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losing my new and only friend.
    “Please stop, Diego,” I whispered, knowing he would probably laugh, knowing he wouldn’t listen.
    “Trust, Bree.”
    I waited, unmoving.
    “Almost…,” he muttered. “Okay.”
    I tensed for the light, or the spark, or the explosion, but Diego dropped back down while it was still dark. In his hand he
     had a longer root, a thick snaky thing that was almost as tall as me. He gave me an I-told-you-so kind of look.
    “I’m not a completely reckless person,” he said. He gestured to the root with his free hand. “See—precautions.”
    With that, he stabbed the root upward into his new hole. There was a final avalanche of pebbles andsand as Diego dropped back onto his knees, getting out of the way. And then a beam of brilliant light—a ray about the thickness
     of one of Diego’s arms—pierced the darkness of the cave. The light made a pillar from the ceiling to the floor, shimmering
     as the drifting dirt sifted through it. I was icy-still, gripping the ledge, ready to drop.
    Diego didn’t jerk away or cry out in pain. There was no smell of smoke. The cave was a hundred times lighter than it had been,
     but it didn’t seem to affect him. So maybe his story about shade trees was true. I watched him carefully as he knelt beside
     the pillar of sunlight, motionless, staring. He seemed fine, but there was a slight change to his skin. A kind of movement,
     maybe from the settling dust, that reflected the gleam. It looked almost like he was glowing a little.
    Maybe it wasn’t the dust, maybe it was the burning. Maybe it didn’t hurt, and he’d realize it too late….
    Seconds passed as we stared at the daylight, motionless.
    Then, in a move that seemed both absolutely expected and also completely unthinkable, he held out his hand, palm up, and stretched
     his arm toward the beam.
    I moved faster than I could think, which waspretty dang fast. Faster than I’d ever moved before.
    I tackled Diego into the back wall of the dirt-filled little cave before he could reach that one last inch to put his skin
     in the light.
    The room was filled with a sudden blaze, and I felt the warmth on my leg in the same instant that I realized there wasn’t
     enough room for me to pin Diego to the wall without some part of myself touching the sunlight.
    “Bree!” he gasped.
    I twisted away from him automatically, rolling myself tight against the wall. It took less than a second, and the whole time
     I was waiting for the pain to get me. For the flames to hit and then spread like the night I’d met
her
, only faster. The dazzling flash of light was gone. It was just the pillar of sun again.
    I looked at Diego’s face—his eyes were wide, his mouth hanging open. He was totally still, a sure sign of alarm. I wanted
     to look down at my leg, but I was afraid to see what was left. This wasn’t like Jen ripping my arm off, though that had hurt
     more. I wasn’t going to be able to fix this.
    Still no pain yet.
    “Bree, did you see
that
?”
    I shook my head once quickly. “How bad is it?”
    “Bad?”
    “My leg,” I said through my teeth. “Just tell me what’s left.”
    “Your leg looks fine to me.”
    I glanced down quickly, and sure enough, there was my foot and my calf, just like before. I wiggled my toes. Fine.
    “Does it hurt?” he asked.
    I pulled myself off the ground, onto my knees. “Not yet.”
    “Did you see what happened? The light?”
    I shook my head.
    “Watch this,” he said, kneeling in front of the beam of sunshine again. “And don’t shove me out of the way this time. You
     already proved I’m right.” He put his hand out. It was almost as hard to watch this time, even if my leg felt normal.
    The second his fingers entered the beam, the cave was filled with a million brilliant rainbow reflections. It was bright as
     noon in a glass room—light everywhere. I flinched and then shuddered. There was sunlight
all over
me.
    “Unreal,” Diego whispered. He put the rest