"Keep your face pressed into my shoulder," Aetherion ordered, his voice vibrating directly against Zinnia’s ribs as tons of compressed snow and pulverized slate slammed into the mouth of the narrow crevice.The roar of the avalanche was a physical entity, pressing against them with deafening, suffocating weight. Outside the shallow protective lip of their rocky alcove, the world had dissolved into a grinding chaos of stone and ice. Zinnia gripped the thick fabric of Aetherion’s tunic so hard her knuckles turned entirely translucent, her breath catching in her throat as a massive slab of frozen scree crashed against the outer edge of their shelter, sending a spray of sharp ice shards stinging across her exposed cheek."I can’t breathe," Zinnia gasped, her panic flaring hot and sharp as the weight of the debris shifted, packing tighter against the entrance and cutting off the last thin stream of fresh mountain air. "Aetherion, the seal is closing. We’re going to be buried alive in this

"You can save the sarcasm for when we are actually breathing open air, Zinnia," Aetherion muttered, his breath warm against her hair in the absolute, suffocating blackness of the crevice. "Shift your weight three inches to the left. Carefully. My shoulder is wedged against a frost-bound seam, and if you unseat it, we’ll both slide straight down into the crevasse.""Easy for you to say, you aren't the one currently serving as a footrest for an entire mountain range," Zinnia retorted, though she obediently wriggled her boots, wincing as a sharp edge of slate bit through her trousers. "If we make it out of this ridge alive, I am billing Lucivar for every single bruise. I want itemized receipts for the trauma.""If we don't make it out, Lucivar won't have to pay a thing because your crumbling estate will revert to the crown anyway," Aetherion pointed out, his voice dry, though the underlying tension in his arm muscles told a completely different story. "Now, give me your hand. Not that on

"A messenger bird from Cassian?" Zinnia echoed, her voice sharpening as she leaned closer over the smelting altar, her eyes darting from the crimson-hued Iron Conduit Stone to the damp, crumpled slip of parchment Aetherion had just unrolled. "What does it say? Don't tell me Lucivar sent more bailiffs.""Worse than bailiffs," Aetherion muttered, his jaw tightening so hard the muscle leaped beneath his skin. He scanned the cramped, frantic handwriting with piercing intensity. "Lucivar didn't wait for the Regional Boundary Council to reconvene. He’s hired Vane. They’ve packed heavy quarry explosives at the base of your island. They intend to blow the main support pillars out from under the Edge of the Map before we even make it back down the mountain.""Explosives?" Zinnia’s breath hitched, the ambient amber light flickering violently around her fingertips. "He’s going to turn the entire sanctuary into a pile of rubble just to win a land dispute? There are historical archives in those fo

"A logger's wharf? Aetherion, the spring thaw turned that river into a vertical avalanche of white water and jagged timber," Zinnia shouted over the deafening roar of the churning rapids below them, her boots slipping slightly on the slick, black-slate trail as she tried to match his long, purposeful strides down the mountainside. "People don't ride barges down the Iron River in the middle of a melt; they fish their bloated remains out of the delta three counties away!""We aren't riding it for pleasure, Zinnia. We are riding it because Vane's demolition crew has a four-hour head start on us with a set of deep-bore drills and crates of black powder," Aetherion fired back without breaking his pace, his eyes locked on the twisting, foam-flecked ribbon of water cutting through the dense pine forest far below. "If we take the switchback road, we arrive to find a crater where your drawing room used to be. If we take the river, we arrive alive—assuming you can keep us from wrapping around a

"Leap!" Aetherion bellowed, abandoning the steering oar entirely as the runaway timber barge violently sideswiped a massive granite outcrop jutting out from the base of the island's lowest support pillar.The impact sounded like a thunderclap, splintering the port gunwale into a thousand jagged toothpicks and sending heavy timber crates sliding across the slick deck. Zinnia didn't hesitate; abandoning her grip on the iron ring, she hurled herself through the air, her kinetic amber light flaring out like a pair of frantic wings to cushion her momentum as she slammed hard into the damp, muddy clay of the riverbank.Aetherion followed a heartbeat later, rolling across the uneven stones with the practiced, bruising grace of a man who had spent his life dodging collapsing masonry. He came up on one knee instantly, his calloused hand already diving into his travel harness to rip free his heavy mason’s hammer."They're at the primary northern borehole!" Zinnia gasped, scrambling to her feet