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“We found it inside that book, when we answered the riddle of the three—”
“That’s it! We took the wrong one!”
Brooke was already moving as she shouted the words, racing from the vaulted chamber in the upper part of the castle. A few yards later she spun on her heel and disappeared quickly through a beautifully-carpeted archway, two different cameramen struggling to keep up with her.
Hayden pointed. “Do you think we should go help—”
“No,” Devin shook his head. “She knows what she’s doing.”
“She always knows,” I agreed. “Every time.”
It was a topic we’d discussed often; just how invaluable Brooke had been to us. As a partner and teammate, definitely. But also, so much more.
“Besides,” Devin pointed out, “she’s faster than all of us.” Somehow he managed to chuckle through the tension. “We’d race down to the library only to find her racing her way back.”
We all smiled because we could see it happening. It would go down exactly like that.
“You know if we end up winning this thing,” Devin said, his voice low and full of reverence, “it’ll all be because of her.” He paused before continuing. “Yes, because of us too. But really…”
“I know,” I agreed. “I hear you.”
“She’s really is amazing,” Hayden nodded. “She’s…”
“Special?”
We were all staring at each other now, nodding with our eyes. The silence felt strange with the clock still ticking. But there was a lot being said without words. A lot of information still passed between us, in a way only the closest of friends can know.
“We can’t lose her,” I said abruptly. “No matter what.”
“No matter what,” Devin agreed. “Which means…”
“Which means we need to have her,” said Hayden. “We can’t let her go.”
We’d talked about this for nearly a month now, over the course of the Race. But they were always hints. Nothing more than vague inferences as to what might happenafterwards, because afterwards always seemed so far away.
But now… now ‘afterwards’ was right around the corner. Win or lose, there were only a few days left in the Race.
“We talked about this before,” Devin said hesitantly. “We said we wouldn’t do this again.”
“We said we couldn’t gothroughthat again,” I corrected him. “But this… this is different.”
My thoughts went to Melissa, and the whole hurtful mess that would eventually bring an end to our fiery yet unconventional relationship. The pain wasn’t fresh, but it was still there. I remember trying to make sense of it all, in an attempt to see what went wrong. Eventually we agreed the whole thing had been wrong, even though we knew in our hearts it wasn’t.
“It definitelyfeelsdifferent,” Hayden agreed. “Whether itisdifferent or not, I guess that remains to be see—”
Brooke came flying back around the corner, her gorgeous legs still pumping away with a life all their own. Her eyes were glassy, her face flush from the exertion of running. Even so, she was barely out of breath.
“Itoldyou!” she cried triumphantly, holding up a single blue runestone. Her pretty face looked more beautiful than ever, all alive with warmth and excitement.
“It was in the library,” she gasped excitedly. “We had the wrong book the whole time…”
