That’s small-time magic, though. It’s more for their own comfort than it is for Rush and Danny’s safe return. Lelia has never seen a storm like this one, and she keeps a record of every storm in Tempest. This moved in faster, roared down harder, and won’t let up, no matter how hard they rub the stones. The rain grows into white fury. This storm is messing with them in a way that feels personal.

Lightning showcases Danny and Rush, stuck on a branch that they can’t climb off without free-dropping to the one beneath it.

“This is what nobody ever mentions,” June mumbles, as her leg sparks, hitting the top of her pain scale — part exhaustion from the hike, part anticipation of Rush and Danny crashing. “Down is much harder than up.”

A voice slices through the clamor of the rain. “That’s Rush,” Hawthorn says. “Is she hurt?” But she’s not screaming. She’s singing as the girls drop, branch to branch. The notes are high and slippery and strange. And the feeling in what she’s singing isn’t calm or safe or even down.

It’s You can’t catch me.

Rush is turning the storm. The Grays lose the melody as lightning strikes the tree next to Rush and Danny, blasting the treetop bare, and thunder fills their bodies.

Danny slips, hanging one-handed. June’s entire body fires up with memory. With a perfect understanding of how this moment feels.

“Don’t be afraid, Danny,” she yells. “Fear is what fucks you over.” If she clenches up now, she’ll smack into branches on her way down, hit the ground tensed and hard. She’ll shatter.

“Go loose all over, and then let go,” June instructs in a hoarse scream.

Danny eases out of her grip.

Slowly.

She drops and hits the branch beneath her. The air is a tangle of screams. But Danny has gotten one arm and part of her chest curled around the branch, and slowly, painstakingly, she pulls herself back into control.

The fear leaves Rush’s voice, and now she’s not screaming but she is crying out, wild and fluttering and free. The Grays pick up that sound and throw it back at the sky. Louder. Harder.

Danny helps Rush down, giving her a place to step, a body to hold on to. She helps Rush all the way to the final branch, and then Rush is letting go. Hitting the ground. Rush is back with the Grays, where she belongs.

She looks dazed with fear and triumph.