Page 210

“I see it,” she confirmed, her eyes black. With a deep breath, she thrust her hands out in front of her, fingers curling. Her eyelids slid shut as she inhaled.

On the exhale, her magic generated a strong current that pushed the wyrm backward. It floundered about, as if ensnared in a net. Travis watched, fascinated, as the neon hues of its aura twisted and thrashed, water splashing as the creature banged its ugly, snarling face against the cobalt scales of Blue’s magic, struggling to break free.

Visible. Now that the Veil was collapsing, everyone’s magic was visible. It was wild to see shades other than black and Loren’s rare white.

Once there was enough distance between the boat and the Aequorwyrm, Blue drew another deep breath before opening her arms wide, like a bird about to take flight.

The water in the canal parted, creating a dry path that stretched from one bank to the other. The Aequorwyrm’s skeletal face and grinning mouth were starkly visible through the wall of murky water, as if it were a specimen trapped behind glass. As they coasted away, it gave up and turned around, bellowing a roar that rumbled through the waterway as it swam back toward the ocean.

Blue waited a bit, making sure it was really gone before releasing her power. Water lapped as the gap in the canal closed.

“Thanks,” Max said, taking his finger off the trigger.

She nodded and returned to her spot on the bench between Dominic and Magenta. The pink Elemental sat close to Scarlet. Her pink topaz eyes flicked about the fog, her teeth worrying her lower lip.

“So,” Travis began, “Magenta.”

Magenta startled. She was either shocked that he was speaking to her, or afraid of what he was about to ask.

“How does your power work? The Empath thing.”

Scarlet answered for her. “It’s not much different than what unmodified hellsehers can do,” she said.

“No offence, but I was asking her.”

Scarlet’s mouth became a thin line.

Good—let her hate him. He already hated her for how poorly she was treating Maximus. This was not the Maya they remembered.

“It’s like what you can do, but…stronger, I guess,” Magenta said, her voice so quiet Travis could hardly hear her. “It can behard sometimes, to feel everything. It’s stronger for people like me. I can’t tune it out like normal hellsehers. Sometimes I have trouble telling the difference between someone else’s feelings and my own. It can get…confusing.”

Dallas said, “That must be hard for you. Especially if you’re around somebody who’s going through the stages of grief.”

“Or rage,” Travis said. Another person’s rage was bad enough as it was. He had been extremely sensitive to his father’s wrath while growing up. Roman had been his sanctuary. His shelter in the storm.

Magenta nodded, still looking startled by all the attention. “Grief is the hardest,” she admitted.

“What about Aurora?” Max asked. “You said she was consideredfull spectrum.What does that mean? What exactly could she do?”

Magenta gave the stage to Scarlet with a look of shy expectance. The two had the full attention of everyone on this boat. Even Delaney had shut his trap, his head angled toward them.

Of all the people in Terra, it was likely this Aurora chick who was most similar to Loren. The fact that she was dead didn’t help—but if Scarlet knew anything, anything at all that might help them solve this issue with the Veil… Not that they could do anything about it, now that they were trapped, communications cut, but…

“Full spectrum means she had the power of every element and everything in between,” Scarlet began. “Water, fire, earth, sky. She could take every Elemental body, too, not just one.”

“Elemental body?” Malakai asked. “What’s that mean?”

She transformed into her Elemental form in the blink of an eye, becoming a woman made entirely of fire, her hair spiralling upward like a flame.

Max nearly dropped his gun in the canal.

“Wow,” Aspen breathed.

Travis whistled. “Impressive. Can you do that, too?” he asked Blue.

Blue nodded, but didn’t demonstrate.

Scarlet shifted back, her hair—hair again, not flame—falling to her shoulders. The embers of her eyes were the last to cool. She looked completely ordinary again. With hair a natural reddish brown, instead of something more wild, like pink or blue, you’d never even guess she was modified. “She could summon and control fire, water, and the atmosphere,” she concluded.