I stared at her. “Sensitives closed the Veil?”

“They did,” Burke said.

I looked at Liam. “Did you know about that?”

He shook his head. “Not precisely, but it makes sense you’d have to fight magic with magic.”

“Exactly,” Burke said. “PCC told the Sensitives they’d recruited that they’d have immunity. That’s why so many helped. And because they were willing to ignore the obvious civil rights violations to help the larger goal—human survival. And you know what happened after that. The war ended, and the Magic Act was passed. Anything with magic became verboten. Criminalized. The interned Sensitives weren’t released. And the Sensitives who helped didn’t get immunity. They went into hiding.”

Darby nodded. “We—PCC Research, I mean—tried to get PCC to change its position. We knew about the differences between Paras. We knew Sensitives could manage their magic. We proposed Containment enlist Sensitives and Consularis Paras on a trial basis to track fluctuations in the Veil, help get us prepared in case it split again. But PCC didn’t want to hear that. They wanted us to tow the ‘enemy combatant’ line, and we wouldn’t.” She shrugged. “That’s when I got the ax.”

“For Sensitives, Containment thinks magic management is too risky,” Burke said, and Darby nodded. “They see us as unstable, uncertain. If we don’t control our magic, or not well enough, we turn into wraiths. That makes us dangerous.”

She looked at Malachi and Burke. “And so here we are, trying to fight the good fight.”

“‘We’?” I asked.

“Our allies,” Burke said. “Some Sensitives, some humans and Consularis Paras both outside and inside Devil’s Isle. We call ourselves Delta.” Burke formed a triangle with his thumbs and index fingers. “We’re in the Mississippi Delta, and in math, delta means change. That’s what we’re after—changing Containment’s view of Paranormals and Sensitives. Changing everyone’s view. And right now, finding our missing Sensitives—the ones who helped close the Veil.”

“Wait,” I said. “If they’re in hiding, how do you know they’re missing?”

“They’re in hiding from Containment,” Darby said, “but not necessarily from each other. There’s a loose network of Sensitives who keep in touch. Not all do, but having that connection is important to some.” She glanced at Burke. “We found out about, what, six months ago that one of the ‘networked’ Sensitives hadn’t checked in.”

“About that,” Burke said with a nod.

“That was the first indication,” Darby said.

Liam crossed his arms. “You have a theory about why they’re missing?”

“We believe someone is trying to open the Veil again,” Malachi said. “And we believe they’re using Sensitives to do it.”

It was our worst fear come true.

“Why do you think that?” I asked, my voice quiet but still echoing in the large room.

“Because the Veil is fluctuating more than it should be,” Darby said.

“Fluctuating?” I asked. “What does that mean?”

Darby pulled a small pocketknife from her jeans, flipped open one of the tools. She crouched, scratched a line through the dirt on the floor.

“This is the baseline,” she said. “Normal fluctuations in energy emitted from the Veil look like this.” With the tool, she drew a wavy line through the dirt that rose over and fell under the main line.

“Veil fluctuations are common,” Liam said. “The Veil is a boundary, a barrier. It shifts and changes.”