The sky still rumbled and crackled but the lightning appeared to be fading, retreating into a far bank of clouds over the ocean. Shaking and wobbly, Sami sat up. So she was still alive, after all. Her vision seemed clear and her hearing was restored. In fact, her senses were still sharper than ever. She could smell the ocean salt and hear the grass moving in the breeze.

She rolled to her knees, steadied herself, then got to her feet. The fields around her were dark and empty and she experienced a moment of fear that she fought to keep down. Where were the others? She began to slowly scan the scene around her, her eyes taking in every subtle contour and nuance.

Then she noticed something—a glint like a flake of light. Then another. She hurried toward it. There was a series of these flecks and as she approached, she watched them take on the shape of a boy-man lying on his side. It was an outline in dotted light, like a child had traced around him with a gel pen. Heart pounding, Sami squatted next to the dotted outline and put her hand on his. “Dorsom? Oh, please. Please come back. Oh, this is my fault!”

Her eyes filled with tears and the world seemed to tilt. When she noticed a burst of color spreading under her hand, she thought she was seeing things. Then she watched that color swirl forward into his arm, filling in the dotted outline, until Dorsom was lying there, fully formed and solid as ever. A transparent wave seemed to wash through his body and he took a deep breath. His eyes fluttered open, round and luminous in the Silverworld night, and they rested on Sami. He frowned and sat up. “What happened?”

Sami knelt and threw her arms around him. “You’re alive.”

He nodded as they released each other. “Thanks to you!”

“And you. I felt you and Natala fighting to help me when I was struck.”

He shook his head. “That is what rebalancers do. We tune in to energy. We used ours to help you amplify yours. We helped you narrow your focus to make it stronger.”

She sat back, staring at him and the way he seemed to reflect her own expression—as if she were looking in a mirror. “Were we dead?”

He smiled. “We don’t draw such clear lines in this World. Not like in yours. We have inside-of-time and outside-of-time. For a smallest while, we were outside-of-time.”

“We got hit,” Sami muttered. “They zapped us good.”

The soldiers. Dorsom nodded, rubbing the back of his neck. “Nixie’s army. Their powers grow and grow—exponentially. We’ve been fighting her Shadow soldiers for a long time, but I’ve never seen—or felt—any such thing as this. They’ve seized and channeled storm and electric currents.”

Sami ran her hands over her arms, making sure she was still in one piece. Then something occurred to her. “But you know the weird thing? Somehow…I didn’t feel like they were trying to kill us. More like—like, trap us.”

“You, Sami. She needs you. You’re the key to Crossing between Worlds.” Dorsom’s face was drawn and serious in the moonlight. “She needs a Silverwalker to open the door between Worlds.”

Sami pushed herself up to stand. “Well, she can’t have me.”

Dorsom studied her in the sparkling moonlight. It had an opal luster and made everything flutter with tiny pink and teal dots. He smiled and nodded. “No, she can’t.”

They found the dotted outline of Natala in the grass, lying motionless on her side. Sami touched her arm and marveled at the way light and life flashed through her form. The two of them embraced.

“Incredible, Sami! You brought me back.” Natala’s eyes shone. “You directed breath energies in through me. Your ions—your heat and water vibrations—they recharged me!”

Dorsom nodded, his hands on his hips, and said to Sami, “You are ready.”