Free Spark Rising by Kate Corcino

lost in the crash of discharging electricity. Heat filled her mouth, white static arcing between her teeth and then out, up from the ground through her to sheet across the sky.
    As suddenly as the channel had formed, it released. The last of the feedback energy curled away as the lightning dissipated. Her collapsing body threw no shadow in the absolute dark following the loss of brilliant white, but as she broke the rippled glass that had been desert sand, the dull crack echoed.
    A ghost of sound whispered through her lips. She curled onto her side until bile rose from her stomach and made her roll forward and lift herself to hands and knees. Her throat and sinuses burned, waking her from her grounding-induced stupor. She eased back onto her heels. Ace’s hands were there then. He was with her, easing her hair away from her face, checking to be sure the desert glass hadn’t cut her after she fell.
    She needed time to recover, but the final bolt shooting up and sheeting across the sky might well attract those two-legged predators. Instinct would have animals headed in the opposite direction. Slavers were the danger after grounding. Those willing to trade in humans found a booming market for Sparks. Slavers didn’t often come this close to Native Nations territory, but it was good practice to not make oneself obvious. She usually grounded during the day when figuring out more than the general direction of a bolt was made more difficult. The hour after grounding was not the ideal time to try to fight away some bastard intent on dragging her off to sell to the highest bidder.
    Or to best an agent intent on dragging her back to the Council.
    Four shaking hands pushed at the hair hanging over her forehead and cheeks as she and Ace both attempted to help her see. Every breath rasped in her throat and her teeth ached. Ace helped her get back into her clothes. She wouldn’t win any awards for presentation, but she was clothed and shod.
    The stars lit their way back. She blinked up at them. She loved the light they provided in the open desert. Starlight was never as bright in Azcon. Perhaps it was a factor of the taller buildings or the grounding platform for the city Sparks that rose above them, where lightning lit the sky every night, the jagged discharges visible from miles away from the city. Maybe the darkness of roads and buildings sucked the light from the sky. Here in the desert the sand reflected the light back to the stars like a lover returning a smile. The vastness between them should have felt lonely. Instead, it was healing.
    They made it back to Gloria’s to gather her clothes and knitting, the only things left of the world she’d built that she could carry. Gloria wished her well, and Lena and Ace trudged back to his car. Lena looked back over her shoulder, her head turning with every step, as if to sear the memory of the village and the Kewa into her memory through sheer force of will.

 
     
     
     
    Chapter 6
     
    The frigid mountain air Alex sucked in as he jogged to Council headquarters cold-seared his lungs. He ran through darkness. He’d gotten back from Fort Nevada late—or perhaps it would be more accurate to say early. After he’d hiked back in through arroyos and tunnels, he’d fallen into the shower. Under the spray of the water, his mind woke and started working through the puzzle of Lena Gracey.
    Finding her was a coup. Where there was one, they had to anticipate the possibility of others. Before he’d returned to Azcon, he’d left messages on three desks at Fort Nevada, to be seen whenever the others came in to make reports.
    Believing Lena was not unique did not lessen her worth in Alex’s eyes. She wasn’t some abstract concept of the Spark’s Eve like she was to Thomas. She was a real woman, troublesome and smart and intriguing. He felt a little smug that he’d been the one to discover her. Unlike Thomas, he did question their ability to control and bend her to their will. He’d dealt