They crested the hill, and Rika crept up to the edge of the apartments with Alden at her heels. Their apartments were at the far end, but this was the most covered approach up the hill, so it was the route Rika chose. She crouched low and peeked around the corner wall.

  "Looks fine," she murmured. They rounded the corner and were halfway down the row when Rika held up her hand. "Shit!"

  "What?"

  "The door handle. Someone's in my apartment."

  "What?" As Alden whispered, they both saw the door start to swing inward.

  Rika turned to the nearest apartment and closed her eyes, holding up her hand and moving her fingers intricately. A second later, the door lock clicked open. "In!" she hissed.

  Alden had a split-second glance of Ryan's distinct blonde head peeking out the door—thankfully looking the opposite direction—before the surge of electricity in his fingers told him that Rika had dragged him inside the apartment. She slid the door closed silently behind them.

  "Who lives here?" Alden asked nervously, glancing around. There were two bedroom doors in front of them, one slightly ajar. He could see the edges of a chalk drawing on the wooden floor through the crack.

  "Fuck if I know," Rika whispered. "We just need to hide out until they leave."

  "He. It was Ryan."

  "That motherfucker," she growled. "Next time I see him, he's getting ten thousand volts."

  "Mmm?" came a noise from downstairs. They turned simultaneously to look at the staircase. A girl with brown-blue hair—the same one Alden had nearly run over that morning—was looking at them through wide frameless glasses from the bottom landing. Her eyes widened in shock. She lifted a hand, muttering something neither of them could make out.

  "Fuck!" Rika stampeded down the stairs two at a time, her hand plunging into her bag. Alden felt a crackle in the air, but it wasn't from Rika.

  The girl's fingers burst into life twisting torturous patterns in mid-air. A ring of fire burst forth around her outstretched hand, blue-colored and spinning madly about. She flicked a finger at them.

  Two fireballs launched themselves toward Rika. They hissed menacingly as they flew.

  Adrenaline shot through Alden with a cold burst of fear. This fire was nothing like the little yellow-orange candle lights he and Rika had been playing with. It wasn't even like the bright orange fire that had been hurled at them at Dan's, licking off rubies hurled through the air.

  This was pure, elemental flame with nothing to subsist it. The sheer heat pounded him in waves, like someone had suddenly lit a campfire inches from his face. Alden could feel sweat beading on his forehead and neck.

  Rika dove to the landing halfway down before the stairs curved inward. The fireballs impacted against the wall where she'd been a second earlier, splashing out in a stunning display of color before reforming and zooming back into place around her wrist. There was no damage to the wall whatsoever. This girl, whoever she was, had amazing control—and tremendous power.

  The girl backed up. She threw her arm forward and sent another pair at Rika's chest. Rika shot a fork of lightning at them, but it fizzled through harmlessly. Apparently deflecting them only worked when the fireballs were tied to the rubies, as they had been in the diner.

  "Fuck!" Rika shouted again, only barely ducking the next assault.

  Alden wondered if he should try to help, but he had no idea what he could possibly do against this girl. At best, he'd just be a distraction to them both. He was afraid, but he was also excited. There was a duel happening right in front of him, magic on magic. If he didn't fear for his own life from the bursts of fire impacting the wall below him, Alden would have been ecstatic.

  Rika dove to the ground as another ball of fire only barely missed her by inches. Alden couldn't tell how she had even reacted to that. It had flown at her so quickly. One instant, Rika was about to be charbroiled—the next, she was flat on the ground.

  Rika's hand flew out in front of her, fingers splayed outward. A trail of lightning connected with the bespectacled girl. She crumpled, squealing in pain, spasming from the electricity surging through her.

  Rika groaned, collapsing against the rug she'd landed on.

  "Alden," she choked out. "Help."

  Alden rushed to her side. "What?"

  "Tie her up... or something. Before she recovers. I basically tased her," Rika forced out, coughing. "Fuck, that hurt."

  He looked around the room. "Tie her up with what?"

  There wasn't really anything he could work with that he could see. There was a kitchen area and a living room, but nothing that looked like rope. He thought he saw something rope-like outside on the balcony—a net of some kind—but that would take him right past the girl jerking around on the floor, who still worried him a great deal. "Is she going to be okay?"

  "I don't know," Rika said, her voice quivering. Alden thought it was just exhaustion at first, but Rika sounded genuinely concerned. "I've never really done that to someone before. I panicked. Goddammit."

  Rika reached out to a nearby chair and pulled herself up. Her legs looked like they were barely usable, and a trickle of dark crimson leaked from one nostril.

  "Thanks for the backup, by the way. How the fuck could she manage those without falling over? Those were way hotter than anything I've ever seen."

  "Who is she?" Alden asked, approaching her and kneeling down.

  "No fucking clue. Never seen her before this morning."

  Alden tried to help the girl steady herself, as she'd started rolling onto her back. He was afraid she might choke or something. "How do you help someone who's been tased?"

  "I don't fucking know. I'm kinda busy saving our asses here," Rika snapped. She grimaced. "Ugh. Sorry, Alden. Head's killing me. I had to use too much to dodge that shit."

  "Use too much what?" Alden asked, but he was interrupted by a groan from beneath her. The girl was making an odd noise. "What?"

  "She say something?" Rika asked.

  "Uhh, no."

  Her eyes were wide, though part of that was due to the glasses that magnified her irises. She started speaking rapidly, though it wasn't in any language he recognized—or anything that sounded like language at all.

  "What the fuck?" Rika asked, still splayed out in the armchair. She lifted her head to look down at the girl. "What's she doing?"

  "I have no idea," Alden said. "Hey, do you need help? Are you okay?" The girl's eyes shot back and forth panicked. She kept making odd noises, like she was trying to communicate something. "I think something's wrong with her."

  "No shit, Alden. But she… I mean, I didn't do that. Right?" Rika said. Her own voice had a note of panic now. "Getting tased is supposed to be completely not permanent. Doesn't last more than fifteen minutes. She should be totally fine. Right?"

  "I don't know," Alden said, trying to interpret the girl's chirping noises. She still didn't seem to have control of her body, though, so he felt safe for the moment. "Maybe she already had something and you set it off somehow."

  "Don't joke around, Alden. I'm freaking out here. "

  "I am too!"

  "Fuck! What do we do?"

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  "I—"

  Alden was cut off by a heavy object thudding into his shoulder. He fell to the floor, and was just able to twist around to see a girl flying—flying!—down from the sky like a thunderbolt.

  She swooped just below the balcony and rose up to land gracefully on the railing. Her long blonde hair spilled out from an aviator's cap in a braid, pinned in place on her faux-leather jacket. Her hand clasped tight to a necklace. She looked tired, panicked, and very, very angry.

  "Hailey?" Rika breathed. She struggled to raise a hand. Her arms barely made it off the armrest. Alden began to stand up, his hands up in surrender.

  "Look, we—"

  "Get away from her!" Hailey cried, and her free hand punctuated her words with a thrusting fist.

  A wall of wind burst into life, sending paper scattering through the room. Alden practically watched the air rushing at him. The wind hurled him back and flattened him against the wall. He felt like a hurricane had suddenly formed out of Hailey's outstretched arm.

  Rika was thrown over backward on her chair and pushed across the floor. She slammed into the cupboard below the sink with a loud thump.

  "Hailey, stop!" Rika shouted over the gale force. Hailey's eyes narrowed. She stepped off the balcony rail and started walking toward them.

  The wind doubled over in strength, and Alden felt like his stomach might collapse in on itself. He was choking from the rush of air against his throat. Hand outstretched, Alden tried to grasp the handle of the refrigerator and try to pull himself out of the wind, but it was futile.

  The force of the tempest encompassed the entire room. The papers they'd been looking at were now plastered to the wall near his ear. He noted belatedly that they were just college classwork. Totally ordinary.

  Hailey looked as though she'd actually hold them there until they suffocated, but the girl on the floor managed to move her hand and tug at the leg of Hailey's jeans. Hailey was distracted for only a moment, but it was enough to break the gale and let Alden fall to the floor wheezing. He decided he was done moving for the time being. His arm throbbed with pain, but he dared not move to look.

  He didn't want to risk another assault from the furious Hailey.

  "Jess?" Hailey asked. Rika was groaning from the corner, curled up in the fetal position with her hands on her head. Hailey ignored them both, crouching down next to her friend. "Jess, are you okay?" As she spoke, Hailey pointed at the girl's face, then twisted her hand to a thumbs up, creasing her eyebrows.

  Jess frowned, but lifted her own arm to give a thumbs up in return. Alden let out a breath of relief. Hailey pulled Jess to her feet and helped her sit back on the couch, then turned to face them. Her expression was hostile.

  "Rika, why are you here? And who's that?"

  "Hi, Hailey, nice to see you too," Rika answered, coughing. "Also, how the fuck did you do that?"

  "I…" Hailey started, glancing at Jess before answering. "Well, I guess there's no hiding it now. I can do magic." She sounded embarrassed.

  "Yeah, no shit. So can we."

  "You can too?" Hailey asked. "Were we the only people in the whole town that didn't know?"

  "I was gonna ask about that. I thought Rachel had tracked down everyone who could use magic," Rika said, her voice steadily returning. "But here you are, and fuck me you're strong."

  "I am?" Hailey asked, sounding bewildered.

  "Uhh, yeah? No one can make anything like that wind. And am I wrong or did you actually fly up here?"

  "Yeah," Hailey said, looking embarrassed again. "It took a while to learn how."

  "Hailey, that should be impossible. It takes way too much energy to lift a human being for that long."

  "Jessica and I worked it out," Hailey said, glancing at her friend again. "She got me flying."

  "So she's just as as strong as you. Figures. Those fireballs were something else," Rika said.

  "You fought?" Hailey said sharply. Rika held up her hands in surrender.

  "Honest mistake. I'm in hiding, okay?"

  Hailey looked like she had just remembered something important. "The meeting! The murders! You… You're wanted by the sheriff!"

  "Well fuck," Rika sighed. "Wait, what murders?"

  "What?"

  "Look, Hailey, let's just jump to the conclusion that I didn't do whatever they accused me of. Which would be great because I have no fucking idea what it is. So could you tell me?"

  "...I'm not exactly sure. I kinda… left early."

  "Great."

  "There were three people dead though. Two guys—Alex and Jay, both freshmen—and a middle schooler. Over a week ago now."

  Rika grimaced. "Someone killed a kid? Shit…"

  "So… it wasn't you?"

  "Fuck no it wasn't me!"

  "Couldn't have been," Alden added, still struggling for air. He felt very light-headed and weak.

  Hailey looked at him funny. "Who are you again?"

  "I'm Zack. I just got into town, on the same train as Rika. She couldn't have killed those people, she wasn't here yet."

  "Oh," Hailey answered, looking between them. "Are you—"

  "Nope," Rika answered. She gave a similar look between Hailey and Jessica, now looking fully recovered and watching them all with a pained expression. "Are you?"

  "No," Hailey answered quietly, glancing at her friend. Jessica hummed something nonsensical before crossing her legs on the couch. Her hand sat on the couch rest, pointedly directed straight at Rika.

  "What's wrong with her?"

  "I'm still not sure," Hailey answered. Her voice quavered. "Something went wrong with a ritual. I wasn't in the room."

  "Oh, shit," Rika murmured. "She did this to herself?"

  "Yeah," Hailey answered. She looked like she might burst into tears, but steeled herself. "She can't understand any language. Nothing at all. I think she was trying something with her affinity, but it went wrong. Now it's all gone, and she can't learn anything new."

  "Sign language?" Alden suggested.

  Hailey shook her head. "Not even that. We get by with the absolute basics. She gets 'positive' and 'negative' with nods, thumbs down, stuff like that. It's all symbolic."

  "And you can't try to help her because of Mason's Law," Rika added.

  "Because of what?"

  "Oh, right. Mason's Law is the stuff about not being able to directly affect each other with magic."

  "Oh. I didn't know we had a law for that," Hailey said.

  "Well, you guys seemed to have done fine on your own. Figured out affinities, eh?"

  "Diffinities too."

  "Nice. Good word for it."

  "Thanks, but Jessica came up with it…" Hailey trailed off. Jessica saw her expression and reached up to grasp her hand. Hailey held it tight before continuing. "I'm still trying to figure out a way to help her."

  "Only way is to get her to do it herself," Rika said. "There's no way to affect someone else's brain like that."

  "But without language?" Hailey asked in despair.

  "Look, I'm not the most creative out here either. But I know some people. Soon as I can, I'll try to get them to help—if you want that."

  Hailey looked nervous. "We've never known anyone else. Jessica hasn't left the apartment in almost half a year now. I don't know who to trust."

  "How about this," Rika proposed. "I'll explain the condition, but I won't say a word about who it's for. Just plumb their brains as an exercise. Does that work?"

  "...Yeah, okay. That could work."

  "Great," Rika said, resting her head against the wall more comfortably. "Now, do you two mind if we crash here for a while? We're currently wanted fugitives, and someone's camping out in my apartment."

  "Okay," Hailey agreed. She hesitated, before looking up at Rika with a weak smile. "It's nice to see you again, Rika."

  "Glad someone thinks so," Rika grumbled.

  "Sorry I blew you off the other day."

  "Well, you were dealing with being the only magical people on the planet," she said, grinning. Hailey smiled. "On that note: seriously, you guys are way stronger than everyone else. How long have you been awakened?"

  "Awakened? Oh. That's… a little over a year, I guess. Last May."

  "Shit, not even as long as me. So it's not just extra practice. What's your secret?"

  "I dunno. Gemstones?" Hailey said, holding up the white and purple stone on her necklace. Alden craned his neck for a better look, and saw that it was barely flecked with a little gray, despite the gale and the flying. Compared to the rubies that had burned black after only one use, or the topaz that had been ground into dust, Alden would have sworn it was totally unused.

  "No way. There's gotta something else."

  "I have no idea."

  "I'll have to pick your brain sometime."

  "Jessica would know. She's the smartest. Figured out the seven affinities for us and how to fly, how to do rituals, all of that."

  "Seven?" Rika asked.

  "We never figured out the eighth."

  "No one ever did. We never found a single Scrap related to it."

  "Scrap?"

  "Yeah, bits of paper from the book. Different chapters and such."

  "Oh, that makes sense."

  "You mean you guys never had another part? Just the one?"

  "Yeah."

  "You weren't kidding then. Most people don't figure out entirely new branches on their own like that." Rika looked at Jessica with a new measure of respect. "She must be a genius."

  "There's someone else out there who can do things like this though," Hailey said grimly.

  "Someone else you two knew?"

  "No. I saw him out in the woods. One of the two who destroyed the library."

  "Shit… You probably saw Omega."

  Hailey looked confused. "Omega?"

  "One of the three gods. Well, not really gods," Rika shrugged. "I think they're just people with access to way more magic than the rest of us. You two being so strong basically corroborates my theory, actually," she added.

  Jessica got up and walked over to Alden, who had fallen silent over the last few minutes. She looked at him carefully, as if examining a specimen. "Uh, hi?"

  She chirped at him, pointing at his arm. He glanced over and saw an alarming amount of red pooling up in his shirt sleeve.

  "Oh, crap!"

  Rika turned around at the sudden noise and cursed. "Hailey, do you have bandages?"

  Hailey pointed at a cabinet. Before Rika could move, the bandages burst out with a flutter of wind. They blew across the room of their own accord and landed neatly in Jessica's hands. She set to bandaging his arm quickly and neatly, humming to herself while she did.

  "Sorry, Zack. Kinda forgot you were there," Rika said, embarrassed.

  "It's okay," Alden said weakly, dazedly looking at the blood. He felt suddenly very light-headed. "I was fine just listening."

  "Obviously not," she said dryly.

  "I think something sliced at your arm. Sorry," Hailey said awkwardly.

  "Was it that thing right when you flew up?" he asked.

  "Err, no. That was my phone."

  "You threw your phone at him?" Rika asked, raising her eyebrows.

  "It was all I had on me!" Hailey bent down and scooped it off the floor. It had a heavy-duty case with a belt clip and looked perfectly intact. She strapped it onto her belt, where it sat snug next to a few other pouches. "So, who is Omega?"

  "The guy who probably actually committed the murders," Rika said darkly.

  "I think he shut down the train, too. He's trapping us in," Hailey added, glancing out the window.

  "Huh?"

  "The train you two arrived on was the last one we've had. The tracks were all destroyed. I watched him do it from above."

  Rika looked confused. "So the trains are cut off. That's annoying, but people have cars."

  "Not when the roads are blocked too. Landslides. Rallsburg is cut off." Hailey took Jessica's hand again and squeezed it tight. "We're alone."