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"I know," she whispered. "I am afraid to let you go."

"I miss him too," Remi replied. Kissing her cheek.

Sofia nodded.

"We must keep our minds focused. There is no time for hesitation now. The other runners should have their deliveries made by tomorrow at the latest. With yours, Burning Ember will have fulfilled their obligation in this war."

"Yes," he said. "Now I will go, and you do the same. Get out of here before the danger comes. Let those bastards find nothing but empty streets."

Sofia smiled, kissing Remi again before pushing him away and returning to their home to change into her traveling robes.

She pulled them from her closet and grabbed her pack, finding Soren\'s bag packed neatly beside hers.

Sofia took a shaky breath and looked down at her wrist. She wore the matching cuff to the ones she had given Remi and Soren. Then looking at her other wrist, she wore another.

"I hope you can forgive me," she whispered. "I just wasn\'t ready to let you go completely."

She hugged herself, pressing the stolen cuff to her chest, feeling for a moment as though Soren held her tightly.

***

Two hours after Remi had gone, Sofia was startled by her door bursting open.

The smiths that she was waiting on would never have acted so rashly.

"Alpha Sofia!" a woman\'s voice called from the living room.

Sofia hurried out, pulling a small dagger from her pack.

"It\'s me, Penelope. I\'m one of the Winter scouts."

Sofia furrowed her brow. She remembered the girl now; she and a man were keeping an eye on the war party. It was because of them that anyone even knew about the threat. But what was she doing here?

"Are they moving?" Sofia asked, feeling her heart pounding louder in her chest.

"Yes, but... it\'s not what we expected," Penelope replied with a look of concern on her face.

"What do you mean?" Sofia asked.

"About an hour ago, we noticed that there was movement. They were clearly getting ready to leave their camp. We expected them to move toward Burning Ember, but we were wrong."

"What does that mean?" Sofia asked.

"They split up," Penelope said, "There is a smaller party, and they are headed this way. I don\'t know how long we have. You need to get the rest of your people out of here now. Where is Alpha Caleb?"

"What do you mean they split up?"

"Exactly that," Penelope replied. "Several small parties in different directions, one huge group went north. And another even larger group…."

Penelope took a breath and shook her head.

"I don\'t know for sure; my partner Mateas is still watching. He is making sure we aren\'t wrong about this."

"About what?"

"We don\'t want to alarm Alpha Caleb if we are wrong."

"Wrong about what?!" Sofia shouted.

"Penelope!"

The voice came from the backpack that Penelope wore. She quickly turned and opened it, pulling out a small radio.

"Mateas? What did you see?"

"We weren\'t wrong. They are definitely headed for Summer!"

"Damnit," Penelope sighed.

"What?!" Sofia shouted, "Summer? I thought they were coming here?"

"Where is Alpha Caleb?" Penelope asked.

"Penelope!" Mateas\' voice came again.

"Just a second," Penelope replied into the radio and then turned back to Sofia. "We need to tell Alpha Caleb about this right away."

"He\'s gone," Sofia replied. "He led my people south last night, almost fifteen hours ago."

"Shit."

"But he has a comm system, right? So can\'t you reach out to him?"

Penelope shook her head.

"I already tried. Burning Ember is the furthest pack to the south. Your territory has always had spotty communications. That\'s why we carry these radios. They work well within a few miles but not much more," Penelope said.

"Penelope!" Mateas shouted insistently.

"What, Mateas? What is it?!" Penelope growled.

"Please tell me the pack is gone because they\'re coming!" he shouted.

"What?" Penelope asked quickly. "What do you mean?"

"The group headed to Burning Ember! There are at least twenty!" Mateas shouted into the radio as he ran along the ridge, watching the fae creatures pushing hard through the pass. Four of the newly spotted bear creatures, a small group of feral wolves, and the bat things whose shriek sent a chill down his spine.

"It won\'t be long; you only have ten minutes max to get yourself out of there, Pen!"

Penelope looked at Sofia.

Sofia again felt her heart in her throat.

"My warriors are all gone," she whispered. "I have twenty men and women, craftsmen, smiths. They know how to form a blade, not wield it!"

Penelope swallowed.

"All right, okay, we can figure this out…" she whispered. "Okay, yea."

She took a deep breath and brought the radio up to her lips.

"Matty, I\'m not alone out here," she said. "These people need a running head start… so I need you to buy us whatever time you can."

"Fuck…" Mateas whispered and closed his eyes. He quickly turned his pack and started looking through it, finally finding what he was looking for. "All right, Pen, I can buy you at least an opening. Don\'t wait for a signal. Get them going as fast as you can."

He looked ahead and saw where he needed to set the charges. He could make it, barely. The trick was setting it off before one of the creatures caught up to him.

"Matty?" Penelope called through the radio.

"Yea?" he replied, already running toward his goal.

"Be safe," she whispered.

Mateas smiled as he thought of the last few months. Since he almost died, Penelope had dropped her guard around him. Now, they were lovers without reservation.

"Back at you," he replied.

Despite herself, Penelope smiled at his reply. Then, she quickly shook it off and returned her focus to the situation.

"How fast can you get your people moving?"

"Right away," Sofia replied. "Just before you came, I was preparing to leave."

"Good," Penelope replied. "Get them out of here as fast as you can. We will do what we can to slow them down."

"What about you?" Sofia asked.

"Like I said, we\'ll slow them down."

"Why don\'t you just come with us?" Sofia asked.

"Because, whatever he does, it won\'t stop them, just slow them down. So, I need to do something here to slow them down further. And relating to that, I\'m sorry, but there will likely be some damage…."

"It\'s fine. We all are leaving expecting the fae to overrun our home," Sofia answered. "But I still think you should just come with us."

The sound of a loud explosion drew both of their attention. They ran outside, and in the distance, they saw the entrance to the mountain pass cave in on itself.

Penelope chuckled.

"Your friend?" Sofia asked.

Penelope nodded proudly.