“Almost there,” he said.
They had already discussed how they would make landfall. Ander explained the ocean surges would be treacherous, so their exit from the shield had to be calculated. He had stolen a special anchor from the Seedbearers that would grip a rock and steady them—but then they had to pass through the limits of the shield.
Claire was the key. Where everyone else’s touch met stone-like resistance, Claire’s hands passed through the shield’s edges like a wildfire through fog. She bobbed on her heels, swirling her hands against its surface, finger-painting an invisible escape. Her wrists passed in and out of the shield the way ghosts reached through doors.
Without Claire’s power, the shield would pop like a bubble when it crested the surface and touched air. Everyone inside it would be scattered like ashes across the sea.
So once Ander found a suitable rock, Claire would become their pioneer. Her hands would pass through the shield and hook the anchor on the stone. Until the others were ashore, Claire’s arms would remain partway in and partway out of the shield, keeping it open for their passage, keeping it from shattering on the wind.
“Don’t worry, William,” Claire told her brother, who was older by nine minutes. “I’m magic.”
“I know.” William sat cross-legged in Cat’s lap on the translucent floor of the shield, picking pills off his pajamas. Beneath them, the sea built hills and valleys of debris. Black strands of algae slapped like shaggy beards against the shield. Branches of coral jostled its sides.
Cat hugged William’s shoulders. Eureka’s friend was smart and audacious—together they had hitchhiked to New Orleans, Cat wearing only a bikini top and cutoffs, singing raunchy Navy songs her dad had taught her. Eureka could tell Cat thought the plan with Claire was a bad idea.
“She’s just a kid,” Cat said.
“There.” Ander pointed to a broad, barnacle-covered slab of stone ten feet overhead. “That one.”
White foam sparkled beneath its crevices. The stone’s surface was above water.
Eureka’s arm joined Ander’s in propelling the shield higher. The water changed from black to dark gray. When they were as close as they could get without breaking the surface, Eureka clasped her thunderstone and sent a prayer Diana’s way that they make it out safely.
Though only Eureka could erect the shield they traveled in, Ander could maintain it for a while. He would be the last to leave.
He studied Eureka. She glanced down, wondering what she looked like to him. The intensity of his gaze had made her nervous when she first encountered him on the road outside New Iberia. Then last night he told her he’d been watching her for years, since both of them were very young. He’d betrayed everything he was raised to believe about her. He said he loved her.
“When we get above the ocean,” he said, “we will see terrible things. You must prepare yourself.”
Eureka nodded. She had felt the weight of her tears as they left her eyes. She knew her flood was more horrible than any nightmare. She was responsible for whatever lurked above, and she planned on redeeming herself.
Ander unzipped his backpack and withdrew what looked like an eight-inch silver stake with a wedding-band-sized ring at the top. He flicked a switch to release four curved flukes from the stake’s base, transforming it into an anchor. When he pulled on the ring, a fine chain of silver links spurted from the top.
Eureka touched the strange anchor, amazed by its lightness. It weighed less than half a pound.