mouth shut. She looks away, jaw tight with annoyance. But she moves to join Maeve in purifying the rainwater.

For the next few minutes, Theo’s plan seems to be working well. The progress is slow, but there’s progress. The heat is not as high, the wind around them has died down slightly, the fire is no longer wild and threatening.

Everyone is exhausted. They’ve been using their mana non-stop. And now that they know the storm carries green mist corruption, they’ve been extra careful, and that is also exhausting on its own.

With everything around them not to be as chaotic as before, Arthur’s blue Fire is more visible. And for the first time since he comes back, Theo can see Arthur.

"What the hell?" He exclaims.

Arthur is standing. His arms open, palms facing up. That in itself is not strange. But what alarmed Theo, is the fact that Arthur is not conscious.

How Theo is sure of that?

Both of his eyes are completely white.