Zek jumped in. “Yeah! We want to do something important.”

“Right, important!” Ferro said. “We want to be like those lightning guardians who make people’s lives more awesome. The ones people talk about and remember.”

Yes, yes, and yes.

“That’s why we follow you,” Zek said.

Ferro nodded. “You have big ideas. Not just about lightning relay. You want to change the world. Make it better, and stuff.”

Mina stared at them both. She’d never imagined herself as someone anyone else would follow. Weren’t leaders supposed to be loud, barking orders into speaking tubes? Or at least giving rousing speeches?

«Told you so,» Pixit thought smugly.

Wordlessly, she handed Zek and Ferro more copies of her essay. Zek tucked them inside his jacket, between his cotton shirt and the weatherproof leather. Ferro slid them into a pouch.

Everyone watched the gray mass of clouds boil over the blackened hills. The beautiful blue sky looked as if it were being eaten by an amorphous monster. Mina wondered how this storm had affected the outpost and hoped it hadn’t been bad. She thought of the gravestones.

We have to stop it.

«We will.»

She felt Pixit’s confidence flow through her—​it tasted like warm syrup.

On Professor Werrin’s whistle, all the storm beasts thundered across the practice field and took to the sky. They flew toward the storm.

The graduated guardians were already there ahead of them. Mina saw flashes of lightning as they dove into the storm. Again the students were supposed to keep to the edges of the chaos and let the real guardians gather the lightning from the heart. But Mina had no intention of following those orders. This time we disobey on purpose, instead of by accident. Hopefully that meant there would be a better outcome.

«Less crashing would be nice.»

She urged Pixit faster, and he flew like an arrow toward the storm. She entered it at the same time as the other students, plunging into the rain, wind, and fury. It whipped around her. She yanked her hood up over her face and pulled it closed—​it would both protect her from the rain and keep anyone from being able to identify her later.

Mina and her friends had wrapped each essay in a bit of blanket—​that stuff repelled water as well as fire. Insisting she didn’t like sleeping with a blanket anyway, Jyx had cut hers up. Mina reached inside her jacket for the first essay.

Up ahead she saw a flash of light and a silhouette of a boy on a beast. She leaned over, flat against Pixit’s neck, as Pixit aimed straight for the boy.

The guardian didn’t see them, but his beast dodged sideways. Pixit banked hard, so they came up beside the guardian. Mina pressed the wrapped essay into the boy’s hand, which was open, ready to catch electricity.

He flinched, surprised, but his hand instinctively closed around it.