I close my eyes as the final wave of sand lands. I can feel it in my mouth, in my nose. I can’t breathe, can’t think. I claw desperately at the sand in front of my face, more out of instinct than because of any real plan. It makes no difference. The wall of sand before me is impenetrable.
My lungs are starting to burn, and I desperately need to breathe. They are burning so much that I can hardly think from the pain. No, that can’t be true. It’s been mere seconds since the sand fell. I can hold my breath comfortably for longer than this. It hits me then. It’s not my lungs burning, it’s my chest. Or more specifically the gems in my tattoo.
It feels like it did when I was being pulled to the alley behind Starbucks where we found the gate and the second Soul Gem, but it doesn’t matter how much it burns this time, I can’t follow it. Finding the gems was all for nothing. This has all been for nothing.
My dad’s face flashes before my mind. He’s going to be heartbroken, and he’ll never know what happened to me. It’s not like the authorities are ever going to find us out here.
The burning is intensifying, and I suddenly feel real panic start to rise within me. What if the heat sets the sand on fire? But would burning to death really be any worse than suffocating to death? Suffocating. That’s the word I was looking for earlier. Not drowning.
My mind is doing crazy things, telling me useless facts, but above it all, there is the burning. The pull of the Soul Gem. My instincts are firing, and although I can’t explain it, I know I need to touch the second Soul Gem. I don’t know why; it can’t help me now.
But focusing on the burning, on the pull of the gem, gives me something to think about other than my own imminent death, and I dig my hand through the sand. I know I’m almost touching it. I can feel the sand getting hotter as my hand get closer to my chest.
My lungs are starting to burn from lack of oxygen, and spots of colored light are dancing across my darkened vision. I have seconds before I pass out and then my lungs will take over and I’ll breathe in the sand and this will all be over. But first, I have to touch the gem. Every fiber of my being is screaming at me to touch the damned thing.
I push my fingers through the last few grains of sand and they touch down on the gem. The heat is so intense it feels as though the skin is melting off my fingers. I try to snatch my hand away, but I can’t. It’s like the gem is holding onto it.
I open my mouth to scream as pain floods my chest and hand, traveling up my arm. It’s a mistake. Sand fills my mouth. My eyes fly open, unseeing, just stinging. I feel an intense blast of heat radiating out of me and traveling through the sand around me.
There’s a bright orange flash that sends a stabbing pain through my already stinging, blinded eyes, and then everything goes black.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: A VISION OF TIME
I can feel the heat of the sand beneath my knees through my jeans and the sun beating is down on my back. My eyes are closed but they’re not stinging and I can breathe again. Oh my God. I can breathe again.
My eyes fly open and I blink a couple times against the bright sunlight. I’m on my knees in the sand, the medallion in my hand above the shape in the sand. I’m just about to lay the medallion into the shape and open up whatever door we need to get through to get the weapon.
“Be careful,” Rye warns me.
I have a deep sense of deja-vu and it suddenly all clicks into place. We’re not dead. We didn’t even get down into the sandy cavern. It was a vision, a warning. I’m about to open the cavern where we will get trapped and die if I don’t go down there alone.
I pull my hand back from the shape in the sand as though I’ve been burned. I push myself to my feet. My legs are shaking suddenly but they hold me. The team frown at me in concern.
“Sailor? What is it?” Rye asks, putting his hand on my arm.
I don’t speak for a minute. I can’t speak. My throat has closed up completely, restricted by the tears I am trying to hold back. We were all dead down there. I couldn’t even reach Rye’s fingers in our last moments. Without stopping to think and talk myself out of it, I throw myself into Rye’s arms so hard he stumbles back a step. He catches himself and wraps his arms around me as I cling to him.
He strokes my hair and whispers to me, asking me if I’m alright. I nod and press my face against his chest, breathing in his scent. I take a second to compose myself and then I pull away from Rye. I give him a nod, letting him know I’m okay and he can let go of me.
“Sails? What’s going on?” Jinx asks.
“I had a vision or something. I don’t know what it was but it felt so real. I used the medallion and when it clicked into place, the ground opened up beneath us and we fell into a large, sandy cavern. The weapon appeared. It was buried underground and it responded to the sound of my voice and showed itself. Rye said it was too easy, that something would happen, but we risked it. As we made our
