I tried to sleep as much as I could. When I couldn’t, I counted the bricks. Lately they had turned blurry and out of focus, as if I were looking at them through hot air rising from the pavement. I was no longer Kate. I was a thing. Cold. Exhausted. Starving. Filthy.

I don’t want to die in this dark hole. I don’t want to die!

I just want to see the sun. I want to hug Julie one more time. I want to kiss Curran.

Maybe I was wrong.

Maybe he wouldn’t find me in time.

• • •

WARM. DRY. FOOD. Hugh.

“Five days in. It’s an anniversary. I thought I’d check on you. The offer is still open.”

“Fuck you.”

“Okay then.”

Cold, wet darkness. Ghastek convulsing in his restraints. Holding his head above water. Don’t die. We will make it. We have to make it.

• • •

THE WATER SPLASHES me. I no longer know if it’s warm or cold.

The wall of the shaft falls apart. Curran looks at me. I see him. I see his gray eyes. I hear his voice. “I’m coming, baby. Hold on. Just hold on for me.”

He’s come for me! He’s come to get me out. “I love you so much . . .”

I just want to touch him, but I can’t get through. Something is blocking me. He is right there. I can see him right there. I can’t . . .

“Kate! Kate!” Something is trying to hold me back, but I have to get to Curran. I have to get out.

“It’s not real.” Ghastek’s voice. “It’s not real. See?”

Curran fades. There are only the stones, the dark cold stones and smears of my blood, where I’d clawed at them.

• • •

SIX MAGIC WAVES. I float in a lake of blood. I’m hallucinating, but I can taste it on my lips, the salty hot flavor of a human life.

It will pass. It’s just the hunger.

Ghastek, blurry, his face out of focus, floating in the blood next to me. “I’m afraid.”

Have to keep him alive. “We’ll make it.”

“I just wanted life,” he whispers. “I watched my mother die. She suffered. She suffered so much. I can’t do that. I can’t. I’m too afraid. I did all this because I wanted the Builder’s gift. I wanted him to make me immortal.”

He stares at me with deranged eyes. He doesn’t really see me.

“Ghastek?”

“My name is Matthew.” His voice is a feverish whisper. “If the Builder cares about you, if he needs you, he’ll let you live forever. He won’t let you die.”

“I care about you, Matthew. Hold my hand. I won’t let you die.”

• • •

SEVEN MAGIC WAVES.