Horizon by Jenn Reese Page A

softened. “But I’m sure Zorro and the Dome Meks escaped somehow. They must have.”
    Hoku shook his head. “The Meks wouldn’t have left the dome. Not even if it was crumbling around them. They were built to protect and preserve it. Remember the SkyTek dome? Those poor Meks were still there, trying to put the pieces back together.”
    His throat constricted painfully. He tried not to think about that little bundle of tech and fur, and the more he tried not to, the more he did.
    Aluna gasped. “Tides’ teeth! Our breathing necklaces!”
    Hoku’s hand went to his throat. “They fully recharged the last time we were here, but without HydroTek continuously beaming more energy. . . .” He did some quick calculations in his head. “They’ve already started to drain, especially because we left the ocean and went to the desert for so long. We might only have weeks — or days, or just hours — before they stop working for good.”
    “What about the rest of the Kampii in the City of Shifting Tides?” Aluna said.
    “Their necklaces were being charged until the moment HydroTek was destroyed, so some of them might have months,” Hoku said. “But not every breathing shell is the same. Some don’t hold their energy as well as others, and some Kampii use more power than others when they breathe. I bet a lot of necklaces have already failed.”
    Aluna punched the surface of the water. “After everything we did — after everything we sacrificed to defeat Fathom — our people are going to die any way! Hoku, what if Daphine . . . ? What if your parents . . . ?”
    “Stop it,” Calli said. She dropped into the surf and held her wings above the water. “Both of you, stop it. This is terrible, but we can’t start guessing. It won’t help anyone. And besides, the Kampii aren’t ignorant now. You told them how their necklaces work. If their tech started to fail, your Elders would at least know why.”
    “You’re right. Daphine was at the battle,” Aluna said. “She promised to tell the Elders everything. Maybe they listened.”
    “It doesn’t matter if they listened, because they can’t fix anything,” Hoku said, and the invisible hand clenching his chest squeezed tighter. “Elder Peleke won’t know how to generate the energy they need — despite the fact that the sun and waves and wind are right above him — and even if he did, he wouldn’t know how to transfer it to the necklaces. I need to get down there.
Now.
”
    Aluna’s tail churned the water. “HydroTek first — or at least the shore closest to the dome. If there are survivors, they might have escaped into the woods. Maybe they rescued the generator, or some tech that might help us fix the necklaces. The Dome Meks were charged with protecting the Kampii, not just HydroTek itself.”
    Hoku itched to dive into the water and swim for the City of Shifting Tides, but Aluna made sense. He couldn’t let panic make him stupid. Recovering any bit of tech might help him find a solution faster. “HydroTek, then,” he said.
    “You swim. I’ll fly,” Calli said, and she vaulted into the air. “The dome is south, not too far. I’ll meet you on the beach, but be careful. The Upgraders circling HydroTek might have better eyesight than I do.”
    Aluna dove into the water and Hoku saw the tip of her ocean-slicked tail for the first time. She looked powerful, but in a whole new way. His best friend was finally a real Kampii.
    Just like old times, he dove after her. Aluna had always been a better swimmer than he was, but the ocean was still his home. His legs remembered how to kick, his arms remembered to how to form a wedge over his head to cut down on his drag.
    Tail or not, he was a real Kampii, too.
    He stayed close to the surface in case his breathing shell decided to fail, and tried to pace himself. In the old days, long-distance swimming would have meant hacking and wheezing and stopping repeatedly for breaks. But his body seemed to have no trouble with