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“This would be faster,” Wil says. He’s looking at Steffen. “You’re in charge.”
Steffen’s still frowning fiercely, but he finally nods. “I’ll go first.”
“We can all go at the sam—” Garret begins, but Micah interrupts.
“You’re with me, then. We’ll go ahead and get the lights on.” He wraps an arm around my shoulders and holds out his other hand to Steffen, who hesitates, then steps forward to take it. “Ready?”
Steffen nods, and the world falls away.
The darkness of the cave is familiar, as is the flash of Micah’s cell phone as he turns on the flashlight and gropes for the lights. When they come on, Steffen rises out of his half-crouch. I’m not sure what he was doing, but it kind of looked defensive. Did he think we were going to attack him?
“Let’s move over this way,” I suggest, “and leave a clear space for the others.”
He obliges, turning his attention to the rest of the cave, scanning it from end to end. Only then does he look at the wall—and gasp. “That’s not what I was expecting at all.”
“It surprised all of us,” I say happily. “C’mon, and I’ll explain.”
“Wait for the others,” Micah calls, even as they appear. Fabian is talking, literally midsentence, and Wil is looking around even before he gets his legs under himself, but Ronan moans and stumbles to his knees.
“What’s wrong?” Steffen snaps, striding in his direction. “Are you hurt?”
“I’m dying,” Ronan groans.
“Teleport sickness,” Zac explains, looking down at him. “Just keep breathing steadily, and it will pass.”
I wince. It seems Zac’s not the best person to have around when you’re not feeling well.
“I wish you’d fucking pass,” Ronan hisses, then moans again.
“I’ll get you some water,” I offer hastily. “Zac, come with me.”
He blinks in confusion as Steffen kneels beside his brother. “What? Why do you—”
“Now, Zac,” Garrett orders. Zac shakes his head but joins me in the equipment corner. There’s a cooler here with bottled water in it—Micah keeps it stocked for us. Ironically, the cooler is to keep it from getting too cold. The temperature in the cave drops well below freezing overnight, and we don’t need bottled ice.
“Did nobody ever tell you sick people like sympathy?” I whisper to him as I open the cooler.
He shrugs. “Sympathy isn’t going to help him feel better. Breathing steadily will.”
Before I can explain to him all the ways he’s wrong, Garrett joins us, glaring at Zac. “Are you trying to make this go badly? Do you hate me? Is that what this is?”
“Uh… what?”
“Be nice to the dragons, Zac. Benice. Do you know what nice means?”
“I’m being nice!” he protests. I decide to leave them to it and take the water to Ronan. Garrett seems to have the conversation under control.
Micah’s brought over a chair, and Steffen’s helping Ronan into it when I arrive. He’s pale and looks shaky, but hasn’t thrown up, which I’m told is a good sign.
“Here, sip this.” I hand him the water. “I’m sorry you were affected so badly.” I mean… it’s not my fault, but it seems like the thing to say.
“Why am I the only one?” He takes the bottle, opens it, and sips. Then freezes. We all wait with bated breath to see if the water is going to come back up.
It doesn’t.
“I was a little dizzy,” Wil says. “It affects everyone differently, right?”
“That’s right,” Micah confirms. “Cam doesn’t get sick at all, but my cousin Gideon’s boyfriend is affected like Ronan. He used to vomit, too.”
