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But it trembles before it hits.

We all stumble, losing our footing.

Silas staggers back and I grab hold of him, steadying us both.

A crack appears in the earth, starting at the first felled tree, then spiderwebbing out to the others as if they were rooted together beneath the earth.

Dirt flies up and Silas and I cover our faces with our arms.

Light glows from the fissure in the earth, first like a soft halo, then a sharp ray of sunlight.

It’s so much light, so quickly, it almost burns.

There’s shouting and exclamations ringing out from the soldiers.

Silas and I stagger back, still half shielding our eyes.

The light from the five felled trees flows together into one blinding ribbon and then consumes Kansas.

“Holy shit,” Silas breathes out.

The light spins around Kansas like an arc of electricity.

How the fuck is she going to survive that?

A crack of thunder reverberates through the sky and echoes through the earth and suddenly the light pulses outward in several soft rays.

And the rays break through the dark cloud overhead and sunlight pours in.

FORTY-FOURDorothy

I am euphoric.

There is an overwhelming feeling of rightness flooding my veins as the light pulses outward.

My logical brain says maybe I should be worried, maybe this is too much, maybe I’ll lose control of it.

But just as quickly as the anxiety swells up, the voices go quiet and I sink into the feeling.

When I open my eyes next, my feet are on the ground, the axe back in my hand, and the light has died out.

But the pulsing in my body, the rightness in my bones, that remains.

All five of the fighting trees are down, clearing the front of the Ancient Forest.

Tin comes forward. There’s a cut on his lip, and blood in his beard. A black eye is starting to form on his left.

Rook is gone.

“Where is he?” I ask.

“He left,” Tin answers. “Just as soon as the sunlight appeared.”

I glance up at the sky where several beams of sunlight shine through open holes in the dark cloud. The entire thing hasn’t come down, but this is a good place to start.

“I have a theory about his power,” I tell Tin. “And it has to do with the light.”

He nods. “If you have a theory, you should tell him.”