Sera cocked her head to the side as she watched the people willingly go into the flames. Maybe they thought this was the lesser of two evils?

Whatever their reasons, they came out screaming, their clothing covered in flames, their hair on fire, and nothing left to put the flames out with.

Sera walked past them and kept going. She took the right branch. The men took the left branch before the two groups met up again on the other side of the net. Zubair had split the net to let them through and stitched it back together behind them.

Luci pushed his head under Sera’s hand as they moved. She didn’t slow. She rubbed his skull once, light and firm, and let go.

They were almost to the outer lock room when they found the last holdouts. A group of six soldiers hid behind a row of metal tables flipped into a barricade, rifles braced, their eyes hot and mean.

These ones still believed the numbers meant a thing.

These ones believed that their weapons and training would save them when it failed so many others.

Elias and Lachlan stepped up together to break the line. Alexei lifted his hands to drop the temperature so rounds would fly clean and slow and predictably.

Zubair raised his palm and made it simple.

The rifles burned and melted into nothing but scrap metal.

Not all at once; one by one, starting at the far left, then the next, then the next, almost like he was playing with them, enjoying the hit of fear that appeared in their eyes.

The first man dropped his weapon and scrambled backward. The second tried to beat the flame out and got his sleeve instead. The third stared, stunned, mouth open, until his fingers lit and he started to scream.

The fourth tried to fire anyway and the gun blew in his hands. The fifth saw Zubair and threw his rifle at him. It hit the floor and flared like he had tossed a torch.

"Down," Elias grunted, out of habit more than anything else. They dropped low as Zubair pulled fire over the barricade in a single, flat wave.

It poured across the table and into any space a man could breathe. When it passed, five shapes stayed down.

One tried to crawl away from the carnage.

Sera stepped on his wrist and snapped it. He rolled, gasped, and she finished it with a boot to the throat.

"Lock room," Elias snapped, still watching their backs.

They pushed into it, the lock room. It was two thick doors with wheel hubs, a small chamber in between, then the outer yard.

The metal sweated heat. The seals hissed. Outside air crept in along the bottom seam and tasted like cold and nothing else.

Zubair set a hand on the inner door and warmed the hinges until they sang.

Elias let the rifle drop out of his hands just long enough to spin the wheel. Alexei cooled the bolts on the far side with two slow passes of his hand and the wheel turned easier. The door edged open.

"Hold it," Sera said, her creature picking up something that the human counterpart couldn’t.

The men stopped like her words were divine command.

She let her creature come forward even more, wanting to make sure that there were no surprises waiting for them.

Nothing moved behind them but the fire. Nothing lived in the rooms that mattered. Nothing waited to surge this way. When her creature assured her that it was safe, Sera nodded once.

"We’re good," she announced, and the men went into motion.

They swung the inner door wide as heat rushed into the lock.

Smoke flowed after it, thick and sure. They crossed into the chamber and pulled the inner door shut behind them. The fire settled at once just beyond the window, like a dog waiting for its master to return.

Elias spun the outer wheel. The yard door opened slow, steam on the hinges where Alexei’s breath had kissed them cold.

Wind hit their faces. Night air. Clean. Deep. It felt like stepping out of a fever.

They moved into the yard.

The first building across the concrete roared louder now, flames racing upward as windows blew one by one as heat found the weak spots. The sky over it was red as ash drifted on the wind. Snow hissed where it landed on hot metal, adding to the smoke in the air.

Zubair turned back to the building they had just left. He lifted his hand, palm out.

The fire inside responded to him, laying down flat, all at once, like it had been told to rest.

Then he pushed.

The flame surged in a new direction—up and back, away from the lock, away from the yard, chasing itself into the very heart of the building.

He shut doors with it. He sealed halls. He made sure nothing that wore a human shape could choose the wrong exit and survive.

Lachlan stared at the windows and let out a slow whistle. "Show-off."

Zubair’s mouth curved, small and mean. He didn’t look away from his work.

"Second building," Elias reminded everyone.

Sera had already started walking. Luci went with her, and the men fell into line in without a word.

They crossed the yard at a jog, their boots splashing through thin puddles that flashed to steam when Zubair’s heat swept past and then froze at the edges when Alexei cooled them to make footing clean.

The second building’s lock door looked the same as the first—thick steel, wheel hub, bolts hidden in the frame. The panel shivered once from heat bleeding through the yard.

Sera didn’t have to say anything before the men were on the door, trying to open it.

Once again, Elias set to the wheel. Alexei palmed the hinge. The metal sighed. The door moved. Lachlan took the edge and hauled. It swung inward on black.

They stepped into the entrance and looked around them.

Zubair lifted his hand and the dark inside turned red.

Fire drew a line under the inner door, then climbed each side of the frame.

The panel pulsed as heat met bolts. Zubair pushed harder. The seam went bright white. The gasket burned away in a slow curl. On the far side of the darkness, boots shifted, and someone breathed just a little too fast.

"Ready?" Elias asked, bring his rifle up.

Lachlan smiled, teeth bright. "I was born ready, E-man."

Alexei’s breath fogged as he rolled his eyes. "Open it."

Sera nodded, in agreement, already done with it all.

Zubair snapped his fingers.

Flame took the seam. The inner door glowed, then peeled, then folded inward with a sob of metal.

Men on the far side shouted once and raised rifles they didn’t get to fire.

Zubair walked forward into the blast of heat, fire running ahead of his boots like a red carpet.

Sera went with him.

Elias and Lachlan flanked.

Alexei dropped the temperature just enough to keep the air clean in their mouths, just enough to make the smoke settle where Zubair wanted it.

Luci slid low between their legs, his eyes bright with excitement, his lips curled back from white teeth.

The second building breathed in.

Zubair gave it the matchless fire it asked for.