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Diana screamed

In some corner of her mind she kneas Penny She kneasn’t real, because she saw the mouths but did not feel theers let go of the vase From far off came the sound of shattered crystal

The redtheir way to her shoulders

And then they stopped

Penny stood there, snarling Blood streamed from the side of her head "Don’toff that cliff yourself"

"Let theo," Diana whispered "They’re just nice kids They’re just nice kids"

"Not like us, you mean," Penny said "You’re a stupid idiot, Diana"

"Let theo Don’t wake Caine up You knohat he’ll do"

Penny shook her head, disbelieving "I can’t believe he likes you, not hed "That’s what you want? Hily, lovingly at Caine, still passed out "He’s all there is," she said

Penny reached with a treently stroked Caine’s hair "Sorry to have to do this, sweetheart," Penny said

Caine woke shouting

THIRTY-NINE

29 MINUTES

ASTRID FELL AND fell knowing it wasn’t real, knowing it was all an illusion of some kind But it was very hard to believe that when her clothing rippled and her hair flew straight up and her ar for the walls of a tunnel that couldn’t possibly be real but seean to feel like floating She was suspended in the air and things no longer streaht

She was relieved to see that her brain still worked Whatever was happening, whatever poas giving her this intense waking dreaht there where she had left them

Symbols Neon symbols arrayed across a dark landscape

Not even symbols, she realized: avatars

There was adark hair that formed snakes Dark eyes and awith orange rays, like sunset bea out of her head

A ht fore of the dark playing field

One avatar was neither male nor female but half of each sex Metal teeth and a whip

Nerezza Orsay Sam But as the fourth avatar?

It was this fourth avatar that seemed to be in contention between two manipulators, two players One player was represented by a box The box was closed but for one edge that shone so bright it was hard to look at Like a toy box containing a sun

Petey, Astrid whispered

The other player she felt rather than saw She tried to turn her eyes toward it, to see it, but it was always just out of range And she realized that the light box was restraining her, not allowing her to see the opponent