The train arrives at an angle, surging towards us in a cacophony of noise. Car after car—most shuttered closed—hammer past, thumping over the tracks. I can just make out crates and boxes in the dimness between flat steel bars. But some of the cars are empty, just steel boxes on wheels.

“Aim for that one,” I shout, running alongside the tracks, heart pumping.

Vidhan—in a smoky blur—flashes ahead and, without visible exertion, he’s up on the freight train and looking down at us, yelling something snatched by the wind. Ahead, I see Akuji haul herself up. Malik turns his head to the side, looks behind, waits. Then he sprints. He reaches out and grabs a steel-pipe ladder at the car’s edge. With an effortless, animal grace, he leaps off his feet and swings into the air. And then he’s up and next to Vidhan—like that.

I’m the last.

Malik crouches on one knee, hair blown back in the wind. He holds onto the steel ladder with his left hand and reaches out with his right to me.

“C’mon!” he shouts.

No sweat. Just a massive jump into a moving train.

Easy.

I stare at the tracks, trying to focus, watching the sparks fly from the wheels. I imagine my legs getting caught and twisted, being pulled under, bones crunching. I watch the car arrive. I see Malik, urging me on—oh god, he’s beautiful.

I reach out my arm…retract it just as a tree comes rushing between me and the train. I fall back. Then sprint to catch up, reach out again.

My fingertips graze his.

Here goes nothing. I jump. I sail through the air…high and impossibly far, as if I’m strapped into a jet pack…

…and I’m into the train.

Whump! I slam into Malik and we tumble over each other and crash up against the back of the space, smashing legs and arms. I end up sprawled on top of him.

I blush and roll off and leap to my feet.

Malik sits up on his elbows, grinning.

“Some jump,” he says.

I take a deep breath and feel the hot air blasting me. The train rattles and sways. It has a blood-iron smell of machines. My head spins. I swivel and look for the others.

“They went up,” Malik says. He points to the ceiling.

Right. So…just me and him then.

“Tell me something,” Malik says. “That jump. Did you think about it, before it happened? I mean, did you focus, let everything go? And then, wham?”

“I dunno. I jumped. Why are you suddenly so interested?”

“Like I said, it was some jump. Seems like your abilities are really kicking in.”

“You did it,” I say, trying to remember if I did think hard about it, or if it just happened. “The others too.”