Part 3 · Chapters
Another Lost Heart
Victory can lift your head—and make you lose sight of those beside you.
Two elemental hearts had been stolen on the same night, and two nations had lost their sense of safety at once. Hatred had supplied the easiest answer. Only those who had truly lost a home were willing to look again at the overlooked details.
The refugees settled temporarily in a cave.
Shuang Ya arranged ice crystals on the ground to form the Frost Kingdom's palace. She pointed to the six-sided central tower.
“The Heart of Ice was stolen the same night as the Heart of Fire. They found flaming footprints, burned-through chains, and Flame City's military insignia.”
“After the Heart of Ice vanished, the northern glaciers began breaking apart,” she said.
She pulled back her glove. The ice markings on her wrist were fainter than before.
“Young children's ice cores are becoming unstable too. If this goes on, the first to die still won't be the people in the palace.”
Xiao Jin took out Xiao Hui's drawing of the black emblem.
Shuang Ya's expression changed. From inside her collar she drew half an ice crystal, with the same five cracks sealed within it.
“I found this in a secret passage at the palace. The council said it was obsidian coal, enough to prove Flame City had been there.”
“Someone left an answer on the ground for both sides. Too clear an answer,” Xiao Jin said.
They put the clues together: two elemental hearts stolen the same night, a figure who could wield both fire and ice, black crystals controlling monsters, and an emblem engraved with five cracks.
“A third party wants the two nations at war,” Shuang Ya said. “But why?”
A scream suddenly came from outside.
Black-mist hounds raced through the trees and lunged straight at Shuang Ya. Xiao Jin swung his fire blade just as she hurled an ice spear. The fire melted the spear, filling their sight with steam. Then Shuang Ya froze the ground beneath Xiao Jin, throwing his Ash Step off balance.
“Stop blocking my fire!”
“Your fire keeps destroying my ice!”
They fought separately, while the hounds used the steam to creep closer. A claw tore through Shuang Ya's shoulder armor. Xiao Jin rushed to block it, only to be knocked away by the ice wall she raised in defense.
“Could you warn me first?”
“Could you look first?”
While they argued, a hound leaped toward the children in the cave. Both of them stopped.
“I'll force it left,” Xiao Jin said quickly.
“In three breaths, I'll seal the way.”
Xiao Jin flicked his small flame from place to place, forcing the hound to turn. On the first breath, he dodged its claws. On the second, he pushed the heat left. On the third, Shuang Ya froze the warmed moisture. Ice crystals closed around the hound from every side.
Xiao Jin's blade passed through the gap she had left and shattered its core.
They stood back to back. The remaining hounds prowled in the mist, but this time found no gap in their teamwork.
After the battle, Shuang Ya plucked a blue-green feather from a hound's coat.
Wind still moved through the feather on its own.
“The Valley of Wind,” she said.
Xiao Jin looked west. Its peaks were wrapped in clouds year-round, making it one of the hardest lands of the five great elemental peoples to enter.
“Then we go to the Valley of Wind.”
“We're only traveling together for now.”
“Fine. I don't want to hear you ordering me around the whole way either.”
Shuang Ya tucked the feather into her bag. “People who say that usually end up needing the most rescuing.”
Ash drifted in the wind, pointing toward the distance.
Before turning away, each checked that the other was still there.