“Bastard,” Hollis said without heat.

Finn nodded. “He was that. But he was convincing, at least during the last twenty years. A lot of parents remembered their own struggles to master their Talents and believed they were protecting their children by sparing them those struggles until they were older.”

Bishop said, “But not the Deverells.”

“No, not us. No Deverell took Duncan up on his offer.”

“And,” Nellie said, “a few of us had parents who didn’t agree with Duncan. It’s one reason my parents took me and left Salem when I was an infant. My father didn’t want any of my Talents suppressed.”

Hollis nodded. “Yeah, because what the Barrier really did was an extreme version of what Nellie’s shields were designed to do, to hold psychic abilities inside, but completely dormant, so they were no threat to Cavendish. Not all the kids, as you say, not all parents agreed with him, but enough to make a real difference.”

Finn nodded. “There were plenty over the years. They believed they were keeping their kids safe.”

“Yeah. But here’s the point. If Cavendish constructed those barriers, what happened when he was destroyed?”

They stared at each other.

“All of them,” Hollis said softly. “All those psychics . . . waking up so abruptly when Duncan died. With no idea how to use their abilities, or to build real shields, or to channel energy. Unshielded psychic minds all coming alive in the same small valley at the same time, many of them very young. Expending energy they can’t control. That’s why it’s affecting us. All of us.”

TWENTY-ONE

Hollis drew a breath. “And that’s why I believe that instead of raising our shields, making them stronger, we should lower them. When Reese and I dropped our shields completely in order to read the reverend, the energy wasn’t painful at all. Still there, and we were still conscious of it, but it wasn’t painful. And it didn’t interfere with our abilities. I think our shields somehow interact with the energy, and that’s what causes all the problems.”

Slowly, Finn said, “So, by concentrating so hard on building our shields stronger, we’ve just been making things more difficult for ourselves.”

“I think so.”

“You think Daniel figured that out?”

Miranda said, “It may not have been a conscious thing for Daniel. If being a medium was something virtually unheard-of here, it’s obvious he would have had to figure out for himself how to use those abilities. Probably how he was able to discover the gray time and explore it and what he could do there. Nobody told him it was something rare, so there were no constraints on him.

“The additional energy these last weeks could easily have made him stronger, perhaps even triggered another latent ability he’s been exploring. Hollis, didn’t Jill say some of Cole Ainsworth’s internal organs were crushed?”

Hollis winced slightly. “Yeah. She said the damage had probably been done with a hammer or mallet. You’re thinking he was sharpening his telekinetic skills?”