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Head shouted. His smooth dome reflected the morning sun as he swept the long staff over his head in a circle, advancing on Bodhi.
    Selah crawled a few feet away, still struggling to reinflate her lungs.
    Bodhi leaned over on his hands and swept his body in a sideways pinwheel. Razor Head was caught off guard, and it drove his feet out from under him as his staff flew toward the sea and he landed on his back. Bodhi delivered a fist to Razor’s neck, and he went limp.
    â€œBehind you,” Selah yelled in a raspy voice.
    Bodhi swung to face Ragged Pants’ bow at the same moment the boy released the arrow.
    As though time switched to slow motion, a sound came from somewhere near her toes, crashed up through her body and out her mouth. Selah screamed. The arrow spun toward Bodhi, who swung out his right arm and snatched it from the air.
    Selah’s mouth dropped open. Bodhi took a step forward, and his right leg shot out in a roundhouse kick that connected with the boy’s face. He too went down. Bodhi pivoted on his side to deliver a crippling elbow slam across Ragged Pants’ neck.
    Selah suddenly felt panic. It had all happened in less than a minute. She tried to crab walk away from Bodhi, healthy respect and fear for the man rising to the forefront. Watching someone dispatch many enemies at one time went a long way to change a girl’s perception.
    Bodhi walked to where Selah sat in the sand. “Are you all right?”
    Her mouth opened but words wouldn’t come. Her lips trembled. She wanted to cry but refused to look weak and invite more danger.
    â€œLet me help you.” He held out his hand. She shrank back.
    He looked at the arrow clenched in his other hand as though just noticing it. He threw it away and reached out both hands.
    Selah tentatively reached up to him, and he easily pulled her to her feet.
    â€œHow did you do that?” Selah stammered over her words, her chest heaving. Ten thoughts were trying to rank themselves in her head all at one time. Surprise, fear, and excitement topped the list. She had to be losing her mind to findhim thrilling. Maybe that punch in the head she’d gotten had shaken something lose.
    Bodhi shook his head. “Don’t know. Never did it before.”
    Selah stared at the bodies littering the beach. She still couldn’t process the superhuman abilities he’d displayed.
    He held up both open palms, turning them slowly to look at the backs. “There’s a vibration in them.”
    Selah looked up from his hands and saw it coming. “No!”

2

    A hunting boomerang slammed into the back of Bodhi’s head. Selah heard the sickening crunch as wood connected with bone. His head jerked forward, his eyes went blank and fluttered closed, and he collapsed face forward into Selah’s arms.
    She grappled with lowering his limp body to the sand without dropping him as she searched the ground. The boomerang lay to her left. She recognized the intricate pattern etched on the L-shaped polished surface. It belonged to her brother. “Raza, you come out here right now! What’s wrong with you? You could have killed me.”
    She scoured the rubbled landscape. Anger welled up as her hands began to shake. She wasn’t sure whether it was because her brother had incapacitated her catch or had come so close to whacking her with his stupid stick.
    Raza and Cleon scrambled over littered steel beam roofing and jumped to the beach. They could almost be mistakenas twins. Both blond and brown-eyed, both muscular, but Raza, at twenty-one, stood six feet tall and weighed about 190 pounds, while Cleon, two years younger, was five nine and about thirty pounds lighter. Both wore the dark brown double-weight linen pants Mother’s business created specifically for farm workers. The only thing setting them apart—Raza liked short hair and button shirts while Cleon, with shoulder-length shaggy hair, preferred tunics.
    â€œYou could