Sitting on a fallen tree, I watch them hard at work. There are a ton of overwhelming emotions to process, complete with a persistent wildfire scent marking their excitement. It’s ironic, really, being I thought the wildfire was coming to slay us. Seems to be the other way around.

They’re divided into groups, led by Connor (land-walkers), Molly (sky-fliers), and Seán (water-gliders). The recruits take straight to the task, relieved to operate in a natural order as they’re used to. Dim side: the magical discoveries are far from painless. Ryan’s busy acting as a military medic, healing the fallen.

I love Molly taking the leadership role. She has four sky-fliers: Debhlainn, Rowtag, Brady, and Chayton. None can fly as she can, but each has an ability that links to the air element. Debhlainn’s Air Burst doesn’t hurt if you shut your eyes. It’s like getting a puff of air from the machine calculating intraocular pressure at the eye doctor, just on a larger scale. Rowtag directs sound waves. His gift has the same deafening effect as Seán’s Brain Bleed, only it isn’t a scream. It’s a gunshot at close range. He calls it Thunderboom. Similar to Alexandria’s asphyxiation, Brady manipulates breathing. He does it by smothering you, hence the name Smother. Can’t say I’m a fan, but it’ll come in handy in our fight. Finally, Chayton can suck the air out of things. Vac Attack for the win.

“If you take my breath away one more time, it’ll be the last breath you take,” Molly scolds him.

“Practice makes perfect,” Chayton muses.

“Does it?” Molly thwacks him.

He rubs the back of his head. “What was that for?”

“Practice makes perfect,” she echoes.

Seán’s a charismatic leader, using humor to relate to his Miscreants. He’s charged with Brenden, Liam, Shila, and Takoda. They’re all water-gliders, which is what Brody was meant to be at the point of his conversion. It happened. Later. Much later. Sliding my pocket rocket out of my jeans, I curl him in my fist. It’s a comfort having him accessible. Brenden and Liam are blood brothers who get along about as well as typical brothers do at a middle grade age. Not at all. There’s a broad gap between them, but apparently, they were inducted into the Sentry at the same time. Brenden can speed things up—bleeding, sickness, etc. It’s similar to Akantha’s acceleration. Liam, on the other hand, can slow things down like Matthew. Gift tags: Tortoise and Hare. Shila? Poor lad has an unfortunate black thumb he dubs Wither. He can’t control the on or off switch, either. He sucks the life right out of anything he touches. Last, though leading as my personal favorite, is Takoda. The boy is just genuinely happy and appreciative of everything. He can liquefy objects temporarily. Anything he touches pools into a sludge puddle at his feet, reforming moments later. So gross.

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“What are you calling it?” Seán asks, watching him work.

“Snotify.”

He gives a giant thumbs up. “Excellent choice.”

Connor stayed a land-walker but can now shake things up. As in, he can cause earthquakes. He’s in charge of the land-walkers: Machk, Len, Keme, and Collin. Like Brenden and Liam, Machk and Len are blood brothers. Identical twins, in fact. Machk’s ability works like a magnet. I’d have classified it as telekinesis if not for Declan correcting me. Machk can’t technically move objects. What he does is draw things toward him. Len, conversely, pushes things away. Growing up in Grand Lake, Oklahoma, fishing was a rite of passage for them, resulting in Cast and Reel monikers. Keme is probably the youngest of the group at no more than seventeen years old. Just as Takoda liquefies things temporarily, Keme disintegrates things temporarily by touching them, aka Dust Mite. Collin’s power is similarly touch-centric and short-lasting, except the pieces explode instead of dissolving. Yeah, you guessed it. Explosion for the call sign. We aren’t certain if the reformation applies to people with regard to Keme, Collin, or Takoda’s gifts. Objects are a safe test. The Rebels will be our live testing dummies.

“Ashes to ashes,” Keme chants. “Dust to dust.”

“We need to get these guys gloves,” Connor mutters, sitting down next to me. “I’m not sure about this.”

“Tad too late to pull out now.”

“Correct.”

“You know what I do when things are too overwhelming?”

“Take a nap,” he tuts.

“That’s fair.” I do tend to do that, particularly lately. “I also try to focus on one thing at a time. Stop trying to focus on the whole team. Just focus on your group.”

“I can’t help worrying about everyone.”

“I feel that feel, Connor. It’s my trademark move.”

He half-smiles.

“How are they doing?”

“Best they could be this early in the change,” he informs me. “They’re still a way off as far as control goes. In the next hour, we’ll see marked improvement. It’s too new for them to do any good with what they have going on.”

“At least they’re having fun.”

“Parenting sucks,” he complains.

“Being responsible for people is tough, but you’re already doing good. They all respect your authority. They’re listening.”

“No idea why, as I look so much younger than them.”

“Do you feel younger?”

“Oldest kid I know,” he boasts.

“Growing more and more every day.” Molly comes up behind him, locks her arm around his neck, and rubs her knuckles against his skull. “So precious.” She pinches him on the cheek.

“Knock it off, Punk.” He shoves her away. “You’re making me look bad.”

I laugh.

“I’m taking another perimeter run. Last check set them two hours from camp. We should have an hour to get ready if they stayed their course,” she reports.

Nodding, I take a deep breath. An hour isn’t nearly long enough to prepare. Connor starts relaying orders to all the teams. He skipped Brody’s shoes, jumping a few tiers to commander. Moot, as Brody wouldn’t have wanted to lead a team. That wasn’t what came naturally to him. Connor? His whole heart is in it. Brody’s whole heart was only ever concerned with protecting me. Not a bad thing, but definitely not Connor’s way. He wants to protect them all. Honestly, he may just pull it off.

One hour to get ready. What more can we do? I’m full to the brim with energy. Absolutely saturated. Will it be enough?