Alana asked her about this, before they came to the park this morning.

Grace just rolled her eyes. “That wasn’t him, Mom. You can see it if you look.”

She doesn’t know if this is an ability her daughter possesses that she doesn’t, or it’s an example of her tendency to be dead certain about things even when she’s wrong, like when she swears she’s made her bed in the morning.

Then she hears Grace shout. She’s instantly on guard, but Grace is shrieking with delight, not panic or pain. Her daughter seems much younger when she laughs. (For a moment, Alana is sad. It’s not too late, she thinks, before violently shoving the thought aside. Yes, it is. The baby factory is closed.)

“Mom!” she says. “Look! Look what Jeremy can do!”

Jeremy laughs, looks a little shy, and shows them.

He snaps his fingers, and a brilliant ball of lightning appears above his hand.

Just like Eric.

Jeremy is so proud of himself. He holds onto it before it rises like a balloon into the cloudless blue sky.

For a second, all three of them stare.

Until Danny claps and says, “That’s great, champ,” as if the kid just threw a fastball or did a cartwheel. “Be careful with that, okay?”

Jeremy nods and smiles shyly, and goes on playing with Grace.

Alana’s sword is in its sheath, which is strapped to her back, under her jacket despite the summer heat. Danny doesn’t know she’s carrying it today. (Carrie probably does, but she doesn’t say anything.) The sword is quiet, however. If it were not, she would make a different choice about Jeremy.

She still might, someday. For now, she chooses to trust her friends.

They will never be normal, Alana knows. Not really. They will always have their past close behind them, the sound of its footsteps echoing in their ears.

But that’s no different from anyone else, she decides. They were all raised to survive in a world that no longer exists, trying to prepare for a future they cannot possibly predict. They do their best, and pretend to be the people they always wanted to be.

If they do it long enough, they might even make it real.

Their story is not over, and this is not the end.

Acknowledgments

Maybe there are writers out there who can do this alone, but I am not one of them. This book required a lot of help, and I was lucky enough to have it. I owe many people thanks.