Zed’s eyes were fully golden now, as bears apparently started shifting when they were anxious. Dani would have to remember that. She didn’t want to stress him out while riding on the back of his bike and end up riding shotgun with a bear, like something out of a circus.

Dani hopped over the magique line, turning to Zed and showing him that she was just fine. He was holding the rope like it was the only thing tethering him to the planet. And she wiped the cheeky smirk off of her face because he didn’t seem to be amused at all.

She walked slowly toward the lights, her hands shaking from the amount of push-back she was receiving. Every step seemed to require super-strength.

“I’m going to talk to you, so I can determine whether your brain is being scrambled.”

Dani nodded as she crept toward the rift, her body overwhelmed by all of the signals it was receiving. “That seems sensible.”

“Any idea of what it is? What caused it?” he asked. “I mean, I’ve lived near it my whole life, but no one really seems to know why rifts happen. And please try to explain it in Kool-Aid-Man terms again, because that seemed to work.”

“Okay, imagine you’re making the universe, but all the pieces don’t line up, like mismatched print seams in a dress, creating a weakness in the piece.”

“This is not up to your Kool-Aid-Man standard, but I get it.” He nodded.

“Rifts are not that unusual, actually. You can find spots like this all over the world—Stonehedge, Machu Pichu, this really sketchy convenience store in Parsipanny, New Jersey. But they’re not quite as dramatic. Those rifts are like when you don’t quite seal a plastic baggie and a little fruit juice seeps out. Your rift is like the elevator scene in The Shining.”

Zed shuddered so hard it jerked the rope around her waist. “Why? Why would you bring that up?”

Dani grunted against the strain of moving forward. The closer she walked, the lighter she felt, but in a less fun, “barely holding on to consciousness” way. She could feel the force of the rift pushing at her, like two massive hands were shoving at her shoulders.

“Look, energy is forever. You can’t destroy it or create it. You can absorb it and move it somewhere else. You can remake it into another form, like that ball of light. The problem is your rift is one big interconnected system and I don’t want to pull on the wrong bit and bring the whole thing down on our heads.”

“I know we would all appreciate that. Do you think you’re going to be able to bring the rift back under control, keep it from leaking?”

“I have no idea, but I hope so.” She huffed out one last breath. “Toss me a rock!”