Kelly Meding - Trance

T his book is the culmination of more than sixteen years of workfrom the first inkling of an idea to the final product in your hands. A lot of people touched this manuscript over the years, and Ill probably forget to thank someone, but here goes.

Mega-hugs to my fabulous agent, Jonathan Lyons, for believing in a trunked manuscript and helping me smack it into submission shape. More hugs and chocolate to my editor, Jennifer Heddle, for falling in love with my take on super-heroes and making this book even better than I imagined.

To the amazing peeps who read this book in its various stages: there have been a lot of you, but especially to Melissa, Sassy, and Nancy. You three were troopers. A special thank-you to Jeaniene Frost for seeing something special in my query and first pages, and for offering some amazing advice to a novice.

And even though they dont know me, thank you to Marv Wolfman and George Prez for creating a comic book series that captured the imagination of a preteen and launched her obsession with superheroes. This book wouldnt exist without your Teen Titans.

Finally, thanks to my dad for having that copy of The New Teen Titans #9 in your box of comics, and for letting me swipe it.

Fantasy.

Temptation.

Adventure.

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T he bronze mans head was melting. It oozed fat splats of liquid metal and swirled down the front of his old-fashioned suit jacket to puddle at his feet. Some of it hit the bronze duck below him, adding layers of new metal that mutated it into a nightmarish goose. The molten metal cooled and hardened as it hit the sidewalk. Mayhems heat blasts were concentrated above the statue, and metal needs a constant heat source to stay liquid. I learned that in class.

Gage had told me the statue was of a once-famous man who wrote stories for kids. I dont know for sure, but if Gage says so, it must be true. Hes in charge while the adults are fighting for all of our lives, and he kept us quiet and hidden. For a while.

Until Mayhem found our hiding place.

We have to run for it, Gage said.

I didnt want to run. Wed been running for hours, from the southernmost point of Central Park to where we were now. I dont know how many blocks, but a lot, and it was raining, toolight, chilly rain and heavy, splattering rain. Sometimes it stopped and just blew cold wind; then Ethan would use his Tempest powers to try to redirect it so we didnt freeze.

Hours of it, and I was exhausted. We all were. Each time the Banes gained ground and pushed the last of the grown-up Rangers north, we kids ran ahead and took cover. We were there to fight if we had to, but the grown-ups didnt want us tonot until absolutely necessary. At fifteen, Gage was the oldest; Im the youngest at ten-almost-eleven. He says were the last line of defense for the city of New York.

Were the last line of defense for the rest of the country.

And were just a bunch of kids.

Mayhem kept blasting.

Ethan stepped out from the shelter of the stone wall, all wiry and red-haired and cocky thirteen. He raised his hands to the sky. A blast of wind shot away from him and swirled toward Mayhem. She was a good hundred yards away, across a cement hole that had once been a lake or something, near a statue of a bronze girl on a mushroom. The statue was losing shape, turning into goo from her being so close to it.

Ethans air blast slammed Mayhems heat back at her. She was wearing street clothes, just jeans and a black shirt, and they were nothing like our special uniforms. No armor to protect Mayhem from her own powers or ours, so she flew backward with a piercing shriek. Her braided black hair flipped around like snakes, and she landed out of sight on the other side of the mushroom.

Go! Gage shouted.

Mellie ran first, as fast as she could across the cement ground, toward the nearest clutch of unburned trees. Renee went next, a streak of blue skin and honey-blond hair, with William behind her. He carried Janel, who was unconscious from power overload; William had superstrength so he could run and carry her at the same time, while I could barely run and carry myself.

I followed the big kids, including Marco, who was still in panther form, and fifteen of us streaked across the way, rounding the edge of the cement pit, seeking our next place to hide. Just like wed done all day. My lungs were burning, aching with smoke and cold and overuse and unshed tears. I just wanted to curl up in a ball and cry myself to sleep. I was sick of being cold. I didnt want to be afraid anymore. I didnt want to have to think about tomorrowif we had a tomorrow.

I was only ten. Almost eleven. I wasnt ready to die.

None of us was.

Mellie sure wasnt when one of Mayhems heat blasts caught her full in the face and melted her skin down to her bones. Mellie didnt even get to scream. I screamed plenty. So did Renee and Nate and William. Only panther-Marco paused long enough to sniff her, then loped past.

Ethan cried out, and then he wasnt running with the group anymore. I didnt stop to see what happened, but a few seconds later, Mayhem shouted again. This time, the roar of wind was louder. I hoped he tossed her into a tree or something.

We left poor Mellie on the ground and kept going, like wed left three others behind already. My jelly legs didnt want to keep running, and one by one the older kids moved ahead of me. Toward the trees and the promise of safety somewhere else. Id get left behind and it wouldnt matter. My powers were stupid; I couldnt help in a fight. My ability to hypnotize people and alter their thoughts worked only if I looked them in the eye. That was hard to do in the middle of a war zone. I hadnt done anything today but cry and scream and get in the way.

Not like my dad, Hinder, one of the greatest heroes in the Ranger Corps. He was fighting south of us with the last half dozen grown-up Rangers, keeping the horde of Banes (sixty-something of them, Gage had said) from overrunning us. We were kids training to be heroes. If our parents and mentors died, how did anyone expect us to stop them?

We could barely save ourselves from one Bane with a superheat blast. Once the line fell and the Banes got through, sixty-something of them would crush us in seconds.

No, the line couldnt fall. Not with my dad in charge. Hed save us.

A hand grabbed my arm and yanked me forward. I nearly tripped. Gage didnt let go as we ran; he was practically pulling me along. It was as close as wed ever comeor ever wouldto holding hands. Im still a baby and hes a teenager. Hes just helping me because hes in charge. He cant let me lag behind.

We found a wide path. It took us under a stone archway and we emerged onto an open lawn. If it was ever green, it was now brown and rutted and overrun here and there with clumps of dried weeds. A lot of Central Park looked like that now. After New York Citys first major battle in the War, most of the city had been evacuated and a lot of the buildings destroyed. Id seen it from the helicopter that brought us here this morningburning, crumbling skyscrapers, gutted old theaters, debris in the empty streets. William had pointed at a tall, skinny building called the Empire or something, and said it used to be twice as tall. I didnt believe him.