Isaac was twenty meters from the fence that fronted the Forge when his friend, Sadina, seemingly popped out of nowhere and stepped directly in his path. She didn’t do anything cutesy or pert, like putting her hands on her hips or wagging a finger in chastisement. She just wrinkled her forehead and did the rest with her eyes. Those dark orbs, lost in the largest whites of anyone’s eyes he’d ever seen, had magical powers and no one could possibly disagree.

He came to a stop or they would’ve smacked foreheads.

“Hey,” he said, already searching for an excuse in his occupied mind. The smells of ozone and woody smoke were almost enough to make him tear up, and not just from the cindery sting of it all. It was downright unnatural how much he loved this place of making things.

“There’s no way in hell you’re skipping out on us today,” Sadina said, her voice as hard as the iron bars cooling in the water bins of the Forge. “It’s gonna get colder in the next month or so, and everyone will be too big of a wuss to go out to Stone Point. Today is the day, we’re going today, it’s your first time, and you’re coming with us.” She grinned to take away some of the bossiness, but that didn’t mean she’d back down.

“I’m going to Stone Point?” he asked.

“You’re going to Stone Point. Or die. Your choice.”

Isaac gave an almost panicked glance over her shoulder, peeking at the Forge. It really was unnatural. He had a day off and he should enjoy it like a normal human being. But there were anxieties associated with water that surely the others . . . he swatted the thought away. The Forge had become his only escape from the family tragedy, and he needed another.

“I just wanted you to beg me to go,” he finally said. “It’s pathetic, really.”

She barked a fake laugh. “You wish. I just need someone there who’s even more chicken of the cliffs than I am. That way I don’t look as bad.”

“Thanks for coming to get me,” he said, surprised at his own words. “I mean . . . you know. Thanks.”

Although he expected an onslaught of sarcasm and eye-rolling, she surprised him right back. “Come on, man. There’s no way we’d have nearly as much fun if you were stuck in the Forge all day. At least, I know I wouldn’t.”