“Absolutely. Nothing inhuman has ever—”

“Not that kind of clean,” Jessica interrupted, trying not to roll her eyes. “Disinfected clean.”

Rex smiled. “Smell it.”

Jessica sniffed the knife and caught a whiff of rubbing alcohol.

“Just go easy, okay?” Rex said. “We only need a few drops.”

“No problem.” She looked at her hand and curled it into a fist except for the ring finger. The knife glistened in the dark moonlight, and she could read the tiny words stainless steel on its shaft.

“Okay,” she said, preparing herself.

“Do you want me to do it for—”

“No!” Jessica interrupted him.

She swallowed, gritted her teeth, and pulled the edge across her fingertip. Pain shot up her arm.

As she watched, blood welled up along the cut. Even in the blue light of midnight it was a fresh, bright red.

“Don’t waste it,” Melissa said.

“Plenty to go around,” Jessica muttered. She held her hand over the shelf of rock and watched as a drop gradually formed on the fingertip, wobbled tenuously for a moment, then fell into the little bowl of stone.

A hissing sound came from deep inside the rock. Jessica jerked her hand away.

“More,” Rex said.

She reached out carefully, letting another drop fall into the bowl. The hissing grew louder as the blood ran. She felt a tremor build under her feet.

“Okay,” Rex said. “Maybe that’s enough.”

The shaft of stone in front of Jessica was trembling. Sand was slipping down into the center of the pit from all sides, and she had to pull one foot free, then the other.

“Is this what’s supposed to happen?”

“Um, I don’t know,” Rex said.

“We never actually did this before,” Melissa admitted.

“Great.”

“I mean, it’s usually pretty obvious who has what talent,” Rex said, backing away from the stone. It was shaking harder now. Dust rose up from the ground around them, and Jessica heard a huge gulping sound from beneath her feet.

She imagined the water below, cold and dark and waiting for centuries.

“So when should we start running?” she called over the rumble.

With a sharp boom the shaft of stone cracked before them, a fissure splitting it from top to bottom.

“I guess about right now!” Rex yelled.

Jessica turned, scrambling upward. The sand slid under her, carrying her back down the slope.

Suddenly the rumbling stopped.

The three of them came to a halt, looked at each other, then turned toward the stone.

“Nice going,” Melissa said. “You broke it, Jessica.”

The stone had actually cracked in two, a thin fracture running its entire length, but the trembling had stopped completely. Dust swirled around them, and lightning still flashed from the perimeter of the pit, but it seemed almost silent after the earthquake.

Jonathan landed softly next to Jessica, and she heard Dess running down the slope behind her.

“What happened?” he asked.