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“Just… concentrate. Find something to… to…” But Ling didn’t know. She couldn’t think. She could feel her friends struggling against one another, fighting their own individual fears. No one could seem to concentrate on any one thing. The connection was elusive.
From the stage, Roy shouted: “There she is! There’s my Betty Sue.” He nodded, a signal to Dutch’s boys. Now they were coming, too. Theta’s panic moved through her, along with her fire. Evie gasped and dropped Theta’s hand like a hot coal.
“Theta! Theta, you’ve got to calm down.”
“There’s my Betty Sue right there. Don’t move, Betty. I’m coming.” Roy’s voice. His men, on the march. The police, getting closer. The crowd on the verge of bloodlust.
“Stop,” Theta whispered. She grabbed her friends’ hands again, squeezing. “Stop, stop, stop
!”
The word wrapped itself around the Diviners and shot through them like a burst of energy that pushed several rows of people backward, knocking others down as they flew. They were dazed, and sat, stunned, where they landed in a heap. The energy traveled through the crowd, surrounding them like current along a telephone wire. People were frozen where they stood. The Diviners could see their eyes, wide and afraid. They tried to speak but couldn’t. But the people saw. They understood what was happening. Understood how it had happened and who was to blame. Onstage, Jake Marlowe also watched, frozen in place.
“What did we do?” Ling whispered.
“I… I just wanted them to stop,” Theta said. She could see the fear and hatred in the eyes of the crowd.
“We’ve got to get out of here now! Run!” Evie shouted. She let go, barreling around the stage, running toward the sidewalks of Broadway and the throngs of people going about their business like it was any other night in the city. If they were fast enough, they’d be able to lose themselves in that crowd.
“I just wanted them to stop,” Theta repeated and took off after Evie.
“Theta!” Henry yelled, giving chase.
“Move, move, move!” Memphis pushed at Jericho’s back, trying to catch up to Isaiah, who ran alongside Evie, Theta, and Henry.
The crowd was no longer dazed and fearful. They were angry. Hungry for vengeance.
“There they are!” came a shout.
Theta turned around. Several men rose to their feet from the heap. Mouths set, they pushed toward Memphis.
“Poet—run!” Flames burst from Theta’s fingertips and engulfed her hands. Lost to her rage, she glowed like a beacon. “Leave him alone!”
People screamed and leaped back from the heat of her.
“Theta!” Evie said. She doubled back, coming up behind her friend. “Let’s go!”
Theta moved her hand quickly. Fire went loose. It caught on the funeral bunting and exploded into sparks. The crowd panicked, running over one another to get away. Police whistles cut across the night. Men in blue thrust into the crowd with nightsticks at the ready. The girls in gardenias shrieked and clung to one another. Onstage, detectives moved Jake Marlowe toward the safety of a waiting touring car.
Right beside Memphis, a policeman clubbed the wrong man, who went limp. Blood trickled down his face. The chaotic crowd surged anew, further separating Memphis from Isaiah.
“Isaiah!” Memphis made a desperate lunge for his brother. “Isaiah!”
“Memphis!” Isaiah called back as he was borne along by the sweeping tide.
The unruly crowd was quickly becoming a mob. Fists swung. Memphis ducked a fight. Isaiah was carried farther away. Memphis screamed his brother’s name. Bill snaked his muscular arm around Memphis, dragging him away from the frenzied crowd and toward safety.
In that same crowd, Theta’s firepower began to fizzle. That was the moment Evie was most afraid; as soon as the people saw that, they’d come after them. Theta cried out in agony. Strips of molten material adhered to the backs of her hands, stuck there. She’d had no time to remove her gloves before the fire had come upon her. Evie grabbed Theta’s wrist, hissing as the last remnants of Theta’s heat touched her own glove, and then all of Theta’s fire was gone as her rage sucked back up into her body and became blind fear.
“Theta? Theta!” Evie’s eyes went wide with horror when she saw the state of Theta’s skin, which was deeply blistered.
“H-hurts,” Theta cried.
“We’ll get you fixed up, but we’ve got to get out of here, okay?”
Theta nodded, unable to do much else.
Evie saw small Isaiah being buffeted by the throng. “Isaiah!” Evie called. “Over here!” She pushed aside one of the corsage-wearing Sarah Snow girls to get to him. “Where’s Memphis?”
