“Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit—,” I hear Daniela muttering behind me.
We round a gentle curve, and there’s the sky, a white dot at first that gets bigger and bigger as we scream forward. And then, with a release that feels almost physical, we’re out in the open air, gaining altitude, soaring first over a dirt road and then Lake Erie. I can’t help but let out a relieved sigh as we leave the claustrophobic tunnel behind us.
“Fast enough for you?” Lexa asks with a grin.
“Yes!” Daniela shouts from the back.
“You could’ve waited until we got out here to really open it up,” I say, although I can’t help grinning back at Lexa.
“Where would be the challenge in that?” she replies.
Even with Lexa flying us at top speed, we’re still about an hour away from Niagara Falls. Once it’s clear that the course is set and we’re on our way, I unbuckle and pop into the back to check on the others.
Much like the ride back from Mexico, Ella is curled up with her arms around her knees and her eyes closed. Interestingly, the Chimærae seem drawn to her, both of them huddled at her sides. I wonder if that’s because of the Loric energy flowing through her or because she just seems like she needs a bit of comforting.
Across the aisle, Daniela watches Ella like she’s trying to make sense of her. She looks up at me as I walk over and nods in the younger girl’s direction.
“What’s with her?” she asks cautiously.
“She—”
Ella opens one eye and interrupts. “I died yesterday. For a little while.”
“Oh,” Daniela replies.
“And then I bonded with a godlike entity that is still kind of inhabiting me.”
“Okay, that’s normal.”
“It’s taking some getting used to,” Ella admits, then closes her eyes again.
Daniela gives me a wide-eyed look as if to ask if all that was for real. I shrug, and Daniela lets out a breath, slouching low in her seat.
“Man, I should’ve stayed in New York. We had aliens, yeah. But they weren’t zombie aliens.”
“Not a zombie,” Ella says without opening her eyes.
Next to Daniela, Sam has produced an ancient-looking handheld video game from one of his pockets.
“Turn on,” he whispers insistently to the video game. “Turn on.”
He looks up when he senses both Daniela and me watching him.
“What?” he says.
I cock my head to the side. “Why do you have that?
“That thing’s from the eighties; you can’t talk to it, dude,” adds Daniela.
I point at the game. “There’s a power button on the side.”
“Thought you said you didn’t have any batteries anyway.”
Sam looks briefly flustered as we pepper him with questions and comments. He takes a deep breath. “I found some,” Sam replies distractedly to Daniela, looking at me. “And I didn’t bring it to, like, pass the time before we save some people. I brought it to try re-creating what happened before. In our room?”
Daniela raises her eyebrows. “Oh, what happened in your room?”
“Sam made the lights flicker,” I reply.
“Did he now?” Daniela says, grinning at Sam until he blushes a little.
“Literally,” he says. “I think—well, Six thinks—that I might be getting another Legacy. Like maybe I can control electronics or something.”
Daniela crosses her arms. “Man, that’s way better than stone eyes.”
I take a seat next to Sam so he’s between me and Daniela, then lean forward to look at the other girl.
“How did you know when you were getting a Legacy?” I ask, wondering if it feels different for the humans.
“It felt like my head was gonna explode if I didn’t . . . I don’t know. Let it out?” responds Daniela. “My adrenaline was pumping. It all happened fast.”
“That makes sense,” I say. “Happens like that a lot. They tend to kick in when you really need them. Your instincts take over. After that, you learn how to fine-tune them.”
Daniela listens to me, then leans back and starts massaging her temples. She stares intently at the wall across from us. “Yeah, I can feel it in me now. I could do it again if I wanted to without so much pain.”
“Please don’t turn the ship to stone while we’re flying in it,” Sam says, then faces me. “My telekinesis came when John was about to get mauled by a piken. It’d be nice if I could get this new Legacy down without the whole death-defying-situation thing. I mean, if the Legacies manifest when we really need them, I’d say right now, considering the situation the whole planet’s in, we really need them.”