Free Silver Smoke (#1 of Seven Halos Series) by Monica O'Brien

ability to get answers. "Give me a synopsis then."
    Cora looked around. "Well," she whispered, "you're not the only one who thinks Honolulu is a good place to go when you need everyone to forget about you. You came here to escape the watchful eyes of the media; we came here to escape the watchful eyes of our government."
    Brie wasn't sure what to say to that. Her phone vibrated in her purse, but she didn't have to pull it out to know who it was. Pilot was the only person who had her new number besides Adele, and Adele always called, never texted. Brie felt a pang of guilt; she hadn't had a real conversation with Pilot since the night James came back from LA.
    She let the text go unanswered. "What if you're wrong about Pilot?" Brie asked Cora. "What if Pilot has powers too? Maybe they haven't developed yet."
    "Keep your voice down." Clara came up beside them, scowling at Brie.

    Thessa was right behind her. "Brie," she whispered, pushing Brie toward the parking lot behind the shaved ice stand. "It's improbable that even you have powers without two Hallow parents. If both of you had powers, it would be a miracle."
    "A disaster, really." Clara mumbled, picking at her fingernails. It was much quieter behind the building, but the soft clicking of nail-on-nail grated on Brie's nerves. Still, this was a much better place to talk. Brie could barely hear the throng of sweaty, hormonal teenagers on the other side of the building.
    "Plus, Hallow children show their powers at fifteen," Thessa said. "And Pilot is sixteen already."
    Brie replied, "Maybe he's a late bloomer."
    "He's not," Clara said matter-of-factly, filing the tips of her nails against her cheerleading skirt. "He's an earthlie."
    Clara's words shut Brie up. She seemed so confident, and if Clara was a human computer, Brie doubted she would make a mistake about this.
    Cora pursed her lips together in a half-smile. "Give me your necklace," she said. "I promised you could learn some basics tonight, so let's practice a little."
    "Here?" Clara asked.
    "It's dark," Cora replied. "Plus my powers aren't physical. No one will even know what's going on."
    Clara looked at Thessa, who nodded to Cora. "Let's see what happens," she said with a concentrated look on her face.
    Brie handed Cora her necklace and Cora backed away from Brie. "You may have guessed what my gift is.
    My gift is similar to Clara's, except I don't deal in knowledge, I deal in emotion." She held out her hands. "I'm going to send a wave of emotions toward you, and I want you to try to block it."
    Brie panicked. "How do I block it?"
    "It comes from within," Clara said. "If you have to ask you'll never know."
    Cora gave Clara a pointed look. "Try holding up your hands in a blocking position," she said to Brie.
    "And think the word stassi ," Thessa added. "That always works for me."
    Brie put her hands in the air, feeling like an idiot. She could sense Clara's eyes raking her, waiting for her to fail.
    The wave hit. Brie's feelings quickly changed to guilt, fear, and sadness, as if her mother had died all over again.
    Brie wrapped her arms around herself and slunk to the ground, lifting her knees to her chest.
    But the wave kept coming. Her thoughts drifted to the funeral, surrounded by the strong scent of hibiscus, her mother's favorite flower. Then she was shopping with Adele. She received a phone call that her mother's plane had crashed into the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. She was fighting with her mother over whether she could take guitar lessons. She shrieked her last, angry words to her mom right before everything went black.
    Brie woke up to Cora and Thessa shaking her limp body. "You fainted," Thessa said.
    Brie sat up woozily, glaring at Cora. "Why would you do that?" she asked. "Why couldn't you send a happy wave of emotion?"
    Clara hovered over Brie's body, shaking her head. "No one tries to stop a happy wave."
    "Well, no one wants to relive their mother's death either!" Brie felt tears stinging at her