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Edvar opened his mouth, but Iryana didn’t let him speak.

“This isn’t favoritism! You can’t just disobey orders and expect there to not be consequences.”

She sent her cousins off, mind still turning. She felt sick. If only she could get her clan to trust her completely. To actually give the soldiers a chance. But the longer she thought about it, the more her anger turned.

Why had Major Tenar confronted her in front of everyone? Why had he done it so loudly? The captain didn’t have to leave on the scouting mission shorthanded. They could have requested more soldiers or reported her cousins for not showing up. Her cousins weren’t entirely to blame. And the way he went about it… did he want the alliance to falter? Did he want them to fight?

Walking back into the main room of the temple, she could already hear word spreading about the soldier killed because guardians refused to help. Things like this were like a dirty wound, bound to get infected.

She considered finding Pyetar, but she needed to address this herself.

Iryana found Tenar, thankfully alone, in one of the newly dug pit homes. His head snapped up when she entered. She took a deep breath, ignoring her nausea.

“I’ve talked to my clan members, Major,” she started, making herself stand tall. “They will be punished appropriately, and they understand the consequences of their mistake.”

“Good,” he spat stiffly.

“But there’s a few things we need to get straight.” She felt uncomfortable, like wearing armor cut a bit too large. “Things like this should be reported and fixed before people are in danger. I’ll let you remind your captains of that. And in the future, I’d like us to deal with this sort of thing privately. This has already spread through the camp, and it’s just going to make it harder for us all to work together. This alliance is critical. You understand that, right?”

He narrowed his eyes at her, jaw clenched, but the tension slowly bled from his body. His eyes drooped with exhaustion.

“I apologize for not minding my temper and considering the consequences of how I told you.” Major Tenar rolled his shoulders. “But the soldier who died today was a friend of mine, and I didn’t think.”

Iryana deflated slightly, grimacing. “I’m sorry for the accusation—and for your loss.”

He nodded, opening his mouth to say something else, but a signal call ran through the camp. A quick trill that silenced them.

Danger.

Iryana darted out of the shelter, spinning around for any sign of what was happening. Had one of the seers predicted it? Had a scout seen something coming? Dogs barked through the camp.

A sudden, hollow thump sounded from above, drawing Iryana’s gaze to the mountains. On the ridge up behind the temple, the snow undulated.

“Shit,” she gasped, her stomach dropping. Panic seized her. Where were her sisters?

The snow began to slide.

“Avalanche!” she screamed over and over, running toward the temple.

The air filled with snow, making it impossible to determine the path of the snowslide. Where it would go, whether it would be big enough to bury the whole cirque or if it wouldn’t gain enough momentum to even reach them. She didn’t know how to judge the possibilities of it, all she knew was that it could be bad.

Her throat was quickly raw from screaming. Everyone was panicking, abandoning what they were doing to flee to the far sides of the cirque. It sounded like thunder, but it echoed through the ground.

She could see the cloud of white growing as the snow slid faster and faster. Thick pines snapped, ice cracked, and the roiling cloud of snow hissed like a waterfall. All around her people screamed and shouted as reality sank in.

They didn’t have time to escape. She didn’t have time to save anyone. She should have been running in the opposite direction.

Snow collided with the cirque in a great roar, the impact throwing Iryana to the ground. She was hit with a cloud of white, like a blizzard suddenly ripping over her.

Her fingers dug into the snow beneath her as Iryana tried to scramble away, fear choking her. She braced for the feeling of snow colliding with her, of snow forcing its way into her mouth and nose. But it never did.

An eerie quiet settled into the cirque.

Iryana climbed to her feet, muscles shaking and horror lacing through her veins. She stumbled in the direction of the avalanche. Her eyes strained as the snow slowly settled, revealing a spill of white that had covered the far end of the camp right behind the temple.

A moment of relief slammed into her. It was a small section of camp, far from where her clan or friends should be. But many could still be buried.

She raced, legs burning as she propelled herself across the snow as quickly as she could. When she neared the snow slide, she threw herself at it.