Jessica returned with the equipment. Her parents watched as they bounded up and away from the backyard, vanishing into the sky as Jessica made them invisible. Hailey didn't have any time to waste. Luckily, it was a cloudy day. Her favorite kind, in fact, with massive puffy cumulus clouds forming huge mountains in the sky.

  She summoned up a powerful jet of wind using the tourmaline stone hanging from around her neck, pushing them skyward like the thrust of a rocket while she kept her wings folded flat behind her. As they crossed the lowest cloud layer, she released the jet before it started to burn the gem and spread her wings wide.

  Jessica released the patch of invisibility that had kept their ascent hidden. She began to push out raw energy, allowing a flow of magic to emerge from somewhere in her chest to fill the space between herself and Hailey.

  Hailey took it gratefully and transformed it into another jet of wind to propel them across the wide empty expanse. They tore across the blue at breakneck speeds, reaching Rallsburg in a quarter of the time it normally took. Hailey felt like her face might get cut by the air itself from the sheer speed they managed, but to her relief the pain dissipated as they slowed down.

  The forests around Rallsburg were rife with activity. A pair of helicopters with police markings were making slow passes around the town. Hailey used a bit of the leftover energy Jessica was still pushing out and sent it into her eyes. As Jessica had described it, she was actually enhancing the cones in her eyes to pick up far more light than usual and be able to resolve images much further away in greater detail.

  Hailey didn't quite understand how that was possible, but Jessica managed to explain the exact way to manipulate the tiny components of her eyes without really explaining what was actually changing. She wondered if Jessica had actually known herself, since many of her trickier spells came to her through long stints of casting out with her Knowledge affinity.

  Now, of course, she couldn't explain a single one of them.

  Once her brain had adjusted to the vastly increased capabilities of her eyesight, Hailey took a quick scan of the area. She could see dozens of uniformed men and women scouring the forest and the remains of the town alike, in much the same fashion they had back in May. It was a bit different seeing it herself, rather than plastered across the news, but either way Hailey felt unsettled. She tugged Jessica's right sleeve downward, telling her they were heading in. Jessica nodded against her, then stopped the flow of energy between them.

  A faint outline of a circle appeared below them. Hailey dove for it, picking up speed as they fell. Jessica's arms clenched tight around her as they accelerated, summoning a wall of invisibility in every direction. Hailey could tell she was straining at the sheer mental difficulty of keeping up so many fast-moving illusory walls.

  Just a few more seconds, Jess. Hang in there.

  They dropped straight through the forest canopy. Hailey flared out her wings and sent a jet of air below them at the same time, braking as hard and fast as she could. They just barely slowed down in time, landing on a single foot and perfectly straight up in the middle of the bridge. It was probably Hailey's best landing ever, utterly exhilarating—but no one was around to celebrate it.

  She unstrapped Jessica, and they hurried into Cinza's cabin. The entire group was gathered inside, watching a live feed of the search on Ruby's laptop while another feed played out on the computer monitor. Cinza gestured at them to close the door behind them.

  "So you guys heard," Hailey said breathlessly, taking an open chair near the door.

  Jessica squeezed in and sat down on the floor next to her. Cinza's cabin wasn't exactly large. Twelve of them inside at once was straining the confines of the place, already split in half by the curtain, to its breaking point. Ruby and Cinza shared her chair, and Ruby looked like she'd seen a ghost, her skin impossibly pale against her dark red hair.

  "We thought he might be alive, but…" Cinza trailed off grimly.

  "He can still make those monsters," Brittany said, seated in the next chair beside Cinza. She winced as she adjusted her position, the remainder of her leg bumping up against the chair's arm.

  "Are you—" Matthew asked, concerned.

  "Phantom pains," Brittany grunted through gritted teeth. "I'm okay."

  "You didn't post online," Hailey prompted.

  Cinza shook her head. "We cut off our net as soon as the helicopters showed up. I'm not sure if they could actually detect our signal, but I didn't want to risk it. This is all just local broadcast on the antenna," she added, gesturing at the screen. "No signals going out."

  "Anything I should be telling the others?"

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  "Nothing they don't already know." Cinza's eyes remained fixed on the live feed, which seemed to be pointing right at their home—though of course on the screen it appeared to be just another patch of trees. "I trust everyone knows to stay hidden and under the radar."

  "So much for going out and finding some new people," said Nikki with dismay. Joe put an arm around her shoulders, but she pushed him back, looking annoyed.

  "Actually," said Rufus, still leaning against the windowsill and looking a bit winded. "Might be the best time to get out there and find those folks. They gonna need us more than ever, 'tween the man in the woods and the Man in the gov'ment."

  "With all of that shit going on?" Josh said, raising an eyebrow. He stood back in the corner where the curtain met the wall, yet another step removed from the rest of the group he was stuck living with. "How the fuck are we gonna bring anyone here if they've got us surrounded?"

  "You don't," said Makoto.

  "Okay, so what are you saying, then?"

  "Hook 'em up to the site," said Rufus, nodding. "The 'mportant thing is we start communicatin' and makin' sure new 'wakened aren't gonna get 'emselves killed, or anyone else, righ'?"

  "That sounds like a way to get us killed. There's a lot of personal information on that site. More than enough to figure out where some of the Ghosts live," said Ruby.

  "That wouldn't help them find us though, would it?" asked Joe. "I thought the ritual kept everyone walking in circles if they tried to get here."

  "Essentially," Cinza confirmed.

  "We're not worried about this place," said Josh. "It's Natalie and the Laushires, or Hector and Boris up in B.C. The Bowmans and the Silverdales."

  "The same arguments we went through four months ago," said Rufus with a sigh.

  "I agree with Rufus," said Cinza, drawing a startled look from Ruby. "With a caveat," she added, before Ruby could start talking. "The site can be segmented. Rachel granted me root access. I will pull all the relevant posts and messages with personal information into a private section, strictly for our use. But the majority of the site, including all our work and research data on magic, must remain available for newly awakened."

  "Are you fucking insane?" asked Josh heatedly.

  "We're not making the same mistake again," Cinza shot back, rising up in her chair slightly. "The old Council was marked by secrecy and distrust. Secrets were guarded jealously. We must do better, and that means sharing and cooperation. If we bring them in under a veil of suspicion, we only invite betrayal into our midst."

  "The moment you add someone else like Julian, we're all fucked."

  "We're also stronger than the previous council," Cinza added. "You three could only command authority by the mandate you were given. When the time came, Rachel was far stronger by her personal efforts than by any means granted to her through the Articles. I mean no offense, but even the weakest of my followers outstripped all three of you in magical ability."

  "You ever seen me actually cast some shit?"

  "No, and therein lies the proof." Cinza brushed her hair back, wincing slightly at the sound of a helicopter passing overhead. "Magic does not come naturally. It must be exercised and grown. My people practice daily. We drill and train and produce real results from our efforts. We can provide enforcement."

  "We never needed to."

  "Until the day you did. Once from a girl you cast out, and then again in May. Rachel had to court the goddess herself into service, since your forces were so woefully inadequate." Real anger seeped into Cinza's voice as she went on. "If we'd been a proper, unified force, we might not have been caught so off guard. People were dying to Jackson while members of the council were making power plays and stabbing one another in the back."

  Josh glanced around the room, looking for support, but he found none in the gathered Greycloaks. Yusuf's arms still showed angry scars from burns at the hands of the first golem attack on their group. Brittany's missing leg stood out even more, taken by Robert Harrison's bear trap, who had been working with Julian Black—a member of the Council—to destabilize the town. Two of their group, Aaron and Morton, were killed in the fighting. Cinza herself was apparently still recovering from the massive rituals she'd channeled.

  Josh's gaze finally met Hailey's, and with all of that in mind, Hailey couldn't bring herself to disagree with Cinza.

  "I think she's right," she said quietly. Josh looked like he'd been stabbed in the back. "I mean, I wasn't there. I only heard about most of that. But if he's back, we've gotta do something. It sounds like we need to try something different, and Cinza sounds like she's got the best plan."

  Cinza nodded. "I appreciate your fears, Joshua. If certain spells are made commonplace, the world might become far more dangerous. However, the same might be said of guns, or any number of weapons throughout history. The technology will advance. It's only a matter of time. Better that we are the progenitors of its release and can caution its use appropriately."

  "So we can get everyone killed," Josh muttered. "I agreed with Rika. This is dangerous."

  "And Rika was wrong," Cinza snapped. "Without her magic in Rachel's hands, we'd all be dead."

  Josh shook his head. "You've already decided. Just go fucking do it. I won't stand in your way." He walked out of the cabin, leaving a painful silence in his wake. Hailey followed him out, while the rest of the group turned back to watch the screen.

  "Josh, wait up!" To her relief, he stopped and waited for her.

  "Don't worry Hales. I'm sticking around. It's not like I have anywhere to go," he added bitterly.

  "I just—"

  "This is some fuckin' déjà vu," said Josh. "Literally the same as last week, you and Cinza versus me, then we come out here and talk things out, right?" Hailey faltered, and he shrugged. "I'll help you guys out. I'm still in this. Just tell me what to do and I'm there. But don't think for a second you guys aren't playing with fire. I mean, look."

  He pointed into the sky, where in the distance one of the helicopters was turning around for another pass.

  "That shit right there is why we should all be scared. They found one recently dead and we're covered in cops. Brian's still out there somewhere, and he's still got the golems on his side. He probably can't find us here, or we'd already be dead, but you're still gonna have to deal with him sooner or later."

  Josh shook his head. "I'm not trying to be the fucking doom and gloom prophet here, but that's all I'm seeing."