It was bad, whatever had hurt him. From waist to face his right side was a mess, and she knew the hooded jacket he wore over his shirt was due to shame from his appearance. But he hadn’t even hesitated to bare himself so he could cover her. He hadn’t thought of himself.

Suddenly needing to see him again, Lu said to Honor, I’m getting tired. Let’s go back.

Honor peered at her with slitted eyes, a wingspan away. If she suspected that was only partly true, she didn’t let on. Instead, she banked and Lu followed, and soon they were headed toward a grove of trees close to the entrance to the caves.

They landed near a rocky outcropping with such a total lack of grace both of them were laughing when they Shifted back to human form. Honor touched down first, gouging a deep, ragged furrow in the earth behind her, and Lu came in too fast and executed the most awkward belly flop, accompanied by a face plant directly into the dirt. In the trees nearby, a flock of swallows rose in a sudden tangle of quicksilver into the sky.

“I wish I had a camera so you could see the look on your face.” Honor had Shifted back to woman and was walking toward a small pile of clothing atop a rock. She dressed quickly, still chuckling, and gestured to what she hadn’t donned. “These are for you; I thought you might be needing something to wear, and we’re the same size, so . . .”

Lu was cold, and feeling self-conscious at her nudity, even though it was only her and Honor in the clearing, so she pulled on the clothing Honor had brought as fast as she could. “Thanks. By the way, do your clothes have some kind of heat protectant or something?”

“No. Why?”

Lu shrugged, cinching the belted white jacket around her waist. It matched the white trousers, an exact replica of Honor’s outfit. She pulled on a pair of white boots, wondering if Honor realized no one would be able to tell them apart. And if that’s what she’d intended. “Because your clothes weren’t burned when I . . . uh . . . you know, in the cave yesterday. And Morgan’s were. And mine were, too, this morning when you decided to cold-roast me in front of everyone.” Her voice soured. “Thanks for that, by the way. Now everyone and his brother knows what I look like naked.”

Honor smirked. “You shouldn’t have punched me. And in answer to your question, you just don’t know how to control your Gifts yet. At least consciously; I’m sure if you hadn’t liked Morgan, much more than her clothing would have been burned with her standing so close to you when you lost it in the cave yesterday.”

Lu frowned, confused. “Okay, but I still don’t get how your clothes weren’t affected, and ours were.”

They turned and started to pick their way up the small hill of granite. The entrance to the caves was on the other side, along with Beckett and his group. Lu hadn’t seen Magnus anywhere when she and Honor were making their descent, and wondered if he’d returned to the caves.

Honor just sent her a mysterious smile and said, “It’s just a matter of awareness, of focus. With practice, you’ll be able to protect whatever you want from the effects of the Gifts.”

That sounded interesting. They walked a while in silence while Lu pondered it. “By the way, how did you know getting me angry would make me Shift?”

“The first time I Shifted I was angry, too. I figured if it worked for me, it would work for you.”

“Really? What happened?”

In response to Lu’s question, Honor’s face flushed. Keeping her gaze averted, she said simply, “I saw something I didn’t like.”

Lu got the distinct feeling this was a topic of great importance for getting a better idea of what made Honor tick. Trying for an offhand tone, she asked, “Nothing too serious, I hope?”

They’d reached the crest of the hill, and Honor scanned the landscape below with a sharp eye. Her gaze fell on Beckett, playfully chasing Sayer around the trunk of a tree, and her lips thinned. “Not really, in the scheme of things. But to my ten-year-old self, it felt like the end of the world. The end of my world, anyway.”

Lu sensed the anger and pain behind those words, and knew instinctively Beckett was the cause. Taking a risk, she asked tentatively, “Does he know?”

Honor’s head whipped around, and she glared at her. “Even if he did, he wouldn’t care,” she hissed, two blotches of color staining her cheeks. “He doesn’t care about anything but himself!”

They stared at one another a moment, Lu watching as Honor struggled to compose herself. “But you care about him,” she said. “Don’t you?”

The ice was back in Honor’s eyes. The stone beneath their feet crackled with a thin gloss of frost. “Don’t ever say that to me again.”

Lu reached out for her sister’s arm. “Honor—”

“Shut your trap, Hope!” She shrugged off her touch, stepping back.

“Stop calling me Hope, will you? My name’s Lumina—”

Honor shouted, “You can call yourself Puff the Magic Dragon if you want, but it doesn’t change the fact that your name is HOPE!”

“Fine,” sighed Lu, tired of this. Would they always be fighting? “Please refer to me as Puff the Magic Dragon from now on. And I’ll call you Smaug.”

Honor’s icy glare narrowed. “What the hell is a Smaug?”

Lu folded her arms across her chest. “Ever read The Hobbit? No? Well, Smaug is the dragon in the story, described as ‘a most specially greedy, strong and wicked wyrm.’ I think it’s appropriate.”

Honor’s eyes widened. Her voice rising, she said, “A worm? Did you just call me a worm?”

Lu was just about to retort, “Don’t forget the greedy and wicked part!” but a faint, odd noise distracted her. She looked to the sky, listening hard.

“What is that?”

Honor heard it, too, her gaze fixed on the horizon. “I don’t know. Nothing good, though.” She stepped closer, pressing her shoulder against Lu’s, the argument forgotten.

They stood there together in breathless, rigid silence for a moment, every sense open, their ears straining to filter out the wind whispering through branches, the birds singing in the trees, and Beckett’s faint laughter, a teasing echo that had the blood again rising in Honor’s cheeks.

The steady whop-whop-whop of blades cutting through air, the mechanical noise of gravity being beaten into submission . . . Lu knew that sound.

Together, Lu and Honor whispered, “Helicopter!”

They shared a look of horrified comprehension, then bounded down the hill at a flat-out run.

SIXTEEN

By the time they reached Beckett and the rest of his group, they’d all heard the helicopter, too. They stood in the long shadows of the pines, faces upturned, tense and silent. Magnus was nowhere to be seen.

Sayer, the petite, raven-haired girl Beckett had been chasing around the tree, said nervously, “We should get back into the caves.”

Beckett nodded, still looking at the sky. “Yes, you should. Take Kali and North with you. Dash and Oz, make sure the girls get inside, and let everyone know we’ve got Enforcement on our tails. Get battle ready.”

“Enforcement?” whispered a horrified North. She was taller than Kali and Sayer, just a few inches shy of Beckett’s height, with almond-shaped green eyes that dominated her face. “How do you know it’s Enforcement?”

“Who else would it be?” said Beckett, then pointed suddenly, his face hard. “I was right; look.”

Cresting a jagged black range of mountains in the distance was a trio of black helicopters. They turned, following the line of the peaks, and even from where she stood, Lu could see the bright yellow sun emblem painted on their sides.