A four-hour flight where, for once, I didn’t want to run. Which was good, because there was no escape. Nowhere to go except into the howling sky. Pinned to my seat, I watched the landscape change beneath me. Rising, falling, endless curves and shadow-rich valleys. I put one finger on the window and traced everything beautiful.

The Grays: Now

In the morning, long fingers of cold rake across Tempest, forcing the Grays into jackets and sweaters. They stamp their feet in the corner of the senior parking lot, four pairs of hands wrapped around steaming, sweet-smelling cups from Coffee Gods.

“Coffee is magic,” Lelia mutters, sticking her face into the steam. “I will fight anyone who doesn’t believe it.”

June bumps Lelia’s hip with hers. “That’s what caffeine does. It triggers your fight-or-flight impulses.”

“Good,” Lelia says. “I’m a fighter, not a lover.”

Rush tugs at the bottom hem of her long maroon sweater. It goes almost to her knees, worn over black velvet leggings with her silver-laced boots. She looks fancy, by Rush standards. She’s clutching an extra cup, sipping from the one in her right hand and leaving the left outstretched. “I hope Danny shows up soon. Her latte will get cold.”

“Let’s focus on the rest of Danny’s dowsing rod,” Hawthorn says. “That’s what she really needs.”

“Yeah,” Lelia says. “We got sort of interrupted yesterday.”

They’ve been doing a decent job of not mentioning Neil, but the idea of him keeps gnawing at the edges of the conversation.

“Could Danny use a redwood branch?” June asks. “For the dowsing rod? I mean, it makes sense, if our magic is tied to Tempest.”

“But the branch can’t be just some random chunk of redwood,” Hawthorn says. “It has to mean something.”

The parking lot ripples as someone moves upstream through the crowd. Danny comes into view, and at first the Grays are proud — she must be using her dowsing sense to find them. Then they notice how deeply sunk the lines in her face are, how hard she’s gripping the strap of her bag, how lopsided her breathing is. Big inhale, very little exhale. She’s holding something in.

“We were just talking about you,” June says too brightly, overcorrecting.

“What happened?” Rush asks softly.

Danny looks down at her feet, then snaps her neck back up with force, like she’s decided not to hide from this particular truth. “I woke up in the woods.”

The Grays hover around her with concern, not sure what she needs. They don’t know Danny well enough to rush in and take care of her, and the slight distance between her and the rest of the Grays is almost as bad as knowing that Danny is terrified.

“Are you okay?” Lelia asks, her voice tight as fists.