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connected the human senses to the Elements,” Mrs. Chen said, nodding. “It’s never been direct—there are five senses and only four Elements in Elemental magic, so there’s been a bit of crossover and fudging—but there is a connection.”
    “It’s, like, too big for me to take in,” Thea said. And then her head snapped up and she stared at Mrs. Chen in thoughtful silence.
    “What did I say?” Mrs. Chen said, raising an eyebrow.
    “ Senses ,” Thea said. “Humphrey…I have an idea. But I don’t think you are going to like it.”
     
    Thea walked into the cafeteria of the Wandless Academy less than an hour after she had winked out of Mrs. Chen’s office. It was the tail end of supper, with a few stragglers still lingering over the shattered debris of their meals. Thea swept a glance across these scattered groups of students, and finally found the group she sought—four people sitting by themselves at one of the tables in the far corner of the room, looking variously curious, bored, mutinous, and mildly expectant.
    “You’re all here,” Thea said, as she reached the table. “Good.”
    “This had better be good. Terry said that you made it sound, like, life-threatening or something,” Magpie said. “I have plans—I’m already late.”
    “I’ve got piles of homework,” Ben muttered.
    “What is it, Thea? You sounded awfully mysterious on the phone,” said Terry.
    Magpie looked up, frowning. “The phone ?” she echoed. “Where were you calling him from?”
    “Humphrey May was here earlier,” Thea said. “It’s a long story; I’ll fill you in on the details later.”
    “This is about that cube,” Terry said.
    “Terry, I’ve held it,” Thea said. “It’s…in some weird way, it’s alive. It has a presence.”
    “I remember it,” Tess said. “I was there. Humphrey May said he had no clue what it did. He did say it was an Elemental cube. I remember that.”
    “It’s Tesla,” Terry said suddenly. “It’s something to do with Tesla, isn’t it?”
    “He’s the only quad-Element mage known,” Thea said. “And they think he built that cube. They got other Elementals to try and get into it, but it’s locked down tight. It needs four Elements to open it. And I can really control only two.”
    Ben sat up. “What’s that?”
    “Apparently that’s the whole mystery,” Thea said, with a small self-conscious smile. “I’m an Elemental. A bi- Elemental. The cube says I’m a Fire and Air Elemental. And maybe something else.”
    “What else is there?”
    “There’s another symbol and they don’t know what it means, but it responds to me too. But I don’t know anything about that. The thing is…it needs all the Elements. In concert. I don’t have that.”
    “You’re a bi-Elemental?” Ben said, staring at Thea.
    “Or something like that,” she said, trying to turn it into a joke.
    Nobody laughed.
    “Look,” Thea said, “remember the time we all jumped into the rain forest?”
    “Yeah, when Ben stepped on a slug,” Magpie said with a grin.
    “You put it there,” Ben said.
    “Hey, focus ,” Thea said. “Seriously, they need you. They need us all .”
    “We’re not Elementals,” Tess said. “None of us.”
    “Not individually. But together, all of us are. It’s like this: Mrs. Chen says there’s a link between the senses and the Elements. It’s something that is not completely understood, but it’s the best idea we’ve got right now. She says Earth equals touch, Fire equals sound, Water equals sight, and Air equals scent.”
    “But that’s only four—there’s taste. What’s that linked to?”
    “It’s not explored yet. It can all be wrong. But I’ve tried, and I can’t hold it all in my own head. I keep losing one thing when trying to latch on to another. I need you guys. You supplied all the other senses back in the forest. The five of us might be enough tomatch one Tesla. Just barely.”
    “When were you planning on this little experiment?”