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sicknesses. All of the lives I could save. That dream had been crushed the minute I’d realized that my power didn’t work like that.
    But there was still a lot of good I could do. And right now, that meant catching the siren.
    “You all should put your earplugs in,” Kate instructed. “I know we’re not there yet, but we don’t know how far her voice carries. It’s best not to risk it.”
    We put in the earplugs first, and then the earmuffs that we had for the shooting range. Since the combination of the two protected our ears from the sound of gunshots, we figured it would be enough to protect ourselves from the siren song. After all, in The Odyssey , Odysseus’s men had passed the sirens by plugging their ears with beeswax. This technology was far more advanced than that.
    We couldn’t talk much, since we couldn’t hear, so I joined Chris and Danielle at the front of the boat, looking out as we soared over the water. Danielle had her elbows resting on the railing, her face lifted up, her hair blowing in the wind like she was a mermaid. Chris had his arms outstretched, like he was flying. They both looked like they belonged out there.
    With the headphones blocking the wind, it was more peaceful than ever. I took a deep breath and lifted my face to the sky, inhaling the fresh, salty air. In this moment, it was so easy to pretend that we were five normal teens, skipping school to enjoy a day on a boat.
    Then I saw a movement in the corner of my eye—a hand pounding on the window.
    I turned around and saw Kate, her face contorted, screaming something as she used her free hand to bang on the glass. I couldn’t hear her, but she was yelling so hard that a vein popped out of her neck. She pointed at the steepest cliff, and while I wasn’t great at lip reading, it looked like she was begging us to go that way.
    My eyes met Blake’s, and we nodded in agreement about what was going on—Kate must be hearing the siren song. Which meant that the siren was still here. It would have made sense for us to go straight for her, except for one problem—the direction that Kate was pointing led to a grouping of jagged rocks, the water crashing around them. Docking the boat there would be impossible. The rocks would shred it—and us—apart.
    Instead, Blake steered the boat away from the cliff. Kate pounded harder on the window, yelling and pulling at her wrist that was cuffed to the beam. She pulled so hard that the metal cut into her skin, blood dripping down her hand and onto the floor. She kept screaming, and as we drew closer to the shore, she reached out with her other hand and held it out to the cliff. Her face scrunched with determination, and a few small rocks broke free from the cliff, crashing into the water.
    She was trying to use her power.
    I’d never seen the extent of Kate’s power, but I always had a feeling that hers could be the most dangerous of all of ours. After all, she could potentially cause earthquakes, or cave-ins, or landslides—she could create disaster on a mass scale. But Kate was the most peaceful of the five of, which was why I’d always suspected that she’d been given such a strong ability. She would never use her power to destroy.
    But a Kate who was desperate to reach the siren? I couldn’t be so sure. We were far enough out in the water right now that she couldn’t do much damage—she was too far away from her element to control it—but Blake was bringing the boat closer and closer to the shore. We had to get Kate under control. If we didn’t… I didn’t want to know what she might do to get us to that cliff.
    I grabbed the last earplugs and earmuffs from the bag, held them up to show Chris and Danielle, and pointed to Kate. They nodded and hurried over to her, grabbing her and holding her down. She yelled something I couldn’t hear and struggled against them, but it was no use. She was the smallest of us all, and she stood no chance against them. But that didn’t stop her from