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“You also get a lot of nightmares.” Blár didn’t look at her.

Ice ran through her veins and she couldn’t look him straight in the eye. Did she have a nightmare about him last night? Did he know that he killed her in her dreams?

“What’s that?” Blár shielded his eyes from the sun and squinted in the distance.

From far away, it appeared to be a boulder nestled in a spread of other boulders. But then it twitched. And Kolfinna realized, in horror, that it was the exact thing they were running from. Blár’s eyes widened and they both exchanged glances; they needed to run, again.

Neither waited another second before spinning around and running in the opposite direction. They ran, but Kolfinna wondered if it was useless. They had to fight it at some point, didn’t they? Without her powers, she was unable to do anything. She had kept her powers hidden foryears, but she had known that if she was thrown into any dire situation, she’d be able to fight her way through it.But here, all she could do was run.

She was so utterly powerless.

She refused to die in a place like this, but what else could they do against the dreki? Maybe if they had weapons, they could stand a chance. But as they were, what could they do? And whatshouldthey do?

They ran for what felt like forever, and it wasn’t until they couldn’t see the dreki in the distance that they finally slowed down to a trot. Both breathed heavily, but Kolfinna was noticeably more out of breath than he was.

“D-Don’t you have—” Kolfinna wheezed, hands on her knees as she gasped for breath. Sweat dribbled down her neck and pooled around her chest and back. “A weapon?”

Blár raked a hand through his sweat-dampened hair. “Why would I need a weapon? It’ll only be more weight to carry.”

“Why?” She narrowed her eyes accusingly at him, as if it was his fault they were weaponless. “Maybe because you’re a soldier? Don’t the military carry weapons?”

Blár wiped the sweat pouring down his forehead with his sleeve. “I can say the same to you. You Royal Guards always have swords on you. Where’s yours?” He waved at her hips, where there was no sword whatsoever. There was a hardness in his tone. The kind of hardness that made her flinch. “Also, in case you forgot, I don’t need an ornamental weapon. Because that’s all it’ll ever be on me—ornamental.”

“In case you didn’t realize, I’m not a Royal Guard!”

“Iknowyou’re not a Royal Guard, but you’rewiththem, so they should’ve given you one.”

“I’m hoping to become one, but I’m not one of them.” She waved to her dark uniform, which was so different from the white uniform the Royal Guards wore. “In case you didn’t notice, I’m not dressed like a Royal Guard.”

“Huh, I didn’t notice,” he said sarcastically. “And I guess they didn’t bother giving you a training sword either?”

“A training sword?”

“All Royal Guard trainees have one. Where’s yours?”

“I … I didn’t receive one,” Kolfinna whispered so quietly that she was sure he didn’t hear her. Why had she not received a sword? All the Royal Guards had swords, but she hadn’t given it much thought.

“What?”

Kolfinna straightened. “I forgot it.”

“How—” He pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. “You know what, it doesn’t change anything. Let’s just keep moving.”

“Keep moving where exactly?” She waved at the hills of sand.

“I don’t know. Somewhere.” Blár jabbed a thumb in the direction they had come from. “Anywhere away from that monster.”

“What can we even do without our powers?” she whispered.

“We can dosomething.”

“But what? What exactly can we do? How are we going to kill that thing?” She swallowed the lump that was forming in her throat. She saw the desperation of their situation more clearly in the light of day. There was a high probability they would die. How could they survive against that thing? “Oh, man,” she whispered. “We’re going to die.”

Kolfinna’s throat constricted and her chest tightened, as if a giant rope was wrapping around her lungs and squeezing the life out of them. An unbearable weight crushed her shoulders. There was no way they could survive against the dreki.

She would die.

She breathed in deeply, her vision darkening as the realization hit her.