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“Kill the lights on the truck,” he said to Tyler. “I want to walk the property line.”
They all walked, clinging to the shadowed darkness beneath trees and along the fence line. Tyler might have been cautious, looking for hazards, but Michael paid no attention. He simply walked, and they followed. If the Guide confronted him, Michael was ready to fight.
If the Guide simply shot him . . . well, right now that might be okay too.
Another chime from his phone. Hannah again.
My dad wants to talk to you.
He didn’t respond. After a moment, she texted again.
Please, Michael. Tell me where you are. Please call me.
He kept walking. Tyler and Hunter were silent behind him. Michael found that if he kept putting one foot in front of the other, feeling the power of his element, he could go on living.
If he stopped, he worried that he’d fall down and let the earth swallow him up.
When they reached the edge of the property, he could see rescue workers swarming around the house. The heat from the fire warmed his cheeks, even from here. He finally turned to look at Hunter and Tyler. “Do you feel anything? Any power at all?”
“No,” said Tyler.
Hunter’s face was white in the moonlight, leaving his eyes hopeless and desperate. He looked at the house and then back at Michael. And then away. His voice was a cracked whisper. “Nothing.” He had to wet his lips. “I thought we’d find them. I thought maybe they’d be hiding, and they’d sense us walking. I tried to use power, to see—to see if—”
And then his voice broke and he was crying.
Michael grabbed him. Held him. He didn’t cry. Every motion still felt like someone else doing it.
“I shouldn’t have come here.” Hunter pulled away and swiped his eyes on his jacket. “I shouldn’t have started this—”
“You didn’t start this,” Michael said. He couldn’t take his eyes off the burning home. He kept seeking information from the ground, but he felt nothing. “You’re a kid, Hunter. Your dad and your uncle started this. Or maybe Calla and her followers did, when they started that rockslide. Or maybe my parents did, by forming the deal.”
“None of them started this,” said Tyler. “This is the way it’s always been.”
Michael looked at him. “It shouldn’t be this way.”
“No,” said Tyler. “It shouldn’t.”
But it was. And Michael couldn’t fix it. He felt like he’d been fighting forever.
And now he’d failed. The past five years seemed so pointless. Just borrowed time.
“Someone is coming this way,” said Tyler.
Michael straightened, suddenly alert, ready to fight. He was surprised to find himself eager for it, to have a target for all this rage. For the first time, he didn’t care about setting an example for someone else. He didn’t care about what his father would have expected him to do.
If the Guide showed his face, Michael was going to find a way to kill him.
The man who walked through the haze and smoke with a flashlight wasn’t the Guide, though. It was Hannah’s father, the fire marshal.
Jack flicked the flashlight over each of their faces. Michael couldn’t see his face clearly, but his voice was tired. “Hannah told me you were here. Come sit in the car. I don’t have any information yet, but—”
“Were they here?” said Michael. “Is this the place?”
The fire marshal didn’t even ask for clarification. He just nodded. “Yes.”
Michael felt his face start to crumple. He hadn’t realized there’d been a shred of hope left curling in his thoughts.
Gone now.
