“There’s not enough space between us. If we shift with the landscape now, they’ll only follow us. Trust me—I can buy us time before any more of their friends turn up,” Theo insists.

With an agitated sigh, Ahmet slams on the brakes and I feel my body crash into the back of Theo’s seat. The vehicle drifts through a monstrous dust cloud until it sits at a ninety-degree angle. Theo throws his door open and heaves himself into the open air, stomping through the bloodred desert like he’s not afraid at all.

Our pursuers stop shooting. There’s no point wasting ammunition—they already know they’ve won.

I feel my stomach empty and my throat constrict. The silver vehicles look like knives tearing through the sky, coming in for the kill.

Theo stops a few yards in front of us. Fists clenched and knuckles white, his body doesn’t buckle, even as the two vehicles speed toward him without any sign of slowing down.

My heart lunges. “He’s going to get himself killed!”

Shura giggles beside me. “Haven’t you heard? We’re already dead.”

Theo pulls his right arm back, releasing a guttural roar like he’s using every ounce of strength from his body, and slams his fist into the ground just as the vehicles approach him. A burst of energy erupts from the earth like a powerful vibration, and a blast of air rushes up from the red sand and toward the flying vehicles. For a moment it looks like they’re frozen in the air, and then they’re upside down and sideways and flying backward like they’ve just been blasted out of the sky.

In the far distance, pieces of broken metal scatter across the desert.

Theo turns, a look of triumph on his face, and jumps back into the passenger’s side. “Okay, we’re good,” he says, running a hand through his messy curls.

Ahmet tries to frown with disapproval, but the creases around his eyes give him away. “Show-off,” he says, and slams on the gas.

6

ONE MOMENT WE’RE FLYING ACROSS a crimson desert, and the next the sky turns a deep indigo and we’re skimming over an ocean, a cloud of sea mist trailing behind us.

Peering out the window, I feel my throat catch. This place, and the way it changes, is too incredible to comprehend. It’s like waking up and seeing that sounds have shapes or colors have scents. It’s like tapping into a layer of the world that I never even knew existed.

And I have to remind myself that it didn’t. Everything I’m seeing is because I am no longer alive.

I shut my eyes tight.

“The headaches go away. You won’t feel like this forever,” Shura offers.