It was suddenly their turn. Airin took a deep breath and willed their feet to follow Liska onto the stage. What were the words again? Zephyr had practiced the song over and over. Just sing it like you did during practice. It was the only thing they were good at anyway. Will people want to hear a banshee sing?

  Ephy leaned over to Airin. “Are you okay?”

  Airin gripped the mic. “I came here to sing. Even if I have to go home, I still have one chance to show everyone that I can.”

  “We’ve heard you sing. You’ve got this!” Liska whispered fiercely.

  Once they were in position, the curtain opened. It felt they stood there in the spotlight for ages, just staring at the crowd in the dark. Airin steadied themself on Ephy’s shoulder. Ephy turned and gave them an encouraging smile.

  The song was good. Really good. Ephy and Liska had written the lyrics with input from Airin, while Airin and Liska had written and recorded most of the music. Ephy had added a descant on the keyboard using a harp sound.

  Liska had made the backing track with Airin’s help. Liska had played piano and Airin had played bongos, and they had recorded them together. Airin had never played bongos before, but it wasn’t hard once they got the pattern.

  They had asked one of the high school drummers to give them a few lessons. Airin paid her with the watermelon sherbet from their lunch for a week, but they didn’t really like watermelon-flavored food anyway.

  Now Liska was holding her acoustic guitar, using a fancy wireless pickup that sent her sound to the monitors instead of the cord she used the day before in the dress rehearsal. She started playing two bars before Airin was supposed to sing.

  The stage went dark. Quiet enveloped the room for a moment.

  Liska strummed one more chord, but the sound was tinny and small next to Airin.

  The audience gasped, then started shrieking and talking.

  Airin glanced at Liska in the dark, and then at Ephy. They could barely see their suitemates.

  “Keep going,” whispered Liska. “We can do this!”

  Airin was still looking at Ephy, and they thought Ephy nodded, but it was hard to tell.

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  Suddenly there was light around them. Airin glanced at Ephy. She was holding out her hands, her expression one of deep concentration.

  Colors started to swirl around them, invoking deep blues and purples, but white light still shone on their faces.

  Liska started strumming the intro again. She nodded at Airin as their line approached.

  Airin took a deep breath, faced the crowd, and sang.

  They would need to amplify their performance if they wanted to do well. Airin clenched their hands and pulled from deep inside.

  “I was scared to go, but my feet found a way, across the low hill to the small cave…” Airin started quietly, trying to breathe without making the mic buzz.

  The sound doubled, then started to echo. Airin hadn’t told anyone they could echo their own voice. It was a rare talent, even for a banshee.

  Ephy sang backup to Airin. She had a decent voice, but it was soft and kind of low. It worked for their harmonies. In rehearsal, they’d had to turn her mic way up to hear her. But that wasn’t Ephy’s only job in the performance.

  The lights were dim with lots of blue tones during the first verse. The seeker was lost and unsure where to go. They found a cave and wandered into it, drawn by a tiny bit of light coming from the back of the cave.

  The song was about finding a hidden pathway to a secret beach; the power of the ocean inspired awe in the seeker. The seeker found a new world, one filled with light and sound and joy.

  “Feel the sand on my feet, the waves sigh as they retreat. Oh, oo ooo!”

  At the chorus, Airin opened their voice into a fuller sound. Ephy raised her hands, and an image of the sun rising above the ocean in oranges and pinks appeared above them. The audience oohhhed louder than they had for Oliver’s quad.

  The seeker emerged from the dark cave-like passageway onto this undiscovered beach, glorious with the dawn and framed by a rainbow. The seagulls and waves created music, which the suitemates tried to represent through the sound of the instruments. Liska had added a crashing symbol at the end of each line, suggesting waves crashing into the shoreline.

  In the bridge, the song slowed, and Ephy rapped the seeker’s thoughts, wondering if they could ever find the beach again and if they could remember how to find it.

  “Would it feel the same next time or be polluted by others who found it? Can I find the place again, the light, the sound, the crevices sunlit…”

  Ephy may not have been a particularly talented singer, but when she had tried narrating, they had discovered that her low voice was perfect for rap. Airin had heard her practicing the rap in her room over and over again, trying different rhythms and styles.

  Airin’s voice wobbled a bit as they started the third chorus, and they struggled to keep enough breath for each line. Their knees felt like water, but the crowd leaned toward them, as if eager for more.

  Airin’s eyes wandered over to the judges, who were writing notes, their faces stoic. Airin didn’t know any of them. Ephy had said they were high school teachers.

  The song ended on a quiet note, as the music died out voice by voice. Ephy let the lights around them fade out like a sunset. The audience was silent for a moment and then burst into applause. One of the judges was nodding.

  There were shouts of “Bravo!” Airin could see some people standing up at the front of the auditorium.

  Airin had just sung in front of hundreds of people.