Payton led Sienna out the front door and over to a field. It was the same path that she’d taken just a few hours ago, when she’d run from the house. Had that really been just a couple of hours ago? The waxing moon hung high in the sky, illuminating everything with an eerie gray light, and yet the world felt peaceful. Lainey was tucked up somewhere in the house with Aaron, probably sound asleep or—Sienna cut that thought off before it could go further. She was growing closer to each of them already, but she didn’t need to picture that. She chuckled, wondering if Payton ever got an eyeful of more than she was wanting.

Payton looked back, making a face. “Not yet, thank God. But thank you for that. Now every time someone “takes a nap” I’m going to have to leave the building.”

Sienna jogged to catch up, and Payton playfully thumped her in the shoulder. “Lainey broadcasting your lust was bad enough.” She looked over at Sienna. “Once you learn how, you can control the light inside you, you can wrap it around yourself and direct it. Which I’m now incredibly thankful for, thanks to you.”

“Controlling it doesn’t even seem possible,” Sienna dropped down on a large boulder sitting near the top of a hill. She looked down over the desert spread out before them. “The few times it’s happened, everything is completely overwhelming. I get sucked into the pictures in my head and I can’t seem to find my way out.”

Payton turned, sitting down opposite her. She pulled on Sienna’s arm. “Sit here, facing me, so I can get a good look at you.” She ran her hand over Sienna’s eyelids and Sienna obliged, closing her eyes. She sat, unmoving, still and quiet, until she was nearly twitching with curiosity. She knew Payton was looking into her mind, fishing around inside her head, but she couldn’t tell. It was like the creepy feeling you get when you felt eyes staring at you but turned around and saw nothing. At least with Lainey, it was obvious when she was using her power. Sienna could feel it, learning quickly to tell the difference between her own emotions and Lainey’s influence. Then again, Emily and Keila’s were practically invisible, too. But seeing her future felt a little different than having someone rummage around in your mind. Sienna forced herself to relax. Payton was only trying to help. Without her, it could be months before she figured out what she could do, and that was time they just didn’t have. Taking in a deep breath, Sienna forced down the walls she’d built around her mind for years.

“You do push people away too much. Your mom meant well, but it’s time to move on.”

“I’m trying.” Sienna’s hands gripped onto her knees, squeezing. “I was told my entire life that my mom and I were our own little family, that I had to be wary of everyone else.”

“But you pushed past that,” Payton said.

Sienna’s lips thinned. “Yeah, and all it did was drive a wedge between my mom and me, and then she was killed and I have some kind of crazy-ass stalker after me.”

Her eyes were still closed, but Payton was smiling. She was sure of it, even though she had no way of knowing. She frowned. Could this be some sort of weird two-way street, like Payton and Cole?

“Maybe. Right now, though, I can hear your inner monologue, but I can’t go much further than that. Your memories are there, but I can only see the ones that are at the forefront of your mind most of the time. I’m sure you know the ones I mean.”

Her mother. Every time she stopped the whirlwind in her mind for a moment, it was always her mom. Would she ever get over the way she found her?

“I’m not sure anyone ever gets over that,” Payton said quietly. “Not really. But you can learn to live with it. That’s all we can do.” She paused. “There’s a barrier inside your head. Like little bubbles. I can’t see around them.”

Bubbles? Was that what she and Jace had been trapped in before? It had felt so damn solid. “Is that what we’re looking for?”

“I can’t tell for sure, but I think so. You’re still too closed off. Loosen up and let me see inside one.”

“How?”

The soft moonlight that had been filtering through Sienna’s lids went away, the world pitch black and quiet. Seconds passed and then Payton appeared—inside her fucking head! She jumped, nearly losing the connection, and felt a warm hand land on hers back in the physical world. “It’s okay, Sienna. Show me.”

She was huddling in her canvas tent, hidden away in the closet under the stairs. It was raining outside and she was scared. The lightning had started when she had been watching TV, a bright flash against the window. She’d rushed into her sanctuary. Her mom said she was safe in her tent. She’d always be safe there, as long as she didn’t make a sound.

She ducked down, listening to the rain pounding the pavement outside. Where was her mom? This was the worst storm ever. Thunder rumbled overhead before a loud clap made her scream. The second blast made her duck down, hiding under the quilt. She wanted to get out, go find her mom and make sure she was okay, but she was too afraid. She couldn’t leave the bubble, not with rain pouring down like that. She huddled down under the quilt and waited.

Bam! Another clap of thunder. Sienna jumped. But this one was different. It was closer. No! Not thunder. It was a knock on the closet door. “Sienna, I can make it stop.” The voice was strange. She wasn’t supposed to let anyone in that she didn’t know. Sienna stayed as still as possible. If she didn’t make a sound, no one would know she was in there, hiding from the storm.

The next blast was so loud it burst the light bulb above the space, plunging her into complete darkness. “Please, make it stop!”

“You have to let me in.” The voice was calm, kind, but Sienna didn’t know her. Her mom told her never to let anyone know where she was.

“No!” The force of her words shook the house, and the blast that followed rattled the walls. If she didn’t do something, the house was going to tear itself apart.

“You have to let me in. I can help. I can stop the lightning.”

“I’m not supposed to. Mom said I can’t let any strangers know I’m hiding here.”

“You do know me. It’s Payton.”

Payton? Sienna had been talking to her, but then she’d gone back to her mom’s house again. She’d left the field where Payton was, hadn’t she? She stood, suddenly a lot taller than she remembered. Had her secret space always been so cramped? She crawled over and pushed at the door. It opened to a bright flash, and then she was sitting back on the boulder with Payton.

Sienna’s hands shook. “What the hell was that?”

“That was your memory. I entered it with you. You made the bubble all on your own, saw what you wanted to see, because you were scared.”

Sienna frowned. “But I’ve made them before, I think?”

Payton shook her head. “Not when I’ve been close enough to see. Watch.” She closed her eyes and the world around Sienna went black again. This time, Payton was standing with Sienna from the beginning. Wisps of light were flying above them, almost like shooting stars, before they coalesced into a tangle, wrapping themselves around and between each other. “This is what I see inside your mind when you lock yourself into a memory.”

The night was still warm, but at Payton’s words, the air went cold. So cold that Sienna could barely stand it. Something drove the lights up, higher and higher, until they were nothing but a tiny bright dot in a pitch black sky. “Fear did this?”

“When you’re upset or afraid, you react, almost instinctively. It forms a shield of light. When you feel better . . .” Payton gestured, and the small circle of light high above them opened up and fell back to earth, almost like water being poured from a jug. “Open your eyes, Sienna.”

She hadn’t been aware she’d closed them. Sienna’s eyes flew open. She was still there, sitting on the rock in the field with Payton.

“Our powers might be different, Sienna, but they all link back to emotion in the end. Your journey here has simply been a little harder and more recent than some others’. You’ll need to learn to control your emotions if you’re going to control your powers.” She reached out, laying a hand on Sienna’s arm. “Next time, tell yourself that you’re safe. That there’s no danger. The bubble will go away. I promise.”

Sienna closed her eyes, breathing in deep. Picture your happy place. Wasn’t that what the motivational gurus always said? What was her happy place? A vision floated into her mind, unbidden and yet welcome. She didn’t know whether it was a memory or whether she was seeing time as it stood now, but it didn’t matter. Jace lay asleep, resting his head on his arms. He hadn’t gone to bed, but instead had fallen asleep over a table, still studying a document he’d dug out of one of the many boxes. His gun lay nearby. He hadn’t let that out of his sight since the man had threatened her at the truck stop. Now that they knew the real threat, she supposed he never would. He was still, peaceful, and safe. Jace was her safe space now, and Sienna had a feeling that he was going to stay that way. She felt a small jolt and when she opened her eyes, the tangle of lights was gone.

“It’s going to be hard, you know,” Payton said. “You, more than any of us, are so wired to your emotions. They’re the strongest part of you at times. But you already know everything you need to do to control this. You just need to remember.”

“My emotions . . . maybe that’s what happened when I pushed those men up against the wall, when I made the bed shake. It’s gotta take some strength to do that.”

Payton nodded. “Maybe.” She was looking outward, gazing off into the darkened sky. It would be dawn soon, but for now the moon was still the only light.

“But then what’s in the bubbles? I don’t understand that part.”

“They’re the parts of you that are so closely guarded they’re protected automatically by a shield. There might be things in there you don’t even remember right now. Only time will tell.”

“But how did you get in there?”

Payton turned, looking directly at her. “You made the decision to let me in.”

Sienna closed her eyes, imagining she was standing back at her home. She was back at that night. When she walked in the door, her mom would be dead on the floor. She knew it, had seen it a thousand times in her mind, and yet she dreaded doing it again. She needed help. She opened her eyes, widening her gaze at the night spreading and snapping around her. She forced her mom’s face to the forefront of her mind, a smile from happier times. She held on to that image for as long and as tightly as she could, and then reached out and took Payton’s hand, snapping the bubble around them both.

“Good. I’m seeing it.”

The bubble snapped back, breaking on impact. Sienna pressed the heel of her palm into her forehead, squeezing her eyes shot. “But I lost it.”

“But you did it. The rest will come.”

“Not yet.” And if it didn’t, they were screwed. Things were coming, whether they were ready or not. Cole had left to confront what they all knew was already lurking out there, seeking them. She squinted, looking out to the horizon. Isobel could be out there right now, somewhere deep in the desert. She had to protect everyone. The light arced and flickered, wrapping itself around both her and Payton faster this time.

Payton nodded her head. “There it is. That’s your motivation. It all comes back to your emotions. You just need to find the right one.”

Sienna nodded. The bubble hardened around her, and yet this time she could still see the world beyond. After nothing came lurching out of the dark, she calmed, and the bubble began to recede.

“Can you keep that up longer?” Payton asked.

She nodded again. “If I practice.”

The shield was already beginning to feel more natural, a part of her, but the telekinesis was a different beast. The shield required intense concentration, but to move things required monstrous energy—more than she could control. She’d have to learn to wrestle it, how to pull it under her command. She only had a few short days.

What was the secret? Was it just anger? She had to get mad at it? Like she’d gotten mad at the men in her room?

Of course.

Her mom had tried. She’d been telling Sienna all along. It just hadn’t made sense until right now. She’d gotten Sienna into sports early, anything that sounded like fun. At first it started with a simple game of ball. They’d go to a small park across town. There were loads of trees and not very many people. Her mom would set up a line of dodge balls for her to kick. She’d been young, maybe six or seven. Her mom showed her how to aim and kick. She’d told Sienna to concentrate hard on where she wanted the ball to go, and if she missed, to get mad at it. To focus until she could feel it. Sienna had clenched her fists, furrowed her brow, and kicked the ball as hard as she could. Nothing had ever happened beyond her aim improving, but her mom had kept at it.

So Sienna was supposed to get angry? Good. She was pissed. She stood up, pacing back and forth, whispering the words her mom had used over and over. “Get mad at it. Get mad at it. Get mad at it.”

She was mad. She was furious. Her mom was gone, her house abandoned. The man she felt like she could fall in love with had a target on his head—they all did. All because some freak had decided she wanted an army.

“Get mad at it.”

There it was. Crawling at first, but gaining speed. It was like a cloud, created from the need to protect—or perhaps attack—it all came down to intent. She understood that now. She and Isobel—two sides of the same coin.

The rock she’d been sitting on split in two. How easy would it be to turn it over? Flecks of powder grated off as it slowly rotated in the air. She gasped with effort and the giant piece of boulder trembled in the air. Her hands gripped into fists and she laid it back on the earth before she couldn’t control its tumbling to the ground.

Payton stood behind her, a quiet smile of satisfaction on her face. Sienna didn’t need to hear her mind to know exactly what she was thinking.