I slam myself against the cave wall, petrified of what I have just seen. With the bow tight in my hand, I edge my head around the corner of the cave so I can see past the red stone.

Never did I ever think I would see my brother be pushed to his knees. I may even be more stunned that a sword is unsheathed and staring him straight in the chest. My breath catches and I’m silenced, which may not be such a bad thing. If the men dressed in gold plates heard me, we would both be screwed.

“Where did she go?”

Okay, now the fact that that is a woman’s voice may be the biggest stunner of all. It’s a female wielding that sword? It took me a moment too long to realize that she was talking about me.

Ashton shakes his head at her and says, “I don’t know.”

“Oh, come now, boy,” the woman snarls as she steps closer to him, raising the blade of the sword to his neck, “Siblings are able to locate each other in this world. Tell me where she is.”

My brother turns his head in all directions. For one fleeting moment, his eyes pass over mine but he shows no sign that he did. That shine is gone–the shine that we earned when we started this journey, the shine that told us we could still go home.

“I swear I don’t know,” he says lowering his head. “Now will you let me go?”

That’s when I notice his hands are bound behind his back. This is so much worse than I thought.

I consider the group surrounding my brother. There are at least seven of them so I have no chance at taking them down. My hand starts to shake.

We are supposed to do this together. We are only in the third hour–twenty more to go after this. Alexander Cardone told us we would face challenges beyond our imaginations as we worked through each planet, but I never imagined we’d be separated. He told us we had to work together. Now I don’t know if–

Wait, we are only separated here! I can go back, shake Ashton awake and we can start the hour over again. They did say we could do that if we fail an hour.

With that, I push myself away from the wall and walk to the very back of the cave. As I reach the back wall, I allow my body to fall backwards straight to the ground.

Right before my head collides with the red earth, I wake with a start underneath the bright silver cap again. Hastily, I unwrap my wrists and remove the cap from my head. Ashton is laying next to me, his breathing slow and the cap blinks a red light on top.

“What happened?”

I’ve never heard Alexander Cardone sound so angry. Turning around, he storms right past me and takes the cap off of my brother’s head.

“He was captured,” I scramble over my words, “I–I thought I could come back to bring him back.”

“Damn it, Maddie!” The red light in the cap fades away so no light shines. “Who captured him?”

“It was a girl; I don’t know who. There was a group of men with her. They were all dressed in gold plates.”

The anger seeps from his eyes. He walks to a chair and rests his hands in his head.

“Anoni.”

What?

“Who’s Anoni?”

“She’s part of one of the other pairs of siblings we sent to try and stop the destruction from coming. She’s been hiding out in the third hour ever since she got stuck there last year when her brother died. She never returned and she found a way to release the connection between Earth.”

We can get stuck in another galaxy? They never mentioned that could happen.

“So what does that mean?”

Alexander Cardone exhales. “It means she’s turned off your brother’s ability to come back.”

My heart stops and my eyes fly to Ashton’s form. He’s still breathing.

“He’s in a coma now,” Alexander Cardone continues, “until we can somehow restore that connection.”

With that, I run from the room. My brother and my best friend… gone. I nearly want to run out of the building and never come back.

But if I don’t then my brother may never get back and the world may come to an end.