"Let me come with you to Enodia, and I'll pay for everything we need," Teige said. He paused, then added, "Or--you can keep on as you have been. Maybe you'll make it..." he shrugged, "maybe you won't."

He sat back.

"I reckon you'd think of your sister first, though."

Hawk didn't answer. He rubbed his hands together, shoulders sinking. The fire crept back in his head again--blinding, reaching up into the sky. Figures, framed against it, one angry and brandishing a pipe or a stick.

He ran his fingers through his hair, lifting one wing over his head halfheartedly. The flashbacks, the visions of fire, came more and more often now, and he couldn't get up the strength to fight them off.