The Sun Dwellers

“So you were impressed,” I say, catching him in his words.

“Mildly,” he says, “but I’m not sure I’d be comfortable hitting a girl anyway.”

“Then I guess that’ll make it easier for me to hit you,” I say.

* * *

Breakfast is quick and bland. We won’t train until later, choosing to travel when we’re energized.

Our upward climb continues for three, four, five, six hours, who knows? I stop paying attention to time at some point. There’s very little talking as that takes energy—energy we can’t afford to waste. We only stop twice to pee and rehydrate.

Eventually the tu

We’ve done it! Well, the easy part that is—just getting here. The hard part is still to come. The fu

Another mile or so down the track we find a set of stairs leading up to the right. My mom warned us about this: that there would be a number of tu

“What do you think?” I say to Tristan. “Any idea where we are?”

“Well, we left from Moon Realm subchapter one and headed due east. My guess would be somewhere between subchapters eighteen and twenty-one in the Sun Realm. What do you think, Roc?”

Roc strokes his now-stubbly chin. “Sounds about right. But it’s possible we haven’t even gone that far yet. We could still be in the subchapter fifteen to seventeen loop somewhere.”

“So where does that leave us?” Ram says, his voice a deep rumble.

“If we’re trying to get to subchapter one…” Roc says.

“We are,” Tristan confirms.

Roc nods. “Then we’ll need to either catch a train from subchapter seventeen or twenty-one, or cut across the Realm starting with subchapter eighteen.”

“If we decide to go on foot, it’ll be a three-day march at top speed,” Tristan adds.

“Why don’t we just scope it out first and then decide,” I suggest.

“The fewer people the better,” Trevor says. “I’d say two at the most.”

“I’ll go,” I say immediately.

“Me, too,” Tristan says. I’m glad. It might give me a chance to ask him about whether anything’s changed for him, like it did for me.

* * *

We start up the steps, me in front, Tristan close behind. I shine the flashlight up and up and up—at least fifty steps—but I can’t see the end of the staircase.

When we’re out of earshot from the others, who remain behind in the tu

“Have you noticed any changes this morning?” I say.

“What do you mea—” he starts to say, but then stops. He raises an eyebrow and squints an eye and generally looks confused—but then there’s a spark of recognition. He flinches and a look of something—pain?—crosses his face. “It’s…it’s gone,” he says dazedly. “The pull—it’s gone.”

So he’s felt it too. Or, more like unfelt it. I sigh. “I was hoping maybe I was just having an off day.” I feel a surge of something…relief or concern, or maybe both…through my bones.

“But how?” he asks. “Why?”

I turn and continue climbing the steps; the taps of his footfalls follow shortly after. “I don’t know,” I say. “It’s like we lost our electric charge.”

“But I…I still like you.”

I laugh. “I still like you, too,” I say, mimicking his emphasis. “We’re still the same people, have the same personalities, have the same attractions. But whatever drew us together in the first place is gone. I don’t know how else to describe it.”

“Are you saying it was something supernatural?” There’s a smile in his tone.

I’ve got no freaking clue. The whole thing makes no sense. I mean, I thought I was just attracted to Tristan because he’s hot and a celebrity and a really, really nice guy, caring and generous and loyal, and everything else a girl could want in a guy—and I am attracted to him for all of those reasons—but now I get the feeling that there’s more to the story, although I can’t even begin to explain it, especially not after what my mom said to me. It’s no accident that you and Tristan met.

“Not necessarily supernatural,” I finally say, “just something beyond us.” My explanation makes no sense, but it’s all I’ve got.

Tristan is silent for a few minutes, his presence given away only by the soft scrape of his boots on the stone.

The steps continue to rise before us, rough and jagged and almost haphazard, like they were built in a hurry, on a whim. Although my calves are burning slightly, it feels good, and helps to take my mind off of the change.

Tristan eventually breaks the silence. “Does this change anything?” he asks, a hint of concern in his voice.

I laugh again. “No. At least not for me. It’s just strange, that’s all.”

“Okay.”

Silence ensues, as awkwardness palpably churns through the air, which is unusual for Tristan and me. I guess something has changed.

Thankfully, the top of the climb isn’t far off, the steps peaking at a small landing. I wave the light around to take in my surroundings. Curved rock walls rise maybe fifteen feet to a bare ceiling. The space is empty save for a thin gray ladder attached to one of the walls. At the top of the ladder: a circular metal porthole.

“Up and out?” I say, when Tristan steps beside me.

He grins and moves to the ladder, taking the lead. When he’s a few rungs up, I grab the third or fourth hold and begin to climb. Twelve steps later, we’re at the top and Tristan is ru

“Just push on it,” I hiss.

Placing his hands palm side up in the center of the circle of metal, Tristan tries to force it upwards. It doesn’t budge.

“Maybe if we both push,” I say. “Move over.”

Obediently, Tristan shifts to one side, keeping one foot on the top rung while the other dangles precariously off the side. Pushing off with my legs, I squeeze myself beside him. I’m as close to him as I’ve ever been, as close as we were when Cole tackled us, saving us from death by arrow, as close as we were last night when he held me to sleep, so close that his breath tickles my neck. My scalp might not be buzzing, the tingles notably absent from my spine, but there definitely are feelings—and lots of them. No, nothing has changed. At least not as far as I’m concerned.

The look on Tristan’s face—blue eyes shining under the soft glow of the flashlight, lips parted slightly, eyebrows raised—tells me he’s feeling the same way. Here we are, on the Sun Realm’s doorstep, and maybe death’s too, and I’ve got the urge to kiss him.

I force back the impulse and say, “Ready?”

He blinks hard, as if snapping out of a daze, and notices my hands on the portal. He raises his arms and places his palms next to mine. “On three,” he says. “One, two…”