Author’s Note: This is the scene I was doing before I stopped to finish “After the Flood.” I think I like having that part go first better, even if this has some of the necessary details of “how.” It also might not belong to the overall story, but I’ll see how I feel about it later.

“Wait,” Sherwin said, stopping and grabbing hold of his sister, closing his eyes. Cress watched them in silence, knowing the signs of when they were listening to the wind. Air and earth seemed more attuned to their surroundings, able to hear and feel things at great distance—though Oceana could sometimes sense things from the water. He’d never done that, but he didn’t care if he did or not. He had enough “gifts.”

He’d been the first to break a mirror, and he still cursed himself for that day. He wondered if that was what was behind that saying about breaking a mirror causing years of bad luck, if the ancient beliefs about corruption of the soul were in part based on people like them, people who could tap into the other dimensions and manipulate this world through it. That would mean that he understood half of what he did and why he did it, why he could do it, but he never had, and he didn’t figure that he ever would.

Moira’s eyes snapped open, and she yanked herself free from her brother, shaking her head even as the breeze stirred around her. That expression said scared, but Moira didn’t do scared.

Terra frowned, her eyes darting between Moira and Sherwin. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

“Fire,” Sherwin said. “Not their kind. Ours. Has a different scent. Doesn’t die out like it should. This one’s been going for a while.”

“Damn it.”

“It has to be Enya, doesn’t it?”

“No, we want it to be Enya. If it’s not her, then it’s someone who can control fire, and you know what that means,” Oceana said, shaking her head. She frowned, biting her lip as she studied Cress. “We can’t do this. You’re too exhausted to deal with a firebug, even if it is Enya.”

“Water isn’t the only thing that puts out a fire,” Terra reminded her, giving her a dark look. “I know that you don’t trust me after what happened to Stone, and I—I don’t know that I blame you for that, but what there are other ways of dealing with one of them than having either of you manipulate water. Sherwin and Moira can cut out the air supply, make it impossible for it to spread, and I can cover the flames with earth.”

“You mean… work like a real team for a change?” Oceana asked, her lips twisted into a smile that was not the least bit friendly.

Cress touched his sister’s shoulder, and she cursed him even as her temper cooled. Terra had made a mistake, that was undeniable, and Stone had paid the price, but that was how it worked between most siblings. Only Enya had avoided that, but no one would pick her path, either.

“I’ll let you handle the fire,” Cress told them. “I will go after the firebug myself.”

“Cress—”

“Occie, I love you, but you know you can’t douse them fast enough.”

She sighed. Her control had never been as good as his, and her abilities weren’t the same as his, either. Point, counterpoint. None of them were meant to do this on their own. “I don’t know that I want you do to this. You could push yourself too far this time.”

He put his hands on her cheeks and leaned his head against hers. “That is why I have you, remember?”

“Stop trying to lull me into thinking this is nothing. I know better. We just lost Stone. We can’t afford to lose you.”

Sometimes he thought getting captured or killed would be a relief, but he never voiced the thought. His job was keeping them calm and as united as possible. He stepped back, giving Moira the keys. “You drive. I’m going to rest as much as I can before we get there.”

“She doesn’t know where to go.”

“She will.”

Author’s Note: I was writing a scene I thought needed to go before this one, and then I changed my mind, thinking the dramatic effect of this one going first was better than the other, since it was all about the plans and that would have ruined a bit of the “surprise” here.

I also need to settle on a working title for this one…

“You flooded my house.”

Cress nodded. “No choice.”

She winced, shaking her head as she looked around the room, listening to the water drip from every surface. The flames had left their mark, black, angry patches burned into the wood, and she knew it was only their contrary nature that had kept them from taking the whole thing down, her house and rest of the state with it.

“The monster got out.” She heard herself whisper, shuddering even with most of his weight trapping her to the floor. If he hadn’t been just as soaked as she was, that might have mattered, though it was more than a chill that had her shivering right now.

“I know.”

Of course he did. He’d had to stop it again, and from the way he kept talking, it hadn’t been easy. He hadn’t moved since she came back to herself, and he would have if he could. Too considerate to dump himself on her, too aware of what they’d never been, too much of a goody-goody ever to cross any kind of line, not with her or anyone else. She’d shove him to the side if she had any energy left, but the fire had stripped her as it had the house, leaving nothing behind.

“How?”

“The shift in the air.”

“Sherwin.”

“I knew you missed me,” he said, all smiles and charm as he leaned down next to them. Sandy blonde, always looking windswept and yet perfect, he had a tendency to be smug that she’d almost forgotten about—right until she saw him again and put all the pieces together that made him what he was. Hot air was his specialty, after all.

She would have laughed, but none of this was funny, not after what she’d done. “I didn’t.”

“Liar. I keep telling you—fire needs air to breathe.”

“Just because I fell for that line when I was thirteen doesn’t mean I’ll do it again,” she said, regaining some of her strength. She had to shut him up before he mentioned that it wasn’t just at thirteen or at fifteen. If she’d been any more of a fool, any weaker to what he was…

“Come on, Cress,” Oceana said, taking hold of her brother’s arm. “We’ll get you back to the car. You’ve done enough. Sherwin can carry her.”

Cress used her help and Moira’s to get up again, and Enya got a better look at him, shaking her head in disgust. She’d almost claimed three lives tonight. He could have been one of them. “They were here. Looking for you.”

“Told you you shouldn’t have gone to see her,” Terra said, and Enya glared at her, the moment ruined as Sherwin lifted her into his arms.

“Didn’t ask for your opinion, Terra, and if they’d seen me then, they would have just taken me. Well, they would have tried,” Cress told her, echoing Enya’s thought from earlier. “They’d have had no choice but to try for it. They can’t afford to let that kind of opportunity pass. They need me to be on my own, and even then, they can’t handle what I can do to them.”

“They didn’t know that I had any ability of my own. I was just Cress’ unsuspecting ‘girlfriend,’ no threat at all.”

“Girlfriend?”

“I’d be more concerned about their ability to find Enya and still not know what she was,” Cress said, giving Sherwin a pointed look. “We’re not going to argue again. Enya’s been compromised, and if this wasn’t a trap before, it is now. Move. Everyone in the car, now.”