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“Send them toward the hills. The mist isn’t there,” I urge, keeping my eyes on the flames as they arc through the darkness like shooting stars. Each one is a wish: Please let them lead Mother to safety. Please let them—
The flames sputter out.
I whirl to Keita, horrified, when they disappear completely. “What happened? Why did the flames die?”
He doesn’t reply. Doesn’t even seem to hear me anymore. His eyes are fixed off into the distance, a strange expression gleaming in them.
“Keita?” I ask when he remains silent. As I stare at him, confused, a pale shadow stumbles past us. Li. There’s a look in his eyes, that same vacantness that Keita’s have.
“Li?” It’s Britta’s turn to be worried.
She tries to grab him, but he wrenches his hand out of hers.
“I have to go. It’s calling me.” He continues walking leadenly past the broken pink statues toward the streets, where that heat is rising now. The mist is moving again, the tendrils gathering in on themselves.
I glance at Keita. Thankfully he’s still standing where he was, staring off into the distance. Li, however, keeps moving.
“Li?” Britta calls. “LI!”
She tries to pull him back, but he shakes her off like she’s nothing—an impressive feat, given how strong Britta is. “Li!” She turns back to me. “What’s happening to him?”
The answer comes from White Hands. “It’s the mist,” she swiftly answers. “It’s trying to take them!”
Determination grits Britta’s face. “Not while I’m here!”
A tingle rushes through me as she gestures, and mounds of pink stone form over Li’s feet. For a moment, I breathe, relieved: Britta has Li caught. She’s used her abilities to encase his feet in stone. But then he absently gestures, and that stone crumbles into sand, allowing him to continue walking.
My eyes widen as yet more tingles rush through me. “Did he just—”
“I think it’s safe to say Britta’s no longer the only one who can manipulate the earth!” Belcalis shouts as she hurtles toward Li, arms outstretched.
She slams back, thrown by Li, who has shaken her off like she’s a doll. My eyes round. There’s only one explanation for this sudden burst of power and strength: Li is a full-fledged jatu now. A true jatu, one born of divine blood, with the strength and speed to match.
My divine blood.
I’d thought the process had stopped now that I’m severed from my kelai, but apparently, that’s not the case. Or perhaps Li has had this power all along and never thought to use it.
“No, Li, we’re trying to help you!” I shout, urging Ixa toward him.
He continues lurching straight for the mist, which is now pulsing rhythmically in response to his footsteps, the tendrils unfurling, with iridescent nubs stretching toward him. “I’m coming,” he calls out to it, a dazed look in his eyes.
“Li, stop!” I shout, continuing onward, but the distance between us suddenly seems so far…so very far.
And then a dark, lean figure staggers past me.
Keita, his eyes just as dazed as Li’s.
All the air rushes out of my body. “Keita, no…,” I whisper, but he doesn’t hear me. Doesn’t even see me as he stumbles for the siren call of the shimmering mist.
“So beautiful…,” he murmurs, golden eyes alight with flame.
And he’s not alone.
Another, even taller figure shuffles after him: Lamin, his eyes just as entranced, his footsteps echoing in the darkness.
“No!” I shout again, spurring Ixa in their direction. But like before, we’re too far away. Much too far. Once more, the mist is altering my perception of distance, using it to separate me from the others.
“Stop them!” I cry to Britta and Belcalis, who are much nearer. “Stop the boys!”
