«Okay.» His voice felt as tiny as a mouse squeak, but he ran forward, his paws scraping up the dirt on the practice field. His wings beat hard. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Chauda running with Jyx. And then all of them were airborne.

They flew near the center of the pack of students and their beasts as they aimed for the storm that spilled over the mountains. The purple-and-black clouds had swallowed the peaks and were obscuring the slopes. Occasionally, a cloud lit up bright white and then darkened again.

Another crack.

It had to be thunder.

Jyx shouted, “They say if you count the seconds between the lightning and thunder, it tells you how many miles away the storm is!”

Mina knew exactly how far away the storm was: not far enough!

I’m not ready! she thought.

It was swarming onto the hills now, as if it were invading. All the rain and wind guardians had backed off to a safe distance, watching the monster they’d summoned swell larger and larger into a bloated, ever-hungry piece of sky. Every instinct Mina had was screaming at her to turn around and fly the other direction. But the swarm of students was too thick. She couldn’t flee even if she decided to.

«It will be okay, Mina.»

She wondered again how Professor Dano had hurt his arm. She thought of the lists in those old books of those who’d died in storms and of the people beyond the mountains without the protection of storm beasts. And she thought of her family, safe at home in the farmlands. She imagined the sun on the fields, the birds chirping as they swooped over the cornstalks, Gaton’s sun beast lazing on the lawn, the twins screeching for their lunch. And then she and all the other students on their beasts flew into the storm.

Chapter
Twelve

The storm ate them.

Mina felt as if she’d passed through the teeth of a hungry monster and was now within its stomach. The wind—​it wasn’t like anything she’d ever felt, even on a wind day. It hit at her and Pixit, tossing them sideways and upward. She clung to his neck.

«Hang on, Mina!»

Rain smacked her from all directions, immediately finding the gaps in the raincoat and sliding down her skin, so cold that it made her shake.

Around her, she heard excited shouts. “I feel it!” someone cried.

“It’s coming!” Another voice.

“Ready, everyone!”

She couldn’t see through the thick clouds.

Suddenly, bright white lit up all around her. A second later, a crack! She felt herself prickle all over, and not from the rain. Did you feel that?

«Lightning! Yes!»