Heaven Gilded Zarcroft Hybrid

Twenty Nine

"Thirteen years," I said.

"Not fair," Cynaline whined. "I haven't had a dream in weeks."

He kicked his feet in the hot pool water.

Mobi sat next to him, eating candy. He brushed mystery crumbs off of his teal pajama robe. He just showed up at some point after we left breakfast, and brought a bunch of fruit gummies with him.

The pool room looked like a planetarium, with streams of silver light falling from the giant dome and glittering beneath the water's surface. Cynaline drank his leftover Cola from breakfast, except it wasn't soda. It didn't have any sugar. It just happened to look and taste the same.

Mobi slowly nodded, clearly trying to focus on the flavor of his candy. "This is gross. How do you guys like galpot? It doesn't have a flavor."

"I think it's good," I said. "In the drink I had earlier, at least."

He hiccuped on a piece of candy.

I nudged Cynaline. "What were you and Zinoray talking about earlier?"

"He asked if we met the person with the Incarnate yet," he answered. "I said we didn't."

"Who's the person?"

"We don't know their name, but we know their invite sigil looks like this."

Cynaline showed me his phone with a familiar symbol: a Zarcrotian character overtop a silver leaf.

"It was carved in a diamond crest they have on their suitcase," Cynaline said. "Have you seen something like this?"

"I did!" I cheered. "When I was checking in last night, the person who gave us this room had a card with that symbol on it. He said his dad co-owns the hotel."

"Should I tell Zini?" Mobi asked.

Cynaline shook his head. "Don't. I don't wanna get his hopes up. Let's just get the Incarnate first. What's our host's name?"

"Ganè," I said. "I don't know his last name, though."

"Nice. We'll talk to him later. I wanna check out the game room first."

Mobi jumped to his feet. "Game room? Can I go?"

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean I forgot about my car. It better be fixed."

"You were the one who broke it."

Cynaline lifted his feet out of the water and went to dry them on this weird drying rack thing by the entrance. You step on a mesh platform, press a button, and you're dry... I didn't get it either. But that was the least of our worries.

As soon as we stepped in the bedroom, everything plunged into darkness. The windows went completely black, like it was painted with tar. The only light we had was from a laptop, reflecting off of Jamie's face.

"What happened?" he whispered, shutting his computer close in obvious fear.

Cynaline turned on his phone's flashlight and pointed it at the window. The light dispersed into a rainbow flare when it hit the glass, like what my TV screen did at home. Except when Cynaline knocked on it, it sounded like glass—the glass of a regular window. I slowly walked next to him and touched the surface.

"I-Is something covering the hotel?" I wavered.

"The windows shut off," Cynaline said. "That's why it's so dark."

"Those were fake?"

"Duh. We're underground."

"It looks so r—"

Electric blue and magenta blocks burst onto the glass, filling the room with obnoxious light. Booming static rang in our ears. Then an ear-splitting, digital squeal.

"Turn it off!" Dorothy shouted, plugging her ears.

"I can't!" Cynaline fell to his knees and sheltered himself in his wings.

Mobi ran into the bathroom.

The squealing cut off, and the colorful mess in the window vanished. The gray sky flashed back, along with a skyline of buildings below. The sound echoed in my head. I shivered in place, regarding my sight. I couldn't even speak.

"Dorothy?" Jamie's voice skipped.

I looked over. Dorothy laid on the floor, completely limp. Her stucken eyes were still open, staring across the room. Jamie shook her by the shoulder with stuttered breathing.

"Uh oh," he muttered.

Cynaline uncovered himself and rose to his feet. We looked at each other and both hurried over. Cynaline knelt by Dorothy's head and gently closed her eyes with his thumb. He rubbed her forehead. His face dulled.

"She was overwhelmed," he said, flat. "There must be an infirmary around here. I'll call them. Don't move her."

I nodded, but I still couldn't comprehend what was going on.