The Moon Dwellers

“G’night, Elsey,” I say

“Love you, Adele.”

“Love you, too.”

Although I’m sure it is hours later, it feels like I start dreaming the second my eyes close. It isn’t of Tristan this time, for which I am strangely relieved. It’s like I know that if I dream of him I will only see death. Thankfully, my mind gives me a reprieve from such pain. Of course, the alternative isn’t much better.

I dream of war. The star dweller army is destroying all of the Moon Realm, ru

The sun dweller army is coming, their legions of troops marching forward, their armor polished and gleaming. I can see them, but the star dwellers can’t. I scream, try to warn them, but no one can hear me through the mirror. No one except Rivet, that is, who is leading the sun dweller army. His black eyes look right at me, challenging me to come down. I don’t want to, but know I have to.

I swim through the mirror, pushing it to the side and behind me, like it’s made of a strange viscous liquid. Gravity grabs me and pulls me to the ground. Rivet smiles as he tightens his bow string. He shoots me through the heart.

You know how they say you can’t die in your dreams? I do. The pain is so intense, so real, that I cry out in my sleep. But still I don’t wake up, clinging to life in my dream by reaching for a sky I have never seen, as life ebbs from my broken body. I die tonight.

When I do wake, I am surprised to find myself very much alive with three familiar faces hovering anxiously over me. “We’re here, Adele,” Tawni coos. “It was just a dream.”

“So real,” I murmur. “I died.”

Elsey’s face is clouded with concern. “You’ll never die,” she says.

“You got that right,” I say, trying to put on a strong face for my sister although I feel weak from the nightmare.

“We need to eat something and then keep moving,” Cole says. For all the emotion that Cole displayed when we were at Tawni’s house, he seems equally emotion-free now. Rigid, soldier-like. It doesn’t bother me.

We eat quickly, swallowing the tasteless ca

Because of Tawni’s watch, we know we’ve only slept four hours and that it’s still early in the morning. Cole suspects that Rivet and his men have slept even less, so we need to keep moving. When we start out, I am already dreading the day’s hike. My ribs are sore and tender, but by gritting my teeth and breathing through them, I can control the pain.

Elsey seems to have slept better than me, bouncing along beside me and chattering away. “I’m so glad to be out of that orphanage,” she says. “Some of the kids were nice, and I’ll miss Ra

“About the same,” I say. “Maybe a bit better, to be honest.”

“Where are we going?”

“To find Mum and Dad.”

“Really? You think they’re alive?”

“Tawni thinks that Dad is. And I bet if he is then Mom is, too.”

“Oh, sweet joy! We’ll rescue them, won’t we, Adele?”

“Of course,” I say, not sure at all.

It feels good knowing where my father is, even though getting him out will be the equivalent of a suicide mission. Between knowing about my dad and having Elsey around, I feel like I am at least half a person again, a significant improvement on the empty shell I had become. But there is still a huge part of me missing, because I haven’t saved my dad yet and don’t even know where my mom is. I wonder where she is, what condition she’s in. Despite my assurances to Elsey, I know there is a good chance she’s dead. I try not to think about it.

Chatting with Elsey makes the day go by so much faster. She is like our little motivator, constantly saying positive things in her very proper-sounding way. Once she is done grilling me about what I’ve been doing while we were apart, she focuses on Tawni and Cole, asking them even more questions. They tiptoe around some of the serious things we’ve already discussed, and focus on telling fu

All in all, it isn’t a bad day, and before I know it, we are stopping again for the evening. We haven’t eaten since the morning, so we are all famished. We devour our ca

When we finish eating, Cole brings up the topic we’ve all been ignoring. “How the hell are we going to get out of these caves?” he says.

“Are we lost?” I say, making a bad joke.

Tawni laughs anyway—snorts actually, as she is taking a sip of water when I speak. That gets us all laughing, with Elsey’s infectious giggle keeping it going for a long time. Even Mr. Serious joins in, smirking at first, then chuckling, and finally full out laughing. We all need it.

“If we just keep going, we’ll come out somewhere eventually, right?” I say.

“How much do you know about the Lonely Caverns?” Cole asks.

“Not much. They co

“Yeah,” Cole says. “For each grouping of subchapters there is a cavern that acts as a hub to co

Tawni adds, “And we’ve made so many turns that we don’t have the first clue as to which direction we’re headed. We may have been traveling in circles all day, or we may have cut a path straight across—impossible to say for sure.”

“Best guess?” I ask.

Cole says, “I think we’re going to end up somewhere in subchapter sixteen. We headed straight east when we first entered, and I’m pretty damn sure we haven’t cut back across any of the main tu

“Okay,” I say. “So we just keep walking?”

Cole shrugs. “No other choice.”

Chapter Fourteen

Tristan

These days not many people believe in God anymore. I’m not sure I do sometimes. Those above are enjoying themselves too much to stop to think about whether they’re blessed. And those below are too jaded. My mom did, though. She believed with all her heart that there is a greater power out there, one that cares about us, watches over us. She said bad things still have to happen, because they help us learn and grow, but that in the end we’ll be saved.

I could use a little saving.

I wake up with a nasty bump on my head. I don’t even remember getting hit. It throbs like hell.

I try to sit up, but it is difficult with my arms and legs tied.

It is dark. Not like a cloudy night with the moon and stars blocked; dark like the sun, moon, and stars don’t exist, which they don’t in our world. Plus there are no overhead cavern lights, no streetlights, no houselights. I work out that we’re in a cave pretty quickly.

It all comes flashing back. The girl—no, Adele—ru