My fingers lit with the last of a brilliant orange flame. I panted as I shoved it onto a wood sprite that crept in the shadows of the orchard and had made it all the way to the base of the main house.

I threw my attack with everything I had, missing the sprite's head by a hand's width and fizzling out on the ground. 

"Eb!" I called. "I'm spent."

"I got it." Eberon rushed over from his part of the roof, looking down at the dark sprite hissing up at us as it climbed the wall. Eberon hit it square in the face and it shrieked as it fell."

The air on the rooftop was warm with the ongoing use of fire magic. Eberon and Yevaron were both still going strong.

"Are you okay?" Thain asked, putting a hand on my back as he looked at me.

"Yeah," I panted. "I'm just out of natural magic."

I took a deep breath, then switched mindsets and pulled from the air around me. My hands both ignited in bold purple flames. "But I still have my witch powers."

Thain's eyes widened a moment, then he nodded. "If you have the roof I'm going to the front lines."

"Be careful out there," Eberon said, turning his attention to the grounds below. "I'll join you when this place is cleared out."

"Me too," I promised.

Thain disappeared, and we were left to clear the back lawn once more.

"No!" Lady Yevaron shouted, earning the full attention of both me an Eberon.

"My roses!" she cried, throwing more fire down onto a stomping tree creature who had just encroached on a lovely bed of white roses surrounding a fountain.

"Mother," Eberon groaned. "Don't scare me like that."

"Those were a gift from Herion of the Northern Falls!" Yevaron snapped at her son as she looked down on her ruined rosebed. "Oh, my poor babies."

A horn sounded again. The Autumn warriors were almost on top of us. 

"Another one," Eberon pointed to the ground below my part of the roof, and I turned to take care of it. My purple flames shot true, landing on the thing's chest and driving it off.

"I will, perhaps, never get used to the site of that," Eberon murmured.

I shrugged. "I brought back a few tricks from my travels."

"I can see that," he said. "I feel there is much for us to catch up on once this is all over."

"They're here!" Lady Yevaron called out, pointing below as a triquetram of fae rushed the lawn between the house and the orchards. They met with the tree sprites head-on, attacking with magic and blades and claws. In a matter of heartbeats more joined them.

"That's it then," Eberon said. "Let's get down there and help."

"I'll manage the house," Yevaron said as she made it to the door first. "Eberon, you go find Thainalan. Wren, you should find your triquetram as well."

"Yes," I said, making it to the door off the roof just behind her. "I will."

I grabbed the bag and the book that Thain had brought me and took them down with me. 

Lady Yevaron climbed down and got off of the ladder on the first floor. I went after her and she stopped to offer me a hand as I stepped out of the closet. 

"I must go this way," Lady Yevaron gestured. "Can you remember your way back?"

"I think so," I said, setting my bag down. It would have to stay here, but I dug through it for a long cloth I knew I had in there. 

She nodded, her movements graceful as ever. "Be swift, be safe. Stars watch you."

"And you," I said. 

Eberon came out after us and nodded to his mother before she left.

I ran my fingers along the seams at the waist of my dress. 

"What are you doing?" Eberon asked. 

I seared the thread, snapping it in several places until I could drop the skirt away entirely and wrapped the cloth around my waist in a much smaller, less cumbersome skirt. 

"That's better," I said. "Let's go."

Eberon nodded, rushing down the hallway that had lead us here in the first place. I followed him as we rushed toward the front of the house where we had left the rest of the fae.

Rounding the last corner, the first thing I saw was Schula sitting in a chair while two of the house servants offered her water and fanned her.

The windows were open in a couple of places where fae were hanging out of the window and building or repairing the barrier. Nassir was standing outside entirely, his hands on the risen stone and earth that blocked the vision to the attacks in the far field.

"Wren," Spaulder looked over his shoulder, standing at one of the windows. Schula looked up from her chair, exhausted. 

Lady Yevaron came rushing from a different direction into the grand room, her arms filled with linens and two servants followed her with other supplies. "Everyone! If you haven't already heard the horns, the Autumn court has sent warriors to our aid."

Some tired and strained faces turned to relief and smiles. 

"But, that doesn't mean we're going to sit back and leave it all to them. My son will join Thainalan the ravager outside, and I call now for anyone willing to join him to do so. For the rest, continue to hold out here and prepare for injured. We'll prepare food for the end of the fighting as well, and bedding for the army. And if you can't lend a hand, then get out of the way. This house supports the Autumn court."

That shook some people out of their stupor. A few heads nodded.

"We'll come with you," Schula turned to Eberon as Spaulder left his place at the window to help her up.

"Are you okay?" I asked. 

"Fine, just tired," she answered as my triquetram walked over to me. "If we can help, let's get outside."

"Agreed," Spaulder said. "I dislike standing idle when there are enemies to tear to pieces."

The wicked smile on his face caused me and Schula to look at each other in surprise. This was a whisper of the old Spaulder. The dragon that waged war against the southern coast so many millennia ago. 

"Then let's go," Eberon said. "Quickly, this way."

We weren't the only ones to follow Eberon, just the first. The son of the house lead us outside and we filed in behind him by the barrier Nassir was still repairing. Ice and earth mixed together in a wall two stories high. 

The garden we could see from the side of the house where the barrier sat was riddled with marks of attack. I even spotted a few of the newly arrived warriors in the trees nearby, facing the fields and talking to Thain who was unglamoured and fierce. Dark claws, sharp teeth, and seeing silver eyes burned for the fight as he postured his honed body toward the enemy. 

Nassir was resting against his barrier, breathing hard and still building it up. He looked up at us as we came over to the barrier. "Eberon, I have stopped sensing him. He has retreated enough that he no longer haunts my senses."

My heart tightened. DuVarick.

"And the attacks, have they lessened?" Eberon asked, kneeling beside the exhausted stoneshaper. 

Nassir shook his head. "On the contrary, they have been ceaseless."

As if the enemy heard his words, a great shot of ice shards shattered against the barrier, knocking many of the newly arrived fae down. 

"I want to go out there," Spaulder said, his stern gaze on the hilltop. "I can sense something strange there. Stranger than the fae I have seen in these lands."

Schula and I moved, letting the other fae filter behind the barrier and we stepped aside with Spaulder, leaving Eberon to handle Nassir.

"What do you mean?" Schula asked.

"It's human, but it's a tainted human."

My breath caught. "A human?"

"How can there be a human in the Wyldes?" Schula asked.

"I do not know. The air around him tastes of death," Spaulder said. "I need to see what he is for myself."

I shared a look with Schula, then nodded. "We'll go with you."

His stony expression softened. "Let us go, my triquetram."

We slipped away, rushing forward and into the grassy fields, the slope slowly climbing toward the hilltop that would reveal the enemy and whatever Spaulder was sensing. 

"Down," Spaulder ordered, pushing himself to the ground and bringing us with him under each arm. 

I grunted as I hit the ground, my breath knocked out of me. I turned my face just enough to see overhead and right where we were just moments before a charge of fire shot through the air. It's heat radiated in its wake, and I could feel it on my skin as though I was by the campfire. 

"Move," Spaulder now ordered, dragging us upright as we rushed up the slope and started veering to the side. 

My eyes flicked to the opposite end of the field where the Autumn warriors were also encroaching on the hilltop in preparation for an attack. Thain in the front, and Eberon now making his way across the fields to meet him.

My heart beat hard as we reached the crest of the hill. Spaulder crouched as low as he could, but he was still too big. Schula and I were able to take a few steps closer than he could as we took a look out over the fields. 

The Winter creatures were still there, taking turns in threes as they launched attacks, but now they were joined by more.

Things with teeth and claw, feather and thorn, blade and magic, were lining up in the field behind the ones performing their ceaseless onslaught of attack. An army had arrived, and one figure stood out from the rest. 

Riding on a horse and decorated in bones and hides rode a man. A human, his face painted in white markings to mimic the shape of a skull. His eyes, even from here I could see his cold black eyes. His black stallion was painted with the same white paste in the image of white bones covering him. His hooves filed down to have a line of small spikes set a deadly trap if the beast were to kick you. He had a few other human riders around him, but none of them caught my eyes as he did.

The rider sat upon his black and bone horse, holding a gnarled staff of white wood in the air above him. And even from this great distance, he looked at us and smiled. His teeth filed into sharp spikes in his mouth. Then I spotted the flag hanging off of his belt.

The war flag of the great plains raiders.

I scurried back from the hilltop, my heart hammering and my breath eratic as I scrambled to get away from his sight. 

"Wren," Schula hissed. "What's wrong?"

"The... he..." 

I choked, and Spaulder grabbed me by the shoulders, pulling me close to him. 

"Shh, little bird. What is wrong?" he asked, the low boom of his voice soothing. 

I swallowed and tried again. "He's from the human lands. He's the... that's Bara Khalja."

"Bara Khalja?" Schula asked, pressing cool fingers to my forehead. 

"He leads a band of raiding warriors in the plains. His men killed Bryn! They burnt the village, they... they..." A tear streaked down my cheek, but if it was from sorrow or panic I couldn't say.

"Then he will pay," Spaulder said, setting me down and raising to his feet. 

"Spaulder-" Schula started.

But Spaulder ran forward. He was so fast, over the hill in an instant. 

I got to my feet as fast as I could and followed after him. 

"Wren!" Schula called. "Stars curse you both."

But I sensed her follow us anyway.

Over the peak of the hill and beginning a downward slope, Spaulder raised his head and roared. If the enemy hadn't seen us already, they did now. The shattering call of Spaulder's wrath echoed around us, deafening any other sounds.

Bara Khalja looked up from his horse, his mouth spreading into a deadly smile as he lifted his staff at Spaulder.

"No!" I cried. A bolt of something black shot out from his staff, it's path jumping erratically through the air as it lunged to Spaulder.

I flung out a hand, reaching, willing, pulling from my Wylde magic within and the witch magic outside of me. I threw whatever my hands could conjure in the path of the attack, and a shattering of purple dust hit the black bolt in the sky and both attacks fizzled out.

"Woah," I breathed, my run down the hill coming to a halt as the world spun around me. My head was completely unbalanced and I fell over, Schula just catching me before I hit the ground.

"What was that?" she demanded. 

"Both... magics," I barely answered her when I had to turn onto all fours and throw up. 

Schula rubbed my back. "They don't mix well I take it. Spaulder! Come back!"

But Spaulder wasn't having it. He continued his charge downward and adjusted his path to cut across the field. My eyes followed his new path, and I saw why. 

Autumn fae, hundreds of them were now pouring from the trees and charging forward. Whatever distraction Spaulder offered was just enough that the Autumn fae could attack. And Thain, he was in the front of them all, Eberon close behind him.

Wobbling, I stood up with Schula's help. 

"We need to help," I said. "I can't let Bara Khalja win!"

"We won't," Schula said. "But first you need to recover. You can't help anyone in this state."

The world still spun. A little less now, but it still spun. "But-"

"Stop. Let me see your head," Schula insisted. 

She put cool fingers on my temples. "Close your eyes. Take a deep breath. Let's get you set right again."

I sighed, but I obeyed. I took a deep breath. And then another. Soon my body found itself breathing as though I was meditating. One... two... three...

"There," Schula took her hands away and I opened my eyes. "Better?"

"Yes," I said, and took off. We sprinted down the hill and into the clash of fae. 

It was awful. Fire and earth. Ice and thunder. Smoke, mist, vines, water, and every other scrap of nature that a fae could control was being hurled from one side or another. The ones with less magic and more claws and teeth and blades surged to the front to meet their counterparts on the opposite side. 

I watched as Thain tore apart two unseelie creatures, their bodies covered in thick bark and their claws long and sharp. And still, Thain took them down in a vicious few heartbeats before moving on to his next targets.

Spaulder was a terror as well. Even in his weakened state, with his human-like body, he ripped apart dark creatures with his bare hands. His blazing golden eyes were furious, and all but the biggest Winter creatures gave him a wide berth. 

But my eyes scoured for one person in particular. Bara Khalja. 

There was a trio of gray and white fae between me and Bara Khalja. I reached behind me for Schula's hand, and together we threw fire and ice. The Wren from a year ago would have flinched and cried at the image of shards of ice peeling away the flesh from bone, the searing of fire boiling bodies alive with its heat. But today I looked on with a cold heart at the enemy between me and the one responsible for taking Bryn from my world. 

I stepped over the bodies as Schula and I made our way to the line of horses and riders who watched the bloodbath before them without raising a hand to help.

Bara Khalja's eyes locked onto mine as he smiled from atop his horse. The bone paint on his skin still a pristine white and untouched by the battle around him. 

"You!" I screamed, raising my hands in front of me. "You took him from me!" 

A swell of purple magic engulfed my hands. It was so hot and so large that it climbed up my arms in a rage. I could feel it, I could feel that I was sucking the magic around me. I took too much. More than a witch was ever taught to take, and the plants at my feet withered into brown husks as I drained them of their life.

And then, I let it go. 

Purple fire rushed to Bara Khalja, streaking through the air and staining the sky purple in its wake.

But Bara Khalja laughed, raising his staff and murmuring something dark as a translucent black bubble formed around him. 

The purple fire hit, and splashed around the barrier that Bara Khalja made. The rage and destruction of my attack splattered on either side, hitting two of his men as they screamed at the coming of their death. 

"Not today, witch," Bara Khalja laughed. He raised his staff again, striking it through the air on either side of him as he chanted.

I hadn't looked at the bodies on either side of him after my attack struck his comrades, but now I let my eyes fall to the ground where the two broken bodies and two slain horses had been.

In horror, I watched as the bodies that should be broken and twisted began to move.

"What?" Schula hissed. She raised her hands, shooting blades of ice at them as they rose on broken feet. 

The ice hit their flesh, but the bodies continued to move, a black aura around them. 

"W-what is this?" I cried out. "This is against nature!"

"It is no different than what you have done, witch," Bara Khalja answered. "Or have you not looked down at your feet?"

I glanced at where I stood. The dead earth around me was a stark reminder that I had just taken more than my share of the magic around me.

My throat tightened. I couldn't let him in my head right now. 

"Enough!" Schula raised her arms and shot ice at the rider. He laughed as even Schula's powerful attacks bounced off of his magical barrier.

"That is all for now," Bara Khalja said, raising his staff again. "Until we meet again, Winter daughter. Elven witch."

What?

Boom. He slammed his staff through the air. The battle waging around us as blades and teeth and claws tore into bodies. Magic rained down from both sides.

And all I could see was Bara Khalja's face as he grinned, his sharp teeth flashing as his spell was cast. 

From his staff, a blast of light shattered my vision. The boom of an explosion both deafened me and threw me backward through the air.

My stomach flipped as I hit the ground, the impact knocking my shoulder from its socket as I rolled over and over on the grassy field. Rocks and sticks scraping my skin until I finished rolling and my body stilled.

The ringing of my ears kept me deaf to my surroundings. A high pitch screamed in my head as I rushed to rub the blindness out of my eyes. 

An icy hand on my wrist caught my attention, and with great focus, I rubbed the vision back into my eyes and saw Schula's face. She was caked with dirt and covered in scrapes.

"Bara Khalja," I said, raising my head and not even hearing the words that came from my mouth.

But he was gone. Where he was now sat the only patch of field unaffected by the blast. Empty of either horse or rider.

Every other fae creature on the field was blown from their feet as well. Thain was already standing, as was Spaulder and a few others.

Spaulder raised his head, his mouth open in a silent roar of anger that was still gone as the ringing in my ears raged on. But it was clear as day that he roared his war cry. His call the catalyst to resume the battle. 

Schula and I got to our feet, recovering slowly but holding our own with the warriors around us. 

Thain and Eberon made their way to our side eventually, fending off the onslaught of the Winter fae until we were recovered enough to join them.

Once we could, Schula and I stood by Spaulder's side. A triquetram fighting as one and ripping through the enemy one by one until the field slowly began to turn to our side.

The Autumn warriors were fierce, their aide certainly the deciding factor of the vicious battle. And it lasted well into the setting sun as the last of the enemy was felled or fled.

I stood, barely. Panting and flicking my eyes around me. It had gone on for so long that I could hardly believe the enemy was really and truly gone. 

"Wren," Schula croaked out. "We've won."

I nodded, still not fully comprehending her words. The sky overhead tilting as I began to fall from too-tired feet.

"Woah," Spaulder said, catching me in his arms. "You need a bed."

"Yeah..." I said, and my eyes closed. 

My magic was spent completely. My well was finally empty. And with nothing left to give, I blacked out.