“Can you still hold the lantern and do it?”
“Yes. I’ll hold it in my opposite arm. Now, let’s try again. On three.”
She counted, and on three they both shoved against the door with their shoulders. The first time didn’t work, or the second. But on the third, the door swung inward so quickly that they both tumbled inside the room.
Just as she cried out at banging her knee on the hard floor, the door swung back and slammed shut.
The clang echoed in the room, and Daisy got one of her feelings. The kind that said this wasn’t good and they might be in trouble.
Freddie raced to the door and tugged and tugged. She went to help, and after about five minutes, they both panted and gave up.
She finally met Freddie’s gaze, his pupils flashing to slits and back, and she couldn’t tell what he was thinking. She finally asked, “We’re stuck in here, aren’t we?”
He ran a hand through his hair and let out a long breath. “Maybe.”
Guilt swirled in her belly. “This is my fault.”
“No, Daisy. We did this together, and I should’ve stopped us when I couldn’t open the door by myself.”
She swallowed. “Now what do we do?”
He glanced around the room. “See if we can find anything to open the door.”
Turning around, she noticed they were in a giant room full of shelves. Boxes, crates, and all kinds of things she couldn’t name filled them.
However, there was one thing missing, though—a window.
Her imagination ran wild, thinking of how they’d die in this room, and that weeks later someone would find their bodies and use her and Freddie as examples of what happened to children who ignored the rules.
Not that she did it to be bad on purpose. She just liked to explore and find things first, as well as help Stonefire whenevershe could. And truly, she’d wanted to find Stonefire’s lost treasures or whatever to give them some history. That way, she could prove how much she belonged on Stonefire, too, even though she was human.
Because sometimes, she felt like the outsider. Oh, almost everyone was nice to her. But there were a few people who still didn’t like her and thought she should go live with her father’s family instead.
Maybe this situation proved they were right. Because Freddie might die, and it was all her fault.
“Hey, Daisy. What’s wrong?”
She looked up, and blinked. Freddie stood in front of her and she hadn’t even noticed that he’d moved. “I’m sorry, Freddie. I’m so, so sorry.”
And then she did something she rarely did, and she burst into tears.
Chapter Four
Freddie had been studying the closet shelf for anything that could help when he noticed the silence.
Now, with him and his brother, that silence would be normal sometimes. However, with Daisy, it instantly set off alarm bells inside his head.
Turning around, he saw her standing in the middle of the room, staring at the ground. Since the lantern was on the floor, both her hands clenched and unclenched, a tic that told him something was wrong.
He walked over and said her name a few times, but she didn’t respond. Every once in a great while, Daisy would get stuck in her head, as she put it, and not be able to get out of it. Usually, it happened when she felt sad or guilty, or was struggling with something that she tried not to show to the world.
He hated when she was upset. Maybe if he could snap her out of her mind, he could find out what bothered her. “Hey, Daisy. What’s wrong?”
She looked up, finally, and the guilt and sadness in her eyes made him blink. What had happened?
“I’m sorry, Freddie. I’m so, so sorry.”
Before he could ask why, she started crying. Not quietly, but in giant sobs.
