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Tears sprang in her eyes. She didn’t want to die. She really,reallydidn’t want to die.

Her whole life had been about survival. She never had a moment’s rest. It was always go, go, go—survive no matter what. Deep down, she always had confidence that she could make it out of any situation because unlike Katla, she wasn’t scared to use her magic if she had to.

“Get a hold of yourself.” Blár grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her. The pain from her injured shoulder brought her back to reality. “Breathe.”

She inhaled shakily before exhaling. For a few minutes, she simply breathed.

Kolfinna squeezed her eyes shut. She didn’t like showing her emotions so wildly like this, but she wasn’t sure how to mask her fear of death.

“We’ll get through this.” Blár released her gingerly. There was a softness in his gaze—a look she didn’t like. As if he was obligated to take care of her. As if he saw her as human.

It didn’t suit him—this softness. She preferred him crass and crude.

Kolfinna didn’t have time to wallow in self-doubt and self-pity. There had to be a way to solve this. If the first two ordeals—the ship and then with the Jötnar— had solutions, then this too must’ve had a solution. Each of those scenarios had rules and a way to get out. There must’ve been a catch. Maybe there was something beyond this sandy wasteland? What if there was somewhere they could find weapons? There had to be something.

Or maybe they should try fighting the dreki? Maybe it wasn’t as strong as it looked? Or maybe it had a weakness?

“We have two options,” she finally settled with. “We can either run away and try to find something to fight the dreki with, or we can try fighting it right now with what we have.”

Blár stared at her for a few seconds. “That’s it? That’s all you came up with?”

Her cheeks flared. “Do you have something better in mind?”

“Fight with what we have?” Blár laughed, ignoring her question. “What do we have, exactly?” He rummaged in his pockets and pulled out crumpled notes and a few paper wrappers. He tossed them to the ground. “Great. Freakin’ great.”

Kolfinna eyed the things he threw and bent down to pick them up. The note was the sketch of the castle they had been given at the start of the mission. The wrappers, on the other hand, piqued her interest. There was a white, grainy powder on them. Sugar?

“Candy?” she asked.

Blár looked at her like she had lost her mind. “Why are you going through my trash?”

“I was wondering what a black rank would carry around.” She tossed the wrappers to the ground. “But was I right?”

He gave her a look that said she was stupid. “Yes.”

“I didn’t think you would like sweets.”

“Okay, what is wrong with you? Why are you talking about this? It’s so … irrelevant? I don’t understand.”

Maybe she really was losing her mind. Kolfinna held up two fingers. “Which choice do you vote for? Run and find weapons, or fight it head-on?”

He kicked at the ground, a spray of sand and pebbles arcing the air. “Those can’t be the only two options.”

“I opt for the first one, for at least a day or two. And the reason I say that is because we can’t run and search forever. We don’t even know what’s out there. So, if we don’t find anything initially, we’ll have to rule out the possibility that there’s even anything out here that can aid us.”

Blár ran a hand over his face but nodded. “It’ll also give us time to scout for an area to fight it. Because by the looks of it, it’ll come find us sooner or later. We’ll have an advantage if we choose a good location. But before that, we really need to get water first.”

“I think so too.”

“I still think there’s maybe something more we can do.”

“I’m not hearing any suggestions. Just complaints.”Kolfinna undid her braid and cringed at how matted her hair had become. She wove her fingers through it distractedly.

Blár glared at her. “Don’t you have fae powers? Can’t you sense runes or something? I don’t know. Maybe there’s something out here we can use. Maybe we can escape this place without fighting the dreki.”

“I don’t think so. I can’t really sense much out here. And if there is something, it’s not within my range … And whenever I sense mana, it’s the dreki.”

“I guess all we can do is just walk now.”