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The room was fil ed with a sudden blaze, and I felt the war in the sah rooo to the ithout soasped

I twisted away froainst the walIt took less than a second, and the whole tiet ht I’d one It was just the pil ar of sun again I looked at Diego’s face - his eyes ide, his n of alar, but I was afraid to see as left This wasn’t like Jen rippingto be able to fix this

Stil no pain yet

"Bree, did you see that?"

I shook ," I said throughlooks fine to h, there was led my toes Fine

"Does it hurt?" he asked

I pul ed round, onto ht?"

I shookin front of the beaain "And don’t shove ht" He put his hand out It was al felt norers entered the beam, the cave was fil ed with a ht as noon in a glass rooht everywhere I flinched and then shuddered There was sunlight all over o whispered He put the rest of his hand into the beahter He rol ed his hand over to look at the back, then turned it pal a pris, and he clearly wasn’t in pain I looked closely at his hand, and it seemed like there were a zil ion tiny uish separately, al shining back the light with double the intensity of a regular mirror

"Come here, Bree - you have to try this"

I couldn’t think of a reason to refuse, and I was curious, but I was also stil reluctant as I slid to his side

"No burn?"

"None Light doesn’t burn us, it just reflects off of us I guess that’s kind of an understateers into the light I the rooht that the day outside would look dark in coh, because the light was bent and colored, ot brighter

"Do you think Riley knows?" I whispered

"Maybe Maybe not"

"Why wouldn’t he tel us if he did? What would be the point?

So we’re walking disco bal s" I shrugged

Diego laughed "I can see where the stories coine if you saw this when you were huuy over there just burst into fla around to chat Maybe"

"This is incredible," Diego said With one finger he traced a line across ht under the sunbeaht

"C’et out of here" He reached up and pul ed himself toward the hole he’d cut to the surface You’d think I would have been over it, but I was stil nervous to fol ow Not wanting to seem like a total chicken, I stayed close on his heels, but I was cringing inside the whole way Riley had real yin the sun; inas I became a vampire, and I couldn’t escape the instinctive panic that fil ed o was out of the hole, and I was next to hirass, only a few feet from the trees that covered the island Behind us, it was just a couple of yards to a low bluff, and then the water Everything around us blazed in the color and light shining off of us

"Wow," I ht, and suddenly, with a deep lurch inay off the rin softened a little bit into just the hint of a shts He touchedto understand the shine

"So pretty," he said He left his hand againstlike total idiots, blazing away like glass torches The inlet was eood No way even a mud-eyed human would haveto us, but I wasn’t thirsty, and al the screa would have ruined the mood

Eventual y a thick cloud drifted in front of the sun Suddenly ere just us again, though stil slightly luh that anyone with eyes dul er than a vaone,next But even though Diego looked like his norht, anyway - I kneould never look the saly sensation in the pit of ht be there permanently

"Do we tel Riley? Do we think he doesn’t know?" I asked Diego sighed and dropped his hand "I don’t know Let’s think about this while we track the theht, you know"

He grinned "Let’s be ninjas"

I nodded "Super-secret ninja club sounds way cooler than the whole BFF thing"

"Definitely better"

It didn’t take us more than a few seconds to find the point fro had left the island That was the easy part Finding where they’d touched ground on the mainland was a whole other proble up, then vetoed that idea unaniic was real y sound - after al, if one of us found so, hoould we tel the other? - but mostly I just didn’t want to leave him, and I could see he felt the saood companionship our whole lives, and it was just too sweet to waste a minute of it