Dani was relieved when she arrived at the rift site and didn’t find Maureen Sherman lurking around in her judge-y pressed khakis. But the atmosphere around the clearing seemed heavier somehow, thicker to walk through. The colors that normally danced on the air were spread out much further than they were even on Dani’s first visit. The split in the air was almost visible, its aura leaking in thick ropes from the frayed edges.

Dani walked to her rock, took her stance and prepared herself for opening to the rift. But before her internal shields could come down, Dani stumbled back with the force of the energy against her mind and landed on her butt with an “oof.”

Her ears were ringing and she laid back on the grass to catch her breath.

Something was wrong here. Something was very wrong.

Panting, Dani took the time to scan the rift carefully. This wasn’t a rift, it was a gash, an intentional rip in the energetic fabric of the sky. And it was going to get bigger by the day, if left unchecked.

Dani pictured the very ends of the rip healing, the tendrils of energy winding together and knitting into a smooth scar. There were several stops and starts. Dani actually had to stop for a water-and-granola break about an hour into her efforts.

But finally, Dani felt like she’d managed to repair the worst of the leakage. The seepage was only slightly worse than it had been on Dani’s first day. She was exhausted and drenched in sweat by the time she was finished. But all she could think of was getting to town, warning Jillian and Zed.

All of her work, all of Maureen’s work, if she’d really done any, had been undone. How much of the rift’s mojo had oozed into the Bayou, wreaking who knows what sort of havoc on human genetics and the powers that the magique already had.

Dread, cold and heavy, settled into her chest. She was definitely going to have a difficult conversation with Jillian about Maureen Sherman. There was no way someone with a “dabbler” level of talent had ripped open the rift like a cheap can of tuna. Maureen was the only other dynakinetic in town who was capable of that sort of damage—though Dani had no clue why Maureen would want to do such a thing. She had to be stopped and she had to be stopped now.

13

Zed

Having an amazing office was one of the few perks of being Mystic Bayou’s mayor. Unlike Bael’s one-room sheriff’s department across the open floor-plan, Zed got an office all to himself instead of having to sit outside in the common area with the other departments. As much as he liked his coworkers, being able to shut his door on them when they were annoying him was probably what kept their working relationship friendly.