Chapter Seven
Dani thrashed against the people pinning her down. Her vision went dark, despite her eyes being wide open. She bucked and tried to claw out, tried to lash out with her power. But her arms remained pinned and her power, while present, seemed frozen.
As she gathered her strength to try to shake free again, three voices spoke in unison.
“Relax,” said a gravelly voice.
“Relax.”
“Chill, fleshbag,” said Fire-Dani.
She stilled, recognizing the speakers—especially the sniping tone of the last. A groan escaped her.
“Really?” she asked. “Now?”
The hands released her and there came a disgusted noise. “Fleshy humans are so squirmy. It’s disgusting.”
Dani blinked as her vision cleared. She sat up in the same spot she’d just been in, but in a world locked within a moment. Nobody else, including Lucy, was anywhere to be seen. Not a leaf or blade of grass twitched. Not a grain of sand stirred, and the clouds looked pinned in place.
Turning, she sighed and studied herself in triplicate. Three other Dani’s clustered there, except they appeared in elemental forms, much as Jared had earlier. Stone-Dani, Moss-Dani, and Fire-Dani looked back at her. While the fiery version of her radiated constant flames, the heat didn’t so much as singe Dani’s eyebrows.
“What’s up?” Dani nodded back at the desert. “I’m kind of busy.”
Fire-Dani flipped a hand. “You’re welcome.”
“For what?” Dani asked. “I don’t recall asking for a spontaneous ticklefest.”
The flames of her doppelgänger’s eyes went white-hot. “We were saving your stupid, fleshy life!”
Dani frowned, looking to the other two elementals. Stone-Dani and Moss-Dani remained silent, with Stone-Dani not even manifesting a mouth below the emeralds she used for eyes.
These three appeared to be the main spokespeo … er … spokeselementals for the lot of them, and Stone and Moss often deferred to Fire-Dani. According to them, when Dani’s abilities manifested, she’d bonded to a whole host of major and minor elementals, which was what gave Catalysts so much raw power.
She hadn’t seen much of her water elementals, not since Carl had used them to communicate privately. She still seethed at his making her stay mum on the fact that Carl and his elemental cohorts had been keeping tabs on Ben. She so wanted to give him a few swift kicks and see how much she could make his rumpus ripple.
“Saving my life?” she asked. “From big piles of sand?”
Fire-Dani rolled her eyes. “Yes. Big piles of sand that magically appeared and wiped out a huge part of a city park and everything in it.”
Dani gestured to the desert. “Do you know what this all is then?”
“It’s Nothing.”
“If it’s nothing, then why the big fuss?”
Heat waves shimmered out from Fire-Dani’s flaming hair. “I meant nothing as in Nothing. Capital-N Nothing, you fleshwit. Get that into your fleshy head already.”
“Pardon me for not being all-knowing. Give me a $&%#%&$ brea …” Dani trailed off and stared at her alternate self. “Wait. Are you using flesh and fleshy as swear words?”
Fire-Dani pouted. “Might as well be. Flesh is vulgar enough.”
Dani clapped. “Hah! Copycat. Now that the foul-filter affects you, too, you’re totally imitating my circumvention strategies.”
“Am not. I just picked the most horrible words I could find.”
“Oh, yeah? Why don’t we see who can come up with the worst?” Grinning, Dani clapped her hands. “This should be pretty flaming fun, don’t you think?”
“You wouldn’t dare …”
“Flame you, you flaming flamesack.”
Fire-Dani crossed her arms, glaring. “I hate you so fleshing much.”
“You’re going to need more variety, otherwise that’ll get old quick. Ben said he was working up a new swearing angle, but I’m not sure what it is yet. Maybe you can collaborate.”
If I ever tell anyone else about my elemental entourage, that is. So far, Dani felt it safer to keep her companions a secret from the other Cleaners. None of her coworkers seemed to know exactly how Catalyst powers worked, and she worried that claiming to see and talk to elemental minions might make the others worry about her mental stability—something Catalysts were already renowned for lacking.
Dani swept a finger through her curls. “Vulgarity contest aside, get back to this desert-that’s-really-Nothing. Wouldn’t that mean it’s harmless? How could Nothing hurt me?”
Fire-Dani pressed fingers to her temples and massaged. “Meat-for-brains. If you were standing on the edge of a bottomless abyss, would you: A. Back away carefully? B. Put up warning signs and a guardrail? C. See how far you could reach over the edge before you fell in?”
Dani frowned. “Is this a trick question?”
“You were feeding your power—yourself and us both—into what’s basically a big hole in reality. Nothingness. And if you reached too far, you could’ve toppled in and wiped us all out. We could’ve become Nothing, too.”
“Ah.” Dani pointed at the elemental. “That’s why you saved me. Nice to know you finally believe my death could destroy you, too.”
Fire-Dani scowled. “You think I helped because I love our little chats? And I don’t totally accept your theory of mutual destruction. It’s just a chance I’m not willing to take yet.” She marched past Dani to look out over the desert. “There were other elementals here. All sorts. And now they’re gone. Erased from existence. They’re Nothing.”
A chill tensed Dani’s shoulders. “People must’ve died here as well. Anyone in the affected area just turned to dust.”
Fire-Dani shrugged. “Sure. People, too.”
Dani grabbed her alternate’s arm and forced Fire-Dani to face her. “Hey! They were innocents. What makes their deaths any less important than an elemental’s?”
Fire-Dani jerked free. “People come and go. Elementals are, for all intents, immortal unless actively destroyed. So long as there’s life in this world, we’re here, helping maintain it. Without us, you fleshbags wouldn’t even have a biosphere. So show a little respect.”
“Kind of hard to do when you act like a whiny brat every time you show up.”
“I don’t care how you treat me,” Fire-Dani said. “I doubt you and I will ever get along, and I’m not telling you to bow down to me. I’m saying you should respect life in general. Existence.”
Dani crinkled her nose. “People like to exist, too, you know.”
“Life is life, whether it’s humans, insects, plants, whatever. It’s hard enough to exist as it is without your kind threatening it at every turn.”
“Says the creature that urged me to bathe the world in endless flame.”
Fire-Dani bared teeth like candle flames. “We’ve been over that. I’d just been woken by the Cleansers ceremony. I barely had any sense of self then. And I didn’t want to end the world, if you’d remember right. We could’ve broken free from their control if you had let me be in charge.”
“Never going to happen.”
“Fine. I can wait.”
“Wait?”
“To elementals, your species might as well be mayflies.” Fire-Dani gazed around at the neighborhood in obvious disgust. “You’re all so proud of your civilization, never thinking about how small and short-lived it is in the bigger scheme of things.”
Dani snapped fingers in front of her other’s face. “Focus. I know you like to wax all rhapsodic about how superior you are to me. Sure. I’ll die someday and you can finger paint with my ashes. But we’re here now. We’re linked. You to me. Elementals to humans. I don’t think any of us want the world to die.”
Fire-Dani grimaced. “We can agree on that, at least.”
Dani indicated the Desert of Nothing. “This, though, looks like the work of someone or something who doesn’t care about life. So we’ve got a common enemy. Anyone in your bunch have a clue who or what could’ve done something like this?”
“Entropy,” responded Stone-Dani.
They turned to Stone-Dani, who’s lower face now had a crack in its rocky mask.
“Say again?” Dani asked.
Stone-Dani tilted her head, causing pebbles to dribble out of the scraggly lichen forming her hair. “Entropy. Concentrated in one spot by a powerful being. Might accomplish such as this.” She gazed at the desert, posture mournful. “The earth knows Entropy. We feel its power with every wave on the shore. With every breeze that brushes over the mountains. In the melting glaciers and shifting sea. It is everywhere, and it is inevitable.”
Dani frowned. “Sydney’s power is based on entropy, both the big and little E version. Could he be behind this?”
Fire-Dani hissed through her teeth. “Possible, but he’s hardly the only Scum capable of it. And from what we’ve seen, he usually ages things out of existence instead of leaving random deserts behind.”
Dani pondered this. Could Sydney’s reappearance and pursuit of their date be a ploy to let him experiment around the city without being immediately linked to the disasters? Or might another Scum be responsible? Why would he bother approaching her, though, when he could’ve made the desert without alerting the Cleaners to his presence? That didn’t make sense, but it did make her hopeful he might not be resorting to old, destructive habits after all.
But doubt still rustled in the dark outskirts of her thoughts. He’d targeted her from the moment they’d met, and hadn’t let up. Could he be playing a long con, using her as an “in” to cause the Cleaners long-term damage? And why, despite knowing what he could do and what the others said he’d done, couldn’t she shake her interest in him? Was it intuition that there might be more to him? Something that everyone else refused to see? Or could it be—dare she admit it—a ridiculous sort of infatuation?
Sighing, she scanned the area, wishing other humans didn’t disappear whenever she went into this mental space with her elementals. “When we got here, Lucy and I both sensed Scum in the area, but we couldn’t pinpoint the source. Any chance you could help with that?”
“We’ll try,” Fire-Dani said. “Send your power out through the elements and we’ll see if we can triangulate the source of Corruption. Oh, and don’t forget to avoid the Nothing.”
Dani eyed her. “You really think I’m that stupid?” Fire-Dani opened her mouth, but Dani raised a finger. “Don’t.”
Smirking, Fire-Dani turned to face the rest of the street. Stone-Dani and Moss-Dani did the same.
Dani sensed her helpers stretching their awareness out through their respective elements. She wondered if they might even be interacting with minor elementals in the area, having little exchanges in a language that humans could never comprehend. Would they be discussing deep philosophy relating to the spread of the nearest algae bloom? Or would it equate to, “Oh, hey there, little dirt elemental. Seen any Scum around lately?”
Breathing in, she coiled her power up within herself. As always, even in its most subdued state, the energies pushed back against her control. It wanted to be unleashed in a torrent of Pure power, latching onto the elements and whipping the world into a frenzy. There could be earthquakes, floods, and fires. There could be windstorms and hurricanes.
Dani kept a tight grip on it all, refusing to let it loose beyond what she allowed—especially knowing people stood nearby. She breathed out and unspooled tendrils of power, letting them snake out into the environment. Her awareness expanded with it, even more sensitive than usual thanks to the elementals lending their heightened focus.
Closing her eyes, she could still form an internal map of the street and sidewalk, the grass-and-rock patches of lawn, the wiring and piping and wooden frames making up the homes. She felt the pressure of car tires pressing against the asphalt. The ripple of wind through leaves. All of it formed a raw sketch of the world around her. She tried to ignore the yawning emptiness at her heels, and the sense that she might topple backward into it and never stop falling.
Corruption tinged the whole area, almost like static hissing in her ears. Could this be a side effect of the desert’s creation, or a spell intended to camouflage the Scum’s location? Either way, it clouded her attempts to single out its origin.
Dozens of cords of power wove about, probing spots briefly before moving on. Normally she could only stretch her awareness so far before losing control of the energies or having her power dissipate altogether. Yet with the elementals bolstering her, she found her focus remained strong.
Then she realized several threads of energy had warped around a particular spot, not far off. A slight shift off the course she set them on, forming a small gap in what she could sense. She concentrated and found the place lay along the sidewalk, over near where a number of people had gathered. Her power hadn’t touched on the spot because there was nothing to touch. It felt empty, devoid of elemental substance and any spark of life. A hole in existence—just like the desert. It had to be the Scum, acting as an innocent spectator.
She fixed the location in her mind. “Got it.”
The trio of elemental Danis turned back to her.
“Good,” Fire-Dani said. “We’ll let you get back to your job so long as you promise to stop almost getting yourself killed.”
“Perish the thought.” Dani gave a little wave. “See you all soon.”
“Why do you have say such depressing things?” Fire-Dani asked.
Before Dani could reply, the elementals vanished and the world lurched back into motion. She stumbled and caught herself on a hand and knee.
Lucy hurried over, mop poised. “You all right?”
Dani rose and dusted herself off. “Yeah, I’m good. Just lost my balance.”
“You sure?” Lucy eyed her with more than a little worry. “Last time I saw you like that was at the hospital, when we were trying to save Ben. Like you were having a fit or something.”
“Not a fit. My power just backlashes at times.”
“Backlash? Like when you formed a giant sinkhole and swallowed that house?”
Dani winced at the memory. “Sort of, but not quite.” She looked to where she’d picked up on the aberrant elemental feedback and immediately spotted her target. “Woman in the big, floppy hat and purple sundress. She’s Scum.”
Lucy squinted that way. “How do you know?”
“Picking up a weird vibe from her,” Dani said, jogging to the van.
“Vibe, huh?” Lucy followed, still staring over at the lady. “You must have better Scum-sense than me. I’m still just getting a vague nasty feeling from the whole area.”
“Maybe it’s a Catalyst thing. Why don’t we go say hello?” Dani grabbed a rag and spray bottle of all-purpose cleaning solvent. She also stuffed a black garbage bag and a few zip-ties in a pocket. “We’ll confirm either way.”
A few people gave them odd looks as they approached. Hopefully they’d assume the two Cleaners had been working in a nearby house and were drawn out by the spectacle like everyone else.
Lucy stayed a step behind Dani, who marched toward the Asian woman with grim determination. The other janitor whispered as they closed in, “Careful, girlie. Don’t know what we’re dealing with here.”
The woman stood further back from the rest of the onlookers, not talking to anyone. She simply stared out over the desert as if enraptured, which made Dani all the more certain she had something to do with its appearance.
The gardening hat shadowed her pale features, but Dani glimpsed large, wide eyes and a pert mouth beneath a sharp nose. Short black hair clung to her neck and ears.
Dani slowed as she neared, ready for any threatening movement. A few steps away, the women suddenly turned to face her. She smiled prettily. “So that’s what you look like. You’re very pretty.” She swept a hand at the sand dunes. “Do you like it?”
Dani hesitated, unsure what the woman meant by the first comment. Did she know Dani? Dani had certainly never seen her before. Then she fixed on what the woman’s question implied.
“Like it? You’re admitting you caused this?”
“Created,” the woman said, “not caused. There’s a difference. Now, be honest. How can I improve?” At Dani’s disturbed look, the woman made a welcoming motion. “Don’t be shy. I can take criticism, so long as it’s constructive.”
“Why did you do this?” Dani asked.
“Practice.” The woman shrugged. “How else to perfect my art?”
“Art? You killed people here.” This close, the Corruption rippled out from the woman, making Dani feel like she stood in a wave pool filled with sewage. She braced against the sensation and tried not to gag. She aimed the spray bottle at the woman. “Who are you?”
The woman’s gaze flicked down to the bottle and back to Dani. “Aw. You’re so cute. So dedicated to your work.”
“Listen, $%&#@#, I’ve got really good aim and this stuff will hurt you worse than holy water on vampires.”
“Vampires aren’t real,” Lucy whispered.
“Not now,” Dani said through gritted teeth. She narrowed her eyes at the woman. “You’ve got three seconds to tell us who you are, otherwise I’ll melt your face and then cut you a new mouth so you can tell us then.”
“You really want to do this here?” The woman gestured at the nearby suburbanites.
“I’ll do it here,” Dani said. “I’ll do it there. I’ll do it in the rain. I’ll do it on a train. Doesn’t matter where you run. I’ll take you down, you filthy Scum.”
Lucy made a choking noise, while the woman merely raised an eyebrow.
“Very well.” The Scum held her hands out, wrists pressed together. “I suppose you’ll be wanting to take me in for quarantine and questioning?”
Dani stared, wondering what the trick was. When the woman didn’t move, Dani handed the spray bottle to Lucy. “If she twitches funny, aim for the eyes.”
“Up the nostrils is funnier,” Lucy said.
Pulling out the zip-ties, Dani eased closer, trying to figure out how she could explain her actions if anyone watching asked. Maybe she could claim she was a rogue maid thieving from homes, and maid services took care of their own?
The Scum remained still as Dani looped a tie around her wrists. As Dani cinched it, the woman’s tiny grin widened.
“Oh, that’s nice and tight. I do love when someone isn’t afraid of getting a little rough.” She winked at Dani as she tugged at her bonds. “Thank you for the help.”
“Help?” Dani echoed, tensing again.
“I have places to go, more to practice. Getting around through mundane means would’ve worked, but I’m not allowed to pull this little trick, though, unless I’m trapped. He considers it such a waste of power, otherwise.”
She yanked against the plastic cord and the zip-tie sliced through her wrists. Her hands fell to the ground at Dani’s feet, exploding into clouds of dust when they hit.
Dani jumped back. The Scum appeared unfazed by the loss of her hands, especially as more dust flowed out of the stumps of her arms like grit waterfalls.
The woman’s voice gained a rasping undertone. “My masterpiece will be finished soon. I do hope you’ll attend the unveiling.”
She smiled wide. Her perfect teeth crumbled and sand spouted from her mouth. Her eyes shriveled and more dust poured from the sockets. Her body sagged, collapsing in on itself as more holes opened and let sand stream out. In seconds, her entire body collapsed into a heap of grit, an almost identical replay of Jared’s collapse earlier.
A moment later, the pile of sand spun up into a vortex. It grew twice as tall as Dani, a roar sounding as it increased in speed.
People screamed and ran in all directions. Dani reached out with her power to try and cut off whatever spell the woman had enacted—but as with the desert, her energies couldn’t latch onto anything.
The dust twister quickened and widened. A shrieking wind snatched at Dani’s hair, and blasts of grit stung her face as she shoved more power at the whirlwind. There had to be a way to stop or take control of it.
Someone grabbed her shoulder from behind.
“Not now,” she shouted, thinking her elementals were interfering again. “I won’t fall in.”
“Fall into what?” Lucy yelled in her ear, tugging her back. “Time to run, girlie!”
With a last frustrated glance at the twister, Dani turned to join Lucy as they raced for cover. Just a few steps in, the twister exploded with a thunderous crackle. Dust blew out in billowing yellow clouds. A sheet of sand slapped at them and knocked them both to the ground.
Dani’s gloves protected her palms from getting gouged on the pavement, but she still hit with bruising force. She lay gasping for breath for a second; Lucy sprawled beside her. As silence descended on the neighborhood, they roused and looked to each other.
“All right.” Lucy turned her head and spat. “What just happened?”
Dani straightened and stared around at the desert, plus the fine layer of grit now coating everything within a hundred feet.
“I think we’re going to need a bigger bucket,” she said.