Page 107 of Lunar Diamonds
“Drake!”
The ice buckled, the shade screeching behind me. This place filled with magnificent sunlight, every inch of darkness dissipating. The cleared fog revealed an empty, clinical whiteness.
Nothing.
There was nothing.
“Here they come!” Isaac yelled.
My body jolted and I tumbled forward, landing at my brother’s feet. Back in the cave. Back in reality.
Drake followed, staggering into the power box. He held onto it as he lowered to the ground.
“Shit…” he wheezed, covering his eyes against the brilliant sunlight flooding the cave.
Alice turned away from Isaac, her hands over her face.
My brother held his hand at the doorway, his sunlight smothering it in blazing gold.
“You’re both back?” he asked.
“Yeah.” I pushed myself up.
He dropped his hand, the dimness of the cave snapping back. “Whoa.”
I stood on wobbly legs. “I?—”
Isaac crushed me in a hug before I could do anything. “Fuck me, I thought I’d lost you.”
My arms were pinned to my sides. “I?—”
“I couldn’t break your illusion. But when Drake vanished, it collapsed. Why did you go in there?”
“I can’t breathe.”
He released me, taking me by the shoulders. “A fucking trap.”
The door was gone, only rock in its place.
I nodded. “I’m sorry. I lost myself. Something compelled me… That figure.”
I’d dragged poor Drake in there with me.
He stayed in his position beside the power box, his head bowed.
“What happened in there?” Isaac asked.
“Can we go?” Drake answered. “Now?”
“But—”
“Now. Please. I can’t be in here.” He fumbled getting his ginkgo sniffer out. Hands shaking, his complexion far too peaky.
I wanted to throw up, my head buzzing with nausea.
“Take it easy,” Alice tried.
He sniffed his ginkgo four times then hurried out of the cave.
