their joined hands, going around the circle, pulling on Marilise’s solidity, Poppy’s energy, Rick’s calm. To each of them, she said, silently, Can I? Can I? Let me in, and felt each reply a wordless yes. Their hands warmed in hers, and she waited.
And then Bonnie felt a little thrill along her spine as something slid into place between them, all their edges neatly fitting together. With a jolt, they were connected. Power began to pour into Bonnie from all three, filling her, making her gasp. She was a balloon, swelling with the others’ Power, stretched so thin it was almost too much for her to contain.
Bonnie opened her eyes—or rather, opened several pairs of eyes, each in a different place. She saw the faraway stars glowing faintly above the city from four different angles. She could see her own profile through their eyes, her head tilted backward, her cheeks round and soft. Bonnie felt like a live wire, thrumming with the energy of four people, burning and fizzing with it.
She took all this Power, her own and her three partners’, and gave it a direction. It roared fiercely through her and up toward that clouded, dim-starred city sky. Flooding through her body and expanding farther and farther out, the Power cleared away the clouds, brightening the stars.
Bonnie gasped for breath and kept pushing. Power pulsed steadily through her as she concentrated on summer back home, picnics down at Warm Springs when she was in high school, the sun hot on her back and the smell of fresh-cut grass underfoot. Mixed up with this were Poppy’s memories of her days at summer camp, pounding along on horseback on a wooded trail; Rick’s of a childhood creek, cold water splashing around his calves, sharp river pebbles underfoot and sticky humid heat wrapping around him like a blanket; and Marilise digging in her garden, fragrant plants and crumbling dirt under her hands.
All those summers combined into one. Bonnie felt it take shape—hot and long and glorious, a perfect summer—and then she pushed it into the night.
Slowly, a bright white light began to grow and grow on the rooftop, Bonnie at its center. A few querulous chirps sounded and then a growing cacophony of birdsong, as birds awoke and decided that they had somehow missed the dawn. Everywhere else, it was night, but here on the rooftop, surrounded by their joined Power, it was day.
Bonnie held the sun in place for a few minutes, locked into a circuit of their Power, which ran through her into the sky and back to them again. She was the circuit. She felt stronger and more flush with Power every moment. She could keep the false day going all night, she realized, until the real sun came up.
But then she pulled back, breaking the circuit. This was just a demonstration of what they’d learned; she didn’t need to hold it all night. It was enough to know that she could. Power drained out of her, leaving her alone in her own head. She blinked as her vision reduced to one point of view, one set of eyes. The light faded slowly, and night fell again.
Bonnie let go of her friends’ hands and snapped the connection between them, releasing their Power. Breathing hard, they smiled at one another.
There was a burst of applause and some murmurs of appreciation from the group behind them as they surged closer. Bonnie had almost forgotten about their audience. “Very nice, very nice indeed,” an older, bearded man kept saying, nodding and patting them on the backs.
Alysia pulled Bonnie to the corner of the roof, grinning. “That was terrific!” she exclaimed. “I liked what you chose, the way you all pulled energy from a personal memory. It’s much stronger that way. You’re really good at this.”
“Thanks,” Bonnie said. “It felt … it was great, I felt like I was all three of them, sort of. And myself, too.” She was alone in her head now, but she could still feel the echoes of them: Poppy’s spirit, Rick’s intentness, Marilise’s warmth.
Alysia raised her hand and pushed one of Bonnie’s wild curls out of her face. “I know you’ve been waiting to go home, and I think, now, you’re ready,” she said. “You’ve learned so much. Maybe it’s time to use your Powers where they’re really needed.”
Happiness rose up inside Bonnie, making her feel almost weightless for a second. Home! Now she could really help with the trouble in Dalcrest, more than she ever had