CHAPTER TWO

The pain was so intense it almost felt good, if that made any sense. Describing it like I was plugged into an electric socket didn’t quite do it justice. But it was a small nudge in the right direction. Before The Accident, any number of power runes or ogham script could buffer the earth energy and channel it toflow through my body. Nowadays, however, magic didn’t work any better for me than my reflection or shadow. And so the raw power of the Gaia line slammed through me with all the gentleness and subtlety of a derailing train at high speed. We shot across the continental US along the current of earth energy, while a swarm of electric locusts hammered at my skin, and my blood felt like it was boiling and freezing in flash moments. My synapses arced like lightning. It took everything I had not to cry. Inside, my mind and senses registered the Road Witch straddling a wide bolt of blue lightning shooting through a swirling blue void like a comet. Distinctive nodes and currents intersected our path, marking geographic features on the earth’s surface. We’d crossed the San Andreas fault line and a few minor ones pretty quick, then we were passing through the Rockies and the Mississippi River just beyond.

Two comets appeared ahead of us, going the same direction. TheRoad Witch eased up between them, and they turned out to be a pair of young druids riding runic longboards. They wore kilts instead of trunks, naturally, and their bodies were painted in woad, all whorl patterns and runescript. The cool thing with most druids was their knack for taking just about everything in stride. Never mind that my bike wasn’t demonstrating a standard feature right now, they both grinned at me and flashed a Hang Loose sign. I managed a tight smile and Hang Loose in return, even with every cell and neuron in my body cussing me out in Dolby Surround Sound. Still taking everything I had not to cry. I could see the massive energy signature of the Hudson River coming up, a wide blue torrent spanning across the horizon of my sight. I aimed for one of the many nodes just before it, hoping it ended up in some empty park like I remembered.

We spilled out of the node, and I vaguely made out trees and grass through the blue tinted glare that slow-baked my retinas. I felt soli