Page 61 of In Between Darkness

He pulls his hand away and kisses his teeth. Is he jealous?

“I don’t care about your date. Tell me why you thinkhe’sin there,” he says, pointing to my hand.

“I mean…We kissed. He was there one moment and then he was gone… And there was a butterfly. I watched a butterfly get sucked in, too.” I realise how crazy I sound and begin to feelembarrassed. “He’s in there, I know it.” Tears well in my eyes again. “Oriah said he’s lost; It’s like some kind of vortex.”

“Oriah?” he questions, his brows furrowed again.

“The Star God. She’s in my head,” I say, gesturing to my head. “I know I sound crazy, but she told me to come to you.”

“You really kissed that clown?” He smirks at me. Seriously. River is in danger, and this is how he responds?

“Seriously, that’s all you take from that?!” I raise my voice, which makes Ryder jump a little. He raises his hands in annoyance and begins pacing again, his heavy black boots crunching on the ground.

“Hmmm… Okay, just let me think.”

I silence myself as I watch his cogs turn. “You watched the butterfly get sucked in, right?” He looks at me briefly between paces.

“Yeah.” I instantly sadden again, remembering how the innocent creature succumbed to the unknown.

“Well, that’s good. That means that the vortex must lead somewhere, like a portal.”

Ryder gets excited, like it is all beginning to make sense for him. I’ve never seen him like this before. “Your power, it’s different, but it can’t be much different from any other Moon Gift. When we were little, we were told bedtime stories about shadow wielders who were consumed by their own Gifts.” He stops pacing and turns towards me again.

“Wow, that’s some bedtime story,” I exhale. These Moons really are savage.

“In order for the wielders to gain control again, they had to enter their shadows and tame the beast from within,” he continues.

I stop him there, knowing exactly where this story is going.

“Are you crazy! I’m not going inside there.” Thinking about entering that black hole by choice makes the hair on the back of my neck stand on end.

“Do you want to help River or not?” he snaps, startling me.

He’s right; we don’t really have anything else to go on.

“I can send one of my hawks in first and see if I can get eyes on River.”

I don’t know how I feel about this.

‘Oriah, are you hearing this?’

Still radio silence. I look at Ryder, then at my hand, then back at Ryder again. If River is in there, he needs my help. I nod hesitantly to Ryder that it’s game on.

“I suppose it’s our only option.”

I sigh and hold out my hand, ready to ignite the blackened ember.

Chapter Twenty-Three

“Relax, I’m not going to let anything happen to you,” he says sincerely, and for a moment, I believe him.

He moves his hand to caress my cheeks and, as our eyes meet, the butterflies in my stomach flutter once again. I take a shaky breath and try to calm myself.

“Ready when you are.”

He summons his hawk, and the black outline of a large bird with a long, pointy beak manifests out of thin air. It shakes its feathers and outstretches its wings, as if it’s been cramped up in a small box and can finally come out and stretch. It perches on Ryder’s shoulder and squawks.

Ryder gives it a little stroke under the chin and smiles. “This is Kyro.”