While Riley was in class, Reed sent her a text.

‘I left you the car. Drive yourself home. Riding w Xander.’

Great! Is Xander at our house now? Clearly he’d convinced Reed of his sincerity — or at the very least of his sanity — since Reed consented to get in his car with him.

When Riley pulled into her driveway after school, next to a car that she didn’t recognize, her brother came jogging out the front door in his bare feet. 

Oh, no. He’s grinning. 

Reed glanced at the expression on Riley’s face and started laughing at her. “Come inside, you little wuss!”

She crossed her arms and trudged after him through the warm, heavy air into the house. A blast of cool air hit her in the doorway. 

Xander was sitting at their dining room table. “Please sit down, Riley.” He gestured to an empty seat as if it was his home instead of hers.

Irritated, she complied.

“First of all,” he said, folding his hands in front of him, “your brother Jack cannot see behind the Veil.”

Riley was both relieved and disappointed by this pronouncement. “You tested him?”

“I tricked him into walking outside barefoot,” Reed told her.

“Reed and I stayed Veiled, but Jack had no reaction to what he saw,” Xander added. “He should have seen behind the Veil the way you did in the river, and the way Reed did on campus.” He pointed toward the kitchen window. “You have a holy tree in your back yard... that’s supposed to be good luck, by the way. And Jack would have seen it glowing if he was Unveiled. But he didn’t react to being barefoot outside other than to complain about the wet grass.”

“Is it normal for someone like us to not be able to lift the Veil?”

“It’s rare, but it happens. And that’s the situation with Jack. He’s what we call Unseeing.”

Riley winced. That means Jack is safe, but it also means we’ll have to keep all this a secret from him.

Which will SUCK.

“While you guys are around Jack, stay Veiled. I’ll do the same when I’m here. That way we won’t do or say anything that would make him uncomfortable. I learned that lesson the hard way with my mom. You can’t always keep that stuff from sneaking into your conversations, and Veiled people won’t ever get it. My mom was ready to have me locked up for a while. Literally. Don’t go there.”

Reed and Riley looked at each other and nodded. “Agreed,” Riley said. Not telling Jack all this if he can’t see it anyway is a no-brainer.

She turned to Reed, who was now bouncing around in his seat. “Well... tell me all about yourself, Warrior.”

He shot out of his chair. “Let’s go outside!”

Xander looked down at Riley as they followed Reed toward the back door. “Before he shows you anything, I have to say I’m unbelievably surprised that Jack is Unseeing, given everything Reed can do already.”

Reed ran, still barefoot, into the middle of the back yard. Riley paused to remove her sneakers too. The second she stepped down and her bare feet hit the damp grass, she saw through her shell that Reed was glowing a muted brownish red, the color of rust.

He turned and faced Riley before transforming into an enormous rust-colored hawk. Ten feet tall, at least. He shuddered a little and flapped his huge wings.

The bird alone would have caused Riley to gasp, but Reed’s light didn’t stay rusty. Suddenly it was every color, swirling around like the surface of a soap bubble.

“Pick a color, Riley,” Xander instructed her.

“Umm... green?”

Reed’s hawk turned green.

She smiled. “Blue.”

He turned a shade of light blue that was similar to hers.

“Black light,” Xander chimed in.

A deep purplish pink that made Riley’s white sneakers, still sitting on the back step, glow in the storm-induced afternoon darkness.

She laughed. “Black light... that’s my favorite.”

“This is only half the fun,” the giant bird that was Reed replied. “Now pick an animal. Something besides a hawk.”

Riley thought for a second. “A bear?”

Reed became a giant bear, still glowing with the eerie black light.

Shocked, she turned to Xander. “He can become anything?”

“What we know so far is that Reed can choose his color, his animal, and his size up to a point. And it seems like the animal has to be both something he’s personally seen, and that’s native to this part of North America. I asked him to do a coyote, which he’s never seen, and a giraffe, which he’s seen at the zoo, and he couldn’t do either one. But he’s fine with bears, wolves, deer, and snakes. Transforming like this is his warrior power.”

Reed transformed back into a rust-colored hawk and flapped his enormous wings. He lifted himself off the ground and flew above and around the house, screeching like a banshee.

Xander watched Reed sail around, shaking his head. “He always starts out as that big red hawk, so that’s his true animal, and what he’ll remain once he’s no longer a warrior.” Riley watched in amazement as her brother carefully landed.

“When will I stop being a warrior?” he asked.

“Miyala are warriors, with warrior powers, from puberty until around age fifty.” Xander looked back at Riley. “Our tradition is that every warrior is given a ceremonial name when they discover what their power is. In our clan, we reuse old Shawnee names to honor the dead. For warrior names, our chief looks through the histories and chooses the old name that best describes the warrior’s abilities. I told Reed that if he joined Greenwood, Chief James would name him something like ‘Big Red Hawk who Changes Feathers.’ Reed said something one should never say in mixed company, so I suggested he go with Chameleon instead.”

She laughed at that. “Yes. No fancy names for Reed.”

“So this ‘Chief James’ is going to name Riley something fancy?” Reed asked with a chuckle.

“As soon as we figure out what her power is.”

Riley shook her head. “Can’t I just go by Riley? It’s worked so far.”

Xander’s lips twitched. He shook his head.

“What’s your fancy name?” she asked him.

“Hole In The Day.” Xander put his hands together and then pulled them apart as if he were parting curtains. As he did so, the air around him separated, and a large gray rift appeared behind it. He stepped inside of it, and it closed behind him.

He was gone. Literally gone.

A second later, the rift opened again. Xander stepped back out of it, and it closed behind him. “I can create a pocket outside of space and time, and step into it. And when I’m inside that pocket, I can still see the area around where I’m concealed. That’s why I’m the one in our clan who does reconnaissance.”

Riley blinked. “I… yeah. How could anyone find you if you weren’t there?” The laws of physics do not apply to this man. Dazed, she sat down on the picnic table.

Reed morphed from the hawk into his rust-colored human self. “Let’s see your turtle, Riles!”

Riley stood and became a turtle for Reed, and then hid inside her shell so that she appeared Veiled. Xander then walked in and out of her shell’s area so that Reed could see how he seemed to become Veiled again when he did so. Then Reed tried to walk into Riley’s shell, too. Both he and Riley immediately lost their abilities.

“Both of you back up a few steps,” Xander said.

Each of them did as they were told, and suddenly they were Unveiled again.

“It’s like what happened on campus.” Xander ran his fingers through his hair and glared. “Your abilities don’t work if you’re close to each other.”

“We can’t be Unveiled at all if we’re beside each other?” Riley asked him. “What does that mean?”

“I don’t know. I’ve never seen it before.”

Reed was unconcerned. “I wonder if I can Veil people when I’m a turtle.”

“Try it,” Xander said.

No luck. Although Reed could make himself look like Riley’s turtle, he couldn’t cloak his own light or Xander’s the way Riley could.

“So you can’t pick up other animals’ abilities. You can only look like them,” Xander observed. “I’m hoping Riley turns out to be one of the turtles that can become invisible.”

Reed stared. “Huh?”

“Some turtles can become invisible in their shell, instead of just looking Veiled. And as big as Riley’s turtle is, if she does have that ability, she may be able to make others invisible along with her. We could move around unseen.”

“That sounds like you’re up to something,” Riley said. “Why sneak around?”

“To prevent more confrontations like the one you saw at the river. If we could—”

“Wait, wait, wait!” Reed interrupted him. “Back up. You’re saying that Riley may be able to make herself invisible if she practices?”

Xander nodded. “There are turtles who can do that.”

“And that wouldn’t even be her power?”

“Nope. That’s a turtle thing, like flying is a hawk thing. Animal abilities are completely separate from warrior powers.”

“This is so amazing!” Reed shrieked, pumping his fists into the air. “Flying, invisibility, changing colors, turning into animals... Riles, how are you not freaking the fuck out right now?”

“I am. I just do it quietly.” Riley thought to herself, Turtle, go away now... to see if that would make her simply glow like Xander and Reed were doing without a turtle hovering over her.

It was that easy. Her turtle shell completely disappeared. She looked like herself again, except that she was a brilliant sky blue. “How come I need mud, Xander?” She squished some between her toes. 

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, dry soil doesn’t work on me. It has to be wet.”

Xander blinked. “Are you sure?”

“Positive.” Riley explained her morning misadventures on her way to school, concluding with, “Reed was furious.”

“I’ve never heard of that.” Xander sat down on the picnic table bench. “Usually all you need to lift the Veil is to be in contact with your native land.”

“And that will also be true of whatever ‘powers’ I have? I will only be able to use them as long as I have wet dirt smeared on me somewhere? This sounds unbelievably weird.”

“More or less. The ability to see behind the Veil comes from the combination of Shawnee blood and being in physical contact with Shawnee land. Both must be present. You can rub dirt on your hands, or paint your face with it — some Miyala do — but it’s more discreet to sprinkle soil in your socks, wear clay-dyed clothing, or a piece of clay jewelry on you someplace.” Xander gestured to a ring on his left pinky. “That works, too. Well, for most people it would… if you truly need the soil to be wet, none of those may work. I’ll ask our clan doctor whether she’s ever heard of someone needing mud before.”

“How many clans are there?” Reed asked him.

“Eighteen, we think, plus three Shawnee tribes. Shawnee are the men and women who remained in the tribes when Europeans evicted our ancestors from their homelands in and around Ohio. They live in Oklahoma now, and there are very few of them left. The majority were killed during the eviction. Today, most people who have Shawnee blood are not in one of those tribes. And some of us are descended from those tribesmen who intermarried with Europeans, adopted a lot of their ways, and formed a new culture out of the two: Miyala. Greenwood is one of those clans.”

This is a cult, Riley thought to herself. It HAS to be.

She walked over to the ‘holy tree,’ a luminous overgrown thing in the middle of her back yard that wasn’t there when she was Unveiled. The branches were covered with thorns and small red fruit. “What is it, Reed?”

“An American plum, I think.”

She reached for one of the ripened plums, but her hand passed right through it. Shocked, she looked up at Xander.

He answered her unspoken question. “Holy trees are like regular trees, but they live only on our side of the Veil. Anything that exists only on the Unveiled or 'holy' side isn’t solid. And anything that exists only on the Veiled side doesn’t glow. To have both light and substance, it has to exist in both places.”

Riley ran her hand back and forth through the strange holographic branches.

“Whenever you’re Unveiled,” Xander continued, “you’ll see trees, flowers, patches of grass... all kinds of glowing plants that are, or used to be, native to this land. Feel free to explore plants, they’re never harmful. Be careful with animals, though. Any glowing animal you see might be an enemy, although most are the spirits of those who passed away a long time ago.”

He turned to Riley. “When will you have a few hours free? I want you to come to camp and meet the rest of the clan.”

She shook her head. “Xander, this is moving way too fast for me. I’m not ready to meet a clan. I need to slow down.”

Xander nodded. “Of course you do. You’re a turtle.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Reed chuckled. “Riley... I dare you.”

Dumbfounded, she gaped at her brother. “You are punch-drunk on all of this.”

“And you’re way too uptight. This is amazing. Of course I’m enjoying it! You should, too.”

“I’d enjoy it more if people weren’t chasing me with knives!”

“What knives?” Reed turned from her to Xander, glaring.

Xander shook his head. “Someone was out looking for me at the river, and Riley ended up between us. I got her out of harm’s way.” He looked at her. “Didn’t I?”

She shrugged.

“Look, Riley,” Xander said, “if you come to camp yourself, you’ll see that there’s nothing to worry about.”

—Trust him—

“Are you absolutely sure she’ll be safe?” Reed demanded. “Enemies and knives... I’d feel a whole lot better if I could go with her.”

“Yes, I’m sure. And you can’t go. You have to stay a secret.”

“Then I think you should go, Riles,” Reed said. He gave her a long look.

Reed thinks I should scout them out and see if everything is legit. Maybe he has a point. Without more information, there’s not much we can do with any of this.

Riley took a deep breath, then exhaled. “Fine. I’ll come to camp on Thursday after school. But just for a while, to check things out.”

Lightning zipped across the sky.

“Done.” Xander grabbed his phone and tapped out a message. And with every tap, Riley felt more uneasy.