Si-on simply vanished.
One moment he was standing beside the dry fountain with his hands glowing. The next, there was only a streak of white across the square and that high, thin hum in the air.
Echo didn't wait for it to land. He threw himself sideways.
The light hit the wall where he had been standing. It didn't crack the stone. It erased it. A clean, round hole appeared in the side of the house, as wide as a man's chest, with smooth edges and nothing left behind, not even dust. There was only an empty space where wall had been.
Echo rolled across the stones and came up running.
He made a mental note not to get hit by that.
The hum came again from his left. He changed direction without looking and felt the heat of the beam pass behind his back. It took the corner off the fountain and kept going. On the far side of the square, a shop window disappeared.
