Lachlan came up with a rag and a canteen, dipped it, and then held it out, not realizing what Sera had just done.

Sera took it and wiped blood and soot off her face. The rag came away a dark red color.

Her skin came away the same pale lavender color it had been all day. She pressed the back of her wrist to her mouth for a second and breathed into it. She tucked the rag in her back pocket.

Elias stacked three crates by the door and kicked their corners until they settled level. He had his back to the cold. His eyes were on Zubair.

Zubair dropped into the pilot seat. The leather creaked like it was groaning about yet another mission.

His hands found the pedals and the cyclic as if they remembered for him. He closed his eyes once and rolled his shoulders back until the bones clicked into place under his skin.

He opened his eyes as he let out a long breath. He could feel his body becoming calmer, more patient. Just having Sera in his eyesight was doing wonders for him.

She was able to calm the savage creature inside of him with just a brief look, letting the man concentrate on what needed to be done.

"How much fuel?" Elias asked.

"Enough to cross the line," Zubair said. He pointed at the drum stack with his chin. "Bring two to the door. Leave the rest. We won’t need them."

Alexei raised a brow. "Confident."

Zubair set his palm on the panel again and warmth seeped into the metal. "Certain."

Lachlan laughed under his breath. "Hate flying, but love not walking."

Elias cut the straps on the drum pallet and rolled two to the threshold.

He found the pump, hand type, all steel, and screwed it into the first bung. He set the catch can, primed the pump, and watched clean fuel pulse into the line.

"We’ll keep it simple," he said. "Enough to get us south and into quiet."

"Quiet," Alexei repeated, tasting the word like it didn’t belong to them. "Haven’t heard that in a while."

"Gets boring," Lachlan replied with a shrug, leaning against the crate stack, watching Sera. "We can make noise when we need to."

Sera stood still and let them talk around her.

She put her hand on Luci’s head and scratched behind one ear.

The wolf closed his eyes halfway and leaned until his weight pushed into her leg. He was too big to be a house dog, no matter if he still considered himself to be a lapdog.

He was a weapon with fur, but right now he pretended otherwise and let his breath slow.

Zubair’s voice came low from the cockpit. "Elias. Check the tail rotor cable."

Elias went, nimble on the stand, boots careful on steps slick with ash grit. He reached in, found the cable sheath, and tugged. "Free."

"Good."

Zubair’s fingers tapped the panel once like a man drumming a tabletop. He looked out through the cockpit glass at the fire outside.

The reflection painted his face orange and put moving shadows in his eyes. He spoke without looking away. "Cut a path to the runway."

Alexei lifted his hand and cooled the air near the hangar doors. The heat in the yard pulled aside. Smoke slid left. Snow crawled in. He felt the flow and nodded. "Path is there."

Zubair rose from the seat long enough to step down, cross to the big door wheel, and put his palm flat to the steel.

Old grease warmed and loosened.

Metal shrank a fraction under the heat and then relaxed.

He took the wheel and turned. It moved. Slow at first. Easier with the second round. Racks of teeth engaged and the big door rolled on tracks, groaning, complaining, but going.

A slice of the yard opened to the sight of orange light and black sparks and sideways snow.

Lachlan shoved his shoulder to the panel and pushed. "Again," he grinned.

Zubair turned the wheel and the door moved more.

Elias finished the pump, cranked the handle twice to clear the line, capped the drum, and kicked the hose free.

He coiled it neat and hung it. He did the second drum by feel. When it was done he slapped the metal with his palm and stepped back.

"Ready," he said.

"Ready," Alexei echoed.

Luci’s ears snapped forward.

He swung his head toward the far side of the hangar where the dark tucked into the corner. He made a low sound, but then shook his massive head. He relaxed again, satisfied with his own check.

Sera looked at Zubair. "Ready when you are."

He met her eyes. Heat tracked slow along the bones of his hands and then settled deeper. "Let’s do this."

Elias moved to the rear seats, checked the harness points, and sat without buckling yet.

Lachlan hauled himself in opposite and planted his boots. Alexei stood at the door and watched the yard.

He lifted his hands and pressed the wind into a narrow lane along the concrete, cold smoothing the air where the rotors would eat it.

Zubair climbed back into the seat and put his hands on the controls.

He rolled his neck once, slow, like a fighter rolling his shoulders before the bell.

He pressed his heels to the pedals and felt them answer. The machine spoke to him in the low, metal way machines did when they were right. He smiled small.

"Everyone in," he grunted.

Elias buckled in. Lachlan did the same and tugged the straps until they bit.

Alexei swung into the side seat and pulled the door half-closed, keeping a hand on the frame. Luci trotted up the ramp, jumped, and sank his weight between Sera’s knees like he had always ridden helicopters.

Sera stepped in last.

With a brief look over her shoulder and a flick of her wrist, she quickly sat down where Luci wanted her.

A gust pushed ash and snow into the hangar and turned it into thin mud on the concrete.

The big door shuddered on its tracks. The buildings outside sagged again with a sound like bones grinding.

Zubair breathed once and set his thumb to the starter.