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“We hafta strengthen each other. Get used to sharing our powers.”
“Well,” Evie said, yanking up her sleeves and putting out her hand, “I suppose there’s only one way to find out.”
For the past few months, whenever the Diviners had used their powers together, it had been mostly with one aim: obliterating the ghosts. It was harder than they thought to switch gears. What shape should their powers take? How could they make that happen? They might feel the spark of something, but in the next second, they could sense one another’s fear and indecision, and then, just as quickly as it had come on, the spark would disappear. The Diviners tried again and again, but nothing worked very well or for long. They might make the air around them wobble slightly, and once, for a moment, they could hear voices swirling down the telephone lines, but they were gone in seconds. They weren’t discovering anything new or significant. Nothing that could help them defeat the King of Crows. It was as if, when they joined hands, each one was lost in a fog, unable to access the others. As one hour became two, the Diviners began to feel desperate and exhausted. Tensions flared. Accusations followed.
“You shouldn’t have made a joke before we started, Henry. It ruined our concentration,” Ling snapped.
“I don’t think one joke will be the end of us,” Henry answered in kind.
“My bones ache,” Ling said. Standing for so long was murder on her spine. Memphis helped her sit.
“Something is wrong,” Evie said. “Don’t you feel it?” The sun beat down on the back of her neck. The wound in her side throbbed.
The Diviners sprawled out in the prairie grass, feeling frustrated and out of ideas.
“Maybe what we did in the past with the ghosts took away some of our gifts,” Memphis said.
“When we killed them, you mean?” Henry said.
“For the last time, you can’t kill a ghost. They’re already dead,” Ling snapped. When Henry flashed her an annoyed look, she muttered, “I’m simply being factual.”
“When we destroyed the ghosts. Is that more factual?” Sam said.
“Don’t yell at Ling,” Evie chided.
Sam spread out his arms. “Who’s yelling? I’m not yelling. I’m just… nudging.”
“Words and accuracy count,” Ling said.
“So you’ve said. A lot,” Henry grumbled.
Theta held up her hands. “Fine. Everybody’s had their say. In her spell book, Miss Addie talks about intent. About knowing what’s in your heart. Maybe that’s the way to go.”
“What’s in my heart is wanting to end this thing so we can go back to normal,” Sam said.
“Yeah? Define normal,” Memphis said.
“Whaddaya mean?” Sam asked.
“I’m not so sure I want to go back to how things have been,” Memphis challenged.
“I don’t understand, are we fighting the King of Crows or aren’t we?” Isaiah asked.
“I’m just saying that not everything is jake for all of us,” Memphis said, looking at Henry and Ling and Isaiah.
“It seems so impossible,” Evie said. “Who are we? Not even a dozen people going up against… all of that?”
“What if not all of us make it back?” Theta said quietly. “What if none of us do?”
“Well, I’m awfully glad I’m broke, then. Makes it easier to face certain death knowing I won’t be giving up an apartment on Fifth Avenue,” Henry said. When no one even cracked a smile, he added, “That was a joke.”
“Haha,” Theta said without mirth.
“Told you: We’ve got to build up our strength so we can destroy the man in the hat,” Sarah Beth said. “He’s tied to that machine and the dead. If he goes, it all goes.”
The next day and the day after that, the Diviners got together in the evenings to work. They were already exhausted by the demands of the farm, though. The strain was beginning to show in their bodies. Tiny sores appeared on Memphis’s forearms, and he didn’t know why. Ling pulled out strands of loose hair. Evie was still weak and needed frequent breaks. And more than once, Theta’s uncontrolled firepower had forced them to drop hands quickly as it traveled through and singed them.
By the third night, they were aching and injured and no closer to a breakthrough.
