Hailey's fears were confirmed as soon as she started passing over Shelton—the rain-soaked, unlit Shelton. It wasn't just them. She could see a perfect round line from above. It cut through the town, a huge circle where electricity simply stopped functioning.

...Natalie? Was this you?

Down in front of the hospital, she spotted the ongoing operation to move patients out—and the young man decidedly not wearing hospital scrubs rushing alongside every larger group huddled around a gurney.

Hailey dove, and as she crossed into the hospital's airspace, people were already pointing and shouting. Always gotta make an entrance, even when I'm not meaning to… She swooped in, flaring her wings as best she could to not blow anything around as she came in for a landing.

"Alden!"

He looked up, returning from the latest patient rushed out to an ambulance. A moment later, he'd broken into a run, and wrapped her in a hug. Hailey was taken aback—usually she'd be the one to hug him, not the other way around. Alden was more laid back than that, and especially after Rallsburg, more than a little twitchy about unexpected personal contact.

"Missed you too," said Hailey with a laugh. "It's only been like four hours, dude."

"How did you get here?" asked Alden, breaking away.

"Flew really, really fast." Hailey looked over at the hospital. "Anything I can do?"

"Make the electricity come back?"

She shook her head. "It's permanent, I think. I don't feel an ongoing spell. Probably a ritual."

"...Wow." Alden looked up at the sky, as if he could somehow see the aura around them preventing electrical devices from functioning.

"Feels like more should've happened though," said Hailey doubtfully. "I mean, we need electricity to work too…"

Alden shook his head. "Mason's Law."

"Right," said Hailey. She shook her head, trying to get rid of the bleary feeling stuck in her brain. "Sorry. I'm really tired."

"You flew across the country this morning," said Alden. He glanced at the hospital. "We're pretty much done here anyway, to be honest. Most of the critical patients are out, and the rest are just waiting on finding a place to deliver them. They don't need me anymore, either."

"What were you doing?"

He glanced around nervously. "...Slowing things down when something went wrong."

"...Right." Hailey paused. "...And Meg?"

"At St. Peter. I haven't heard anything since. All the phones we have are being used for evacuating," said Alden.

He nodded at the line of people near the edge of the field. A couple kids were standing right on the end, sticking their phones inside and watching them turn off with fascinated looks. When they pulled the phones back, they had to turn them back on, but they recovered remarkably quickly. It was nowhere near the long restore time mentioned in the old Council meetings.

"Any change?"

"She's still in a coma," said Alden—and the pain in his voice nearly crushed her.

Hailey almost told him… but she held back. She still couldn't be sure what the consequences were. It was too reckless, and that was exactly what she was trying to change. Instead, she patted the bag at her side.

"Maybe we could try…"

Alden's eyes widened. "...Seriously?"

"If it works," said Hailey, "she's gonna be like me. Whatever this might mean."

"Huh?"

Hailey shook her head. "I don't really know. But look at us. Hector got shoved between countries and harrassed everywhere he went. Kendra and Lily nearly died more than once too. Jess…" Hailey shook her head. "Then there's Natalie and me. Being one of us seems like sentencing her to an insane life."

"But she'll be alive," said Alden.

She nodded. "I just wanted to bring it up before we do this."

"It's the only way, isn't it?" There was anger in his voice now, something Hailey didn't really recognize. She'd never heard Alden get mad. "Grey-eyes is gone. She screwed up. Meg's gonna die because she didn't do anything. She just… ran away."

Hailey didn't say anything. She just pulled Alden back into another hug.

"People are dying, aren't they?" asked Alden. His voice was muffled, speaking right into her flight jacket. Hailey nodded. "What are we supposed to do? She could be anywhere."

Yeah… she could be. And…

Hailey suddenly broke away.

"What?"

"I…" Her mind was going a mile a minute. She'd just remembered a spell, something she'd learned not all that long ago, across the ocean in London. There hadn't been a reason to use it again until now. But now…

"I can find her."

"...How?"

Hailey smiled. "Magic. Duh." She hugged him again. "Go be with Meg. I'll be there soon, okay?"

"What are you going to do?"

I have no idea. Hailey didn't answer him. She broke away, turned, and with a huge sweep of her wings, launched back into the air. The gust blew back everything nearby, and sent Alden stumbling a little. Even the nurses and doctors stopped for just a moment to watch Hailey's sudden ascent.

She launched into the air, behind a cloud, and closed her eyes. Casting it in mid-air would be dangerous, but Hailey couldn't risk staying still on the ground for so long, unless she wanted to head back into the forests to find some peace and quiet. She had no idea who might be out looking for her, how far the story of her escape and flight across the country might have spread… how many cops and three letter agencies were on her trail.

Concentrating hard, Hailey cast the spell, exactly as Nikki Parsons had described it. She clutched the amethyst gems in her bag—the only stones she had left, besides her half-burnt lucky tourmaline—and dove into the huge wall of twisting threads. Hailey was searching for one thing, and one thing only, as fast as she could.

Beverly Bensen.