The sound was muted at first, as though it fought through a barrier of some kind. Even in its muffled state, the noise was fierce. The flames struck in a constant rush and careened out, like a hose blasting against curved glass. The colors were as magnificent as they were deadly. The night and their home were brilliantly illuminated by an electric green fire. Sean felt Dillon move up beside him as the first rift became visible in the shield around their home. It was like watching a fire eat through plastic, burning a tiny pinprick, then dozens, all melting back, growing into flowers of destruction.
Dillon shouted, “Here it comes!”
Sean crouched down, then reinforced the four shields one more time. The roar grew and grew until it formed a furnace blast. The light and the noise surrounded them. Sean stayed focused on the shields, him and Dillon and their parents. He gave it everything he had.
And then he felt like maybe he could give it more.
After all, he was surrounded by energy at its rawest and most ferocious.
So why not take the energy and shoot it back?
It was amazing that he could think at all in the middle of that racket. But there it was. Carver’s words droned at him. Shield and attack. Shield and—
Then Dillon spoke the exact same words Sean was thinking. “Attack! Let’s turn this sucker around!”
“It’s worth a shot, right?” It was impossible to hear anything. But Sean did, just the same. “I don’t know where to shoot.”
“I do!”
“So you shoot, I’ll load.”
Which made no sense at all. But Dillon was already standing, the shield around the two of them elongating so as to keep him sheltered. The incoming fire was a great glowing wash, so intense Sean’s eyes streamed with tears. He didn’t know what he was doing. But he did it anyway. He reached out one hand so that it touched his shield, then drew the energy so that it focused and flowed together, streaming over toward where Dillon’s own hands extended out to touch the shield. He watched Dillon heave in a gigantic breath, and the energy formed two great swirling masses around his outstretched hands.
Dillon roared like some feral beast, or at least that was how it seemed to Sean. And the roar was a blast that shot out in four different directions.
The house groaned like a giant in agony. Sean groaned in mortal harmony, a great silent heave of distress. He felt as though he was being split in two. He drew the incoming fire like a magnet and passed it over to Dillon. At the same time he constantly fed energy to the four shields, him and Dillon and their parents.
Then the floor beneath them gave way. The shields held as they fell through what had formerly been their living room. All the while, Dillon kept drawing the incoming force from Sean and jetting it back out. A massive, streaming blast . . .
The flames vanished. Completely and utterly finished. In one brief instant, faster than a single heartbeat, just gone.
They found themselves in what had formerly been their cellar. Sean rose slowly from his crouch. Dillon lowered his hands, unarched his back, took a great satisfied breath. Their parents were coiled in two bleary-eyed bundles, still clutching what was left of their covers up to their chins.
Dillon grinned at him. “That is definitely one for the books.”