Secret of Light by K. C. Dyer

teeth.
    â€œYou next, Brodie.”
    â€œI’ll go last,” he said quietly. “I’m not afraid of these people.”
    â€œThere’s nothing to be afraid of,” whispered Darrell. “I just want to stay out of the way for awhile — and I need you to pull me up this thing.”
    He rolled his eyes. “If you’re hiding from someone, don’t you think you should put out the light?” he said, as he scurried up to the loft.
    â€œOh yeah!” Darrell grabbed the lamp back from Kate and twisted the knob. The wick hissed out as Kate clambered to the top. She flipped easily onto her stomach and leaned over the edge of the loft beside Brodie. Darrell grabbed Brodie’s arm and scrambled up, but missed her footing on the broken rung. She cried out as her left foot swung free, and the ladder slid to the stable floor with a thud. Four arms flailed in the darkness and managed to grab various parts of Darrell’s anatomy and drag her over the edge.
    â€œThat was close,” Kate breathed, still holding Darrell’s hand. “Now are you going to tell us what happened?”
    Darrell wiggled her skirt down to cover her knees, thankful the darkness hid her current deficiencies in the underwear department. “I had a bit of a problem with Leo...” she began. The door below them crashed open and light poured into the stable.
    â€œI know she’s in here somewhere,” a furious voice thundered.

    Darrell rolled onto her stomach and put her hand on Kate’s arm, pulling her backwards. She reached her other hand out to Delaney, but at the touch of his fur she felt her hair blow straight back from her face as in the teeth of a winter storm. For an instant that seemed to last forever, she gazed down over the edge of the loft into the angry and astonished eyes of Leonardo. Then the wind took her and she was gone.

C HAPTER S EVEN
    â€œYou’re kidding!” Kate’s face was incredulous. “We got blasted back to the present because you had a
fight
with one of the greatest artists in the history of the world?”
    Darrell felt sheepish. “Well — it was more of a disagreement than a fight,” she said with mounting indignation, “and besides, I was right!”
    She sat with Kate and Brodie in the deserted dining hall. It was early Saturday afternoon, and they had all recovered from the ordeal of the previous day. The night before, Darrell had found herself sprawled at the bottom of the spiral steps leading down from the lantern room, feeling like she had made it through the punishing final round of a wrestling bout. Nausea had coiled in her stomach like a sour serpent. Delaney licked her face twice and finally dropped an old stick on her chest before she was able to drag herself to her feet. Without thinking of anything but getting back to theschool, she tucked the stick in her pocket and staggered off to find Kate and Brodie in the darkened lighthouse.
    Dizzy and sick, they dragged themselves outside to find howling wind and driving rain. Darrell clutched Brodie’s arm all the way back along the beach to avoid tripping over rocks in the raging night. By the time they reached the top of the path, sleet was stinging Darrell’s eyes. They struggled in the front door only to face the wrath of Mrs. Follett for being out in such a storm. She bundled them all upstairs for showers. Fifteen minutes later, Darrell was staring at the clock in her room as she rubbed her freshly washed hair with a towel. It was six-thirty, and the whole adventure had apparently taken an hour and a half. Including the shower!
    â€œIt’s strange that you wanted to hide in the stable,” said Kate. “Didn’t you realize it would be the first place that Leonardo would look?”
    Darrell shrugged. “I wasn’t thinking very clearly,” she admitted. “I knew he would have to take the time to wipe his lunch off the canvases before