“I’m not sure about this, Buddy.” Cal muttered, an uncharacteristic tremor in her hands as she held them about a foot apart in front of her.

“Cal,” he replied patiently, “if I can live in a bubble underwater, you can make lightning.”

Only peakies and track aja can make lightning, Cal grumbled in her head.

I heard that. Buddy’s voice sounded more amused than annoyed. Catch your lightning, peaky, we haven’t got all day.

Cal took a breath, trying to remember everything Buddy had ever told her about magic. Since they’d discovered some of his magic had moved into her when she’d accidentally sparked him a week before, he’d been on her case to learn to control it properly. Cal couldn’t be more unenthusiastic. On Xara, it was really only aja who wielded magic; more than half of the ker population had no powers at all, and the vast majority of those who did were peakies, upper class people. Cal had known one or two people on the common force who had some magic, but none of her agricultural-class neighbours or schoolfriends had had any – including her. She would’ve been quite happy to keep it that way too, thank you very much, but it seemed upside-down world had other plans.

Sensing her hesitance, Buddy had found her a quiet spot to practice behind the stables. He stood in front of her, ears pricked forward, electric blue eyes watching her hands eagerly. Magic isn’t anything to be afraid of, Cal, he’d told her repeatedly over the last week. It’s natural.

Something sparked between her hands. Cal withdrew them immediately and rubbed them together behind her back.

“Cal,” Buddy groaned in exasperation, “you’ll never climb a tree if you tie your tail to a post.”

“Don’t knot yours,” Cal protested, “just give me a second, okay?”

She made the ‘OK’ sign with her fingers, something she’d picked up on Shaman.

She moved her hands back into position and frowned, concentrating. Was it her imagination, or could she feel the energy pulsing through her fingers? She pictured the lightning rushing through her hands, up her arms, her torso, into her mind… wait.

Wait, wait, wait.

There was something in her head. There was. Cal could feel it throbbing in the back of her mind, reaching out to touch the energy – to redirect it – control it –

She yelped, throwing her arms up, and accidentally shot a bolt of electricity across the grounds. It zipped several metres before striking the ground an inch from a teenage boy’s feet, blackening the grass. A thin plume of smoke rose from the earth where the lightning had struck.

“Shit, Danny!” Cal shouted, her heart racing as she sprinted the short distance towards him and skidded to a halt. Luckily she’d missed him by a hair. “You okay?”

Cal! The alien presence in her head took on a voice. Buddy’s voice. You made lightning! Way to go!

Cal kneaded her forehead with her knuckles.


CALDERA