Mirror

Poison

"Lithallia!" Terr said as he gently shook my shoulders.

"I'm awake."

"We did it!" Terr was grinning from ear to ear. "Tyreek said the orbs are- they're glowing! Eight of them are in Cantery now."

I stared at Terr. It was hard to hear what he was saying. My leg hurt. My side hurt.

"Are you alright?" Terr asked. His excitement mellowed to a more serious concern.

"Yeah," I said.

"What happened?"

I shook me head.

He didn't press the issue. "You need to get ready for school? We'll talk about this later."

I nodded.

It was eight o'clock. I had chemistry, math, and government homework to do. I could do everything but math at lunch. I'd have to get as many math problems done as possible on the bus ride up.

I handed in my math homework at the end of the period. Mr. Raynor smiled slightly and I returned the gesture.

"Is it okay?" I asked because he seemed concerned.

"Yes," he said immediately. "Well done, Lithallia."

"Thank you."

I decided to take a long roundabout way to biology to make sure I didn't run into many people. Actually, no one was around and I was wondering if the administrators had told people that the hallway was off limits. I looked over my shoulder and felt my feet slide out from underneath me.

I shuddered with pain as I picked myself up. Someone chuckled behind me. "What's so funny?" I demanded, embarrassed.

"Nothing, just that it seems every time we meet up you have a fresh new bruise," Tyreek said.

"And whose fault do you think that is," I replied rubbing my arm and trying to remember exactly how many times I had wound up injured because of Tyreek.

"This time wasn't my fault." He gestured to the "wet floor" sign. "You're not even supposed to be here. I'm cleaning."

"Again. During school."

"Yep. I'm glad I ran into you, though. Here." He held up a small red chain, four small charms dangling from it. I let him drop it into my palm. "I did it," he went on. His smile was as broad as Terr's. "I made it to Mirror and back again. I transported the orbs from Terr's home to Cantery. Well, most of them. They, of course, insisted on keeping one."

I grabbed suddenly onto Tyreek's arm for support and tried to make myself breathe. The smiled faded from Tyreek's lips. "Hey, what's wrong?"

"I don't know. Just give me a second. It's been like this all morning," I said.

"What has?"

I clutched my side with the hand that wasn't clinging to Tyreek. "It hurts."

"Why? What happened? What hurts?"

"My side," I answered and glared at him since I thought it was pretty damn obvious. He replied with a quick apology. "But I don't know why," I finished.

"What happened in Mirror?"

I shook my head. "I don't know."

Tyreek looked doubtful. "Come on, Litty. Just tell me what happened."