Prism - By Rachel Moschell Page 0,31

arm around her tentatively, watching her to make sure it as ok. As he pulled her close, he slid the silver ring on her finger and squeezed her hand. All Wara could do was lean against him in an amazed stupor, thinking this could not be real.

“Everyone in the world is desperate for grace.” The quote from a book Wara had read this year exploded in her mind like sparkling firecrackers. “This is what’s unique about Christianity: grace. No other religion has a god who gives grace.”

Her heart was thudding against her ribs, but her eyelids drooped. Wara leaned back against the seat, Noah’s arm around her, and her heart slowed until she finally fell asleep.

She came to consciousness as if in a dream. A roaring heat swallowed her and something solid and icy smacked her in the head. Wara’s eyes flew open as wide as they had ever opened in her life, and what she saw was a mountain of writhing silver flames. And then it was gone.

She tried to grab on to something, but it was like a nightmare catapult flung her into space. The flames spiraled overhead again and she opened her mouth to scream, hearing only a sickening crunch of metal and glass shattering around her like crystal rain. The flaming bus lifted off the ground over her head and hurdled away with a whoosh of fire and Wara realized she had fallen out of the window of the bus onto her back.

Just like that, there was nothing but the star-studded sky overhead and the most awful sound Wara had ever heard in her life: metal punching against boulders as the bus rolled down the ravine. Screams echoed for a few seconds, and then another explosion battered the ground and all was deathly quiet.

Wara began to shake. She didn’t know if she was dying, but this had to be what dying felt like. There had been an accident, and…where was Noah?

She had to see if she could get up, because Noah had been right beside her, and he had to be right beside her still.

She tried to roll onto one side and was terrified to feel her head weighed about a hundred pounds. She could barely move. Gasping for breath, Wara forced her eyes to the drop-off where the entire bus had disappeared. To her left was an expanse of flat ground and spiky, clumped grass.

She struggled to turn her head to the right and laid her cheek against the cold gravel. Shadowy trees bent over the ravine, dipping low in the wind towards death below.

There was no one there.

Wara sprawled on the edge of the cliff, eyes unseeing, until everything faded into darkness.

10

midnight blue

ALEJO WAS STRETCHED OUT ON THE FLOOR of the tent on his stomach, trying to ignore Stalin’s noisy snoring, eyes boring into the darkness and having absolutely no success at sleep. The sat phone’s glowing display said it was nearly midnight, and the clearing that held their tents buzzed with cicadas and singing frogs and the forest’s pulsating hum.

A snap cracked above the quiet chorus, and Alejo jerked his head up. He recognized the raucous voices that floated into the clearing as belonging to the Paraguayans and bolted to his feet. He unlatched the opening to the tent and jogged across the darkened clearing towards the group who was just exiting the forest.

Gabriel and some of the guys had made the hike down towards the spot where the bus should have gone over, anxious to see the results of the hastily-planned operation. It was too early for any news on the radio they had stashed with the supplies; the heavy tropical growth down the sides of the mountain was so thick that no one passing by would even notice the bus had crashed, unless the explosion had left a pile of debris next to the highway. Gabriel hadn’t wanted any tell-tale signs left over that the accident hadn’t really been accidental, and so had moved in to check the scene.

“Hey.” Alejo made out Gabriel’s pale face at the front of the line. He was relived to see that his friend seemed pleased. “Two questions: Is he dead, and does it look like an accident?”

“99.9% probability, and yes, check,” Gabriel said merrily. Some of the others, William and Marco, drew up next to Gabriel, laughing too loudly, and snickering something to the guys behind them. Alejo finally made out the dark forms of Christian, Daniel, and Osmar strolling casually out of the forest,