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Thunder cracked across the sky Eureka’s head shot up A splinter of lightning stretched through the trees in the east The ominous clouds, which had been shielded by the Seedbearers’ cordon, suddenly dropped Wind slaround The clouds were close enough to brush her shoulders

"Impossible," Eureka heard so "Only we can collapse our cordons"

Sheets of rain lashed Eureka’s face, cold drops against hot tears, proof that the cordon was gone Had she broken it?

Water poured from the sky It wasn’t rain anymore; it was more like a tidal wave, as if an ocean had been turned on its side and ran from the heavens to the shores of Earth Eureka looked up but she couldn’t even see it There was no sky frouish water There was only the flood It arm and tasted salty

Within seconds, the yard had flooded up to Eureka’s ankles She sensed a blurry bodyand knew that it was Dad He carried Rhoda He wastoward the twins He slipped and fell, and while he tried to right himself, the water rose to Eureka’s knees

"Where is she?" one of the Seedbearers shouted

She gli toward her She splashed backward, unsure where to go She was still weeping She didn’t know if she would ever stop

The fence at the edge of the yard creaked as the surging bayou tore it down More water swirled into the yard like a whirlpool,brackish and muddy brown The water uprooted centuries-old live oak trees, which gave ith long, painful creaks As it swept under the swing set, its force broke the twins’ chains free

Eureka couldn’t see Williahtened Water soaked her waist as she leapt to catch theh the deluge, her arlehold She would not let theht before her feet were swept off the ground and she was treading chest-deep in her own tears

She pus She tried to stay afloat, above the surface She raised the twins as high as she could She ripped the duct tape fro seats violently aside She ached at the sight of the tender red skin along their cheeks

"Breathe!" she co the chance would last She tilted her face toward the sky Beyond the flood, she sensed that the atmosphere was black with the kind of storm no one had ever seen before What did she do with the twins now? Salty water filled her throat, then air, then , but the flood made it hard to tell She kicked twice as hard to ed and choked and tried to breathe, tried to keep the twins’ mouths up

She nearly slipped beloith the effort of bracing the the surface, pulling on the back of her neck The lapis lazuli locket was keeping the thunderstone above the sloshing waves

She knehat to do

"Deep breath," she ordered the twins She clutched the pendants and plunged underwater with the twins Instantly a pocket of air erupted from the thunderstone The shield bloomed around all three of the out the flood like a ain They were levitating just as they had been the day before She unbound the ropes from their wrists and ankles

As soon as Eureka was sure the tere okay, she pressed against the edge of the shield and began to paddle bewildered strokes through the flood of her backyard

The current was nothing like the steady ocean Her tears were sculpting a wild and whirling tempest with no discernable shape The flood had already crested the flight of stairs leading fro in a new sea, level with the first story of her house Water battered the kitchen s like a burglar She pictured the flood lashing inside the den, through carpeted hallways, washing away la only glittery silt behind

The vast trunk of one of the uprooted oak trees swirled by with chilling force Eureka braced herself, her body sheltering the twins, as a giant branch thrashed into the side of the shield The twins screah them, but the shield did not puncture, did not break The tree ets

"Dad!" Eureka shouted from inside the shield where no one would hear her "Ander! Cat!" She paddled furiously, not knowing how to find them

Then, in the dark chaos of the water, a hand reached toward the boundary of the shield Eureka knew instantly whose it was She fell to her knees with relief Ander had found her

Behind hi on to Cat Eureka wept anew, this time with relief, and reached her hand toward Ander’s

The barrier of the shield stopped them Her hand bounced off one side Ander’s bounced off the other They tried again, pushing harder It made no difference Ander looked at her as if she should kno to let hied on the shield with her fists, but it was useless

"Daddy?" William called tearfully

Eureka didn’t want to live if they were going to drown She shouldn’t have invoked the shield until she’d found the to writhe toward the surface, toward air Ander’s hand wouldn’t let theo, but his eyes had filled with fear

Then Eureka remembered: Claire

For some reason, her sister had been able to penetrate the boundary when they were in the Gulf Eureka reached for the girl and practically shoved her against the border of the shield Claire’s handin the barrier becaether Eureka and the twins yanked the three soaking bodies inside the shield It swelled and resealed into a snug space for six as Cat and Dad sank to their hands and knees, gasping to regain their breath

After a stunnedShe eeping He gathered the twins in his arms as well The four of the inside the shield