Kaya forced herself to breathe slow, lungs dragging in cold, wet air.
'It won't happen again,' she told herself. 'Lightning doesn't pick the same place twice. We moved. We're under another tree. It's fine.'
The sky answered.
Crack.
Boom.
Light tore the world open a second time. The bolt slammed into the tree just beside theirs, close enough that the shock punched through her chest. Wet wood blew apart, bark and branches bursting in a flash of white. For a heartbeat it was all fire and noise, then steam and smoke folded into the rain.
Kaya's mind blanked.
'What the hell is going on.'
'Why here. Why us.'
The old warning about trees and storms wasn't a line in a book anymore; it was screaming in front of her face. She snapped her head toward Veer and Cutie.
