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Unfortunately, the wind didn’t like the idea of slowing down

"Shit," I whispered, and reached deeper, trying to grab hold of the fast- molecules Hot processes were alwaysa scale I steadied myself, listened for the tone of the wind, and spreadthe wind, likeinto it Once I was inside of it, I could slow it down

And then David said sharply, "Hold on"

It hit us froiant’s palm on the bumper I bit back a screa to tu back I’d given it tooto spiral in on itself I saw the sand begin to rise up, painting the outlines of the biggest damn dust devil I’d ever seen Not a tornado, not in the traditional sense, but up high where ere, it was far th flooding back into ather up the shattering chains of control It was like playing leeful abandon I can’t Panic threatened to overwhelm me, make me lose what control I had

And then I felt hi h that silent, strong connection between us Trust yourself

And soer looked like chaos There were patterns, beautiful sparkling patterns, life, life everywhere, in the wind, in the ground, in me, in David

There was no chaos For an instant I saw it, knew it on a level that only the true Djinn could perceive, and I reached out and took control

And the wind obeyed Ta of dust, coiled around us like a pet

Mona touched down gently on hot asphalt that shie

I openedeuphoria, and felt Mona’s engine still purring and tre wheel I was holding on to David, or he was holding on to o to ease Mona back into gear My hand shook violently on the gearshift, but I just held on until the shakes went away

He’d just shown ht I’d had, and lost

I hadn’t realized until this moment how deeply I mourned it

We played cat and mouse with earthquakes all the way to the Nevada state line I could only i the normal world, not tothe world safe for regular folks; , but I didn’t have the tiy to answer it The caller was Paul Giancarlo, as te National Warden for the US -our previous fearless leader having been corpsified in the line of duty just about a week ago Another thing I hadn’t been able to stop, even as a Djinn I could only iine hoorried Paul was, but it wouldn’t reassure him to hear my status reports His Djinn would tell hiood news there was

"Highway Six," I said I was shufflingI could do while David drove He wasn’t as good a driver as I was, but I tried not to hold that against hi rubber, trying to get as far as we could before Kevin and Jonathan locked onto us again I knew that anytia unequivocal, like, Sht now At which point it would be Jonathan versus David, in the battle for hway Six turns into Highway Fifty," I said, following the route with ood, for us; I didn’t want to be on a congested highith the wrath of Jonathan co down on o On the upside, maybe that means they won’t come after us for a while I don’t know about you, but this crap is getting ridiculous"

He estion, except that I didn’t think Djinn could get indigestion

"It also ht," I said slowly I’d lost count of how many hours we’d been in the car The little sleep I’d been able to catch had left rainy-eyed, subject to nervous caffeine-sponsored tre post-traumatic stress flashbacks to the last soft mattress I’d slept on Of course, that had been a hospital bed, and I’d been recovering frounshot wound to the back Hence, the PTSD

"We could stop," David agreed Nothing in his voice Not looking athis eyes over at the last second "You should rest"

"Start fresh in themore we can do now"

"Probably true Wouldn’t hurt to catch some sleep while I can"

We were both quiet for a few seconds, and then I let out a slow, tired breath "I can’t I can’t just sleep while they’re out there doing God only knohat, to God only knoho" We hadn’t been able to see anything beyond the wall of Jonathan’s power For all I knew, they’d turned Las Vegas into one giant beach party, like eternal spring break That would be about Kevin’s speed

"We would’ve heard if there had been anything spectacular," he pointed out "There’s been nothing on the radio so far; it’s business as usual for the regular , you can’t stop it by burning yourself out like this"

"David, they’ve killed Wardens" At last count, while I’d been lazing around in one into the no-as, and hadn’t returned Plus, there’d been no contact from either the Wind or Fire Warden in Nevada The Earth Warden, probably feeling like the only target left on the shooting range, was justifiably nervous "Jesus, I can’t just relax!"

David’s voice was loarentle "I know" And he reached out with one hand and brushed his fingertips against one

My drea off to a limitless flat horizon Sand drifted lazily around, but I couldn’t feel any wind couldn’t feel anything

No, that wasn’t right I could sense the external pressure of the breeze againstmy hair but I couldn’t feel it Not inside

I had no sense of the weather at all

Blind I was blind Panic ripped throughand weirdly unreal, the way things do in dreams intense and disconnected

This is what is

But it wasn’t I was a Warden; I had powers; I was alive and kicking despite the odds

This is what is co

"It’s beautiful," a voice said I turned lorious, aves of white-gold hair and amethyst eyes Her pale, diaphanous robes whipped in the wind I couldn’t feel, and she raised her face to the sun and drank it in like a happy child