by Jade Wolfe
I thought about all this year had brought me, in terms of joy and family. I thought about Lucy and Miranda and Pearl. I even thought about Christa, who had tried to kill me already. I thought about magic, and the beauty of Red Rock, and all the witches who had come before me to protect it.
My only bit of comfort was that even if Isadora killed me, she was going to die, too. There was no way out of this before the available air disappeared.
I was going to die.
But if so, then why not protect Red Rock one last time? Why not make sure that Isadora couldn't survive to wreak havoc on anyone else?
It was an ugly thought, and it would be one of my last. Maybe the lack of air was getting to me, but the idea made perfect sense.
I could do this one last thing for the witches, for Wilding, and for Red Rock.
The strap on my throat wrenched tighter. I was on my hands and knees in the dirt. I shifted just a little, not so much that Isadora would notice, and lifted one hand to draw the earth rune. Earth and I had never been as close as fire or air or even water, but I prayed that I could call on him for this one final favor.
The ground under my knees grumbled, then jerked. The strap loosened, and I sucked in a dusty, choking breath. Isadora made some noise, close to my ear.
The first rocks started to fall. I tried to visualize them falling on her, but I didn't think earth was able to be that specific. Once the mountain started to crumble, it would all go. That was confirmed when a stone as big as my head landed on my shoulder blade and knocked me sideways. It hurt bad enough that I let out a sharp short scream, and then all sound was lost to the falling earth.
Isadora was somewhere in the dark, but I couldn't find her if I wanted. All I could do was cover my head and curl into the tiniest ball I could manage. Somehow, deep down, I was something close to peaceful. The feeling surprised me, but I didn't fight it. For now, once more, I was protecting the people I loved.
Somewhere nearby I heard her scream above the wreckage, and then I heard that scream cut short.
Then a boulder slammed into my head and everything went black.
Chapter Twenty-Three
I opened my eyes to thick darkness, not sure what had happened or where I was. I hurt all over, and one leg, just below the knee, burned like fire when I instinctively tried to move it.
It took a while before I remembered what had happened. Even then, the memories came back in pictures - shattered images that I didn't have the mental energy to piece together. I just knew that I was hurt, and that I needed to move.
But I couldn't. I felt so heavy. Wait, no, something was on me.
Rocks. Big ones. The biggest felt heavy on my chest, right around my sternum, making me fight for each breath of air. I tried to push it off, but only one of my arms seemed to work right. The rock shifted. It hurt to breathe.
I remembered the cave, and knew that it must have fallen in, but I couldn't remember why until I swallowed and my throat felt seared.
Everything came rushing back, fast enough that I winced with every new memory.
OK, so...I wasn't dead? I didn't think I was dead. Death didn't hurt. Right?
I had no idea. Maybe this was hell, but I'd always imagined hell would be louder, what with all the screaming. But here, I was swallowed in a silence so complete that I thought my ears were plugged. Even moving only sounded like a muffled scratch of noise.
Of course, I wasn't moving much. As best I could tell, rocks were pinning my legs somewhere just above my knees, leaving small pockets for me to move my feet. Another lucky pocket spared my head, although if I turned it to either side I could feel stone scraping my cheeks or forehead. One shoulder was pinned. Every time I did move, I wanted to scream in pain. I needed help.
The only thing I knew to do was call for it.
I sucked in a careful breath and I was bracing to yell - and bracing for it to hurt - when I heard a faint sound that didn't come from me.
Hissing.
Something was hissing.
I held my sucked in breath and listened harder, hoping that I just heard water, hoping that what sounded so close and so menacing was natural.
Then something slithered - slithered - across my foot. It was cool and dry.
A snake.
An entire mountain being displaced was enough to startle snakes. They were on the move.
My throat ached with the need to scream. I wanted to jerk away. I wanted to roll in the opposite direction. I couldn't do any of those things. I was trapped.
My best hope was that whatever snake this was...it wasn't poisonous. There were plenty of poisonous snakes in North Carolina - copperheads, rattlers, and cottonmouths came immediately to mind - but there were a lot more nonpoisonous snakes. I had no idea what my odds were here, but I was hoping for harmless. Either way, I held completely still until it disappeared, then waited even longer after that, just in case.
I wanted to cry, but I didn't dare give into that urge. If I was still alive, I didn't have the energy or oxygen to waste.
Oxygen. I moved one hand - the one pinned near my right side - just enough to draw the familiar Air Elemental rune, then asked her to come to me. Nothing happened for a moment.
I waited.
A soft breeze shifted and flowed across the skin of my chin, and I almost sobbed with relief. It was so, so good to know that at least I wasn't going to suffocate during the struggle to get out of here.
If I could get out of here. That soft breeze felt wet, which meant that I was either drooling, or that blood was on my chin. The way I felt, I was pretty sure it was blood. Maybe from my nose, maybe from a cut on my head or face. Either way, I needed to get out of here. I needed help.
Could I ask earth to help, or would shifting the rocks just bring more debris raining down on my head? I didn't know, and that made me afraid to try. It didn't help that the darkness was so complete - I could have a razor-sharp, jagged shard of limestone two inches above my throat and I wouldn't know it.
OK, that thought made a small whimper escape from my dry, cracked lips. Even worse than the dark, worse than the snake, worse than the thought of slowly suffocating here in this tomb of a mountain, the idea that a cold slice of stone could cut through my windpipe and end my life was chilling. Would I struggle for breath that never came? Would my lungs ache for air that was denied to me by a hole in my throat? Would I begin to fight, flailing my arms and using up what little oxygen I had in a losing battle for life? Tears came to my eyes when I imagined any of those things.
No - I would leave earth out of this for now. Fire, though...could fire help me? Maybe a little. If the rocks weren't blocking everything, I could maybe see what was crushing me and how to move it.
I was trying to decide which hand to use when another thought crept into my memory.
Gas.
These mountains were filled with gases. I thought about mines and canaries. And weren't there lots of gases that had no smell? I was by no means a geologist, but I was pretty sure that lots of gases were flammable, too. How could I tell? What if I blew myself to kingdom come, just trying to see?
Maybe I had survived the initial earthquake I'd brought down on my own head, but that didn't mean I was going to make it out of this alive.
I spent the next few moments fighting the panic threatening to rise inside me, knowing that it wouldn't help and could possibly hurt. "Just breathe," I murmured to myself. It hurt to speak, and my own voice sounded foreign and weak, but I kept talking, saying the words over and over until the panic quelled.
Somewhere off to my left, water began to trickle in. The sound started as a faint patter against the rock until it formed enough of a puddle to tinkle. I didn't know what that meant, but I didn't think it was good. I hoped the water had somewhere to go. If the cave - or what was left of it - began to fill up, I was in even worse trouble and had less time than I thought.
OK, stop it, Indigo. My brain was rolling in worst-case scenarios faster than I could beat them down. I need
ed to set those aside, think straight, and get the hell out of here before I ended up causing my own demise.
But what if I couldn't? What if, no matter how hard I struggled in here, I didn't make it out? What if I died here in this mountain, in the dark? I would never know what happened to Isadora, I would never see Lucy, Miranda, or Pearl again. I would never get to hear the story of how a werewolf came to be sheriff of Wilding. I would never get to know Sam, or hear about that proposition he had for me.
Not that it mattered. I mean, he was a stranger. A sexy one, but still. He didn't have the first clue about -.
Another snake crawled over my leg, closer to my knee this time. It tickled enough that I almost jerked.
OK, time to get out of here.
The first thing I had to do was get the rock off my pinned arm. I wiggled it gently, and I thought maybe I could feel the rock shift a little. Not enough, though. I wiggled it again.
OK, to get that rock away from me, I had to first get the one off my chest. It was heavy, and the dried, caked mud made it feel almost slippery. Parts of it crumbled under my fingers. The rest of it, weighing approximately nine thousand pounds best as I could guess, wasn't going to budge.
I twisted around as best I could, got my free arm under it, and pushed so hard that I grunted with the effort. Nope. Nothing. Same with my legs, when I tried to move them. One leg nearly blinded me with pain when I attempted to bend my knee. No real progress there, either. Worse than that - when I let my shoulder fall back to the ground it was cold. No, wet. It was wet. The puddle was growing. All right, this narrowed my options considerably. I could either lay here and die or fight back and...well, probably still die.
But probably gave me enough hope to smile a little in the darkness.
I didn't know how deep underground I was, or where in the mountain I'd landed, but I had one chance. How did I go about giving myself the best possible odds?
I spent a few moments picturing what I needed to happen. I could ask earth to blow the top off my tomb here, but what was stopping it from coming right back down and killing me? Not a damned thing. So to keep that from happening, I was going to need some extra assistance.
Air. The thing was, I'd never tried to use two elementals at the same time. I didn't know if it would work, or if the plan would somehow backfire and kill me anyhow.
But what choice did I have?
I ran the scenario through my head three more times, just to be sure, then I drew the earth rune.
The explosion was so jarring that I covered my eyes with one arm and gasped. That was a mistake, because dirt immediately settled deep in my throat.
Before I could get distracted, I made the air rune, visualized rocks blowing away, and then covered my head tightly with both arms. The amount of wind required to blow actual rocks had to be strong.
An ear-splitting boom rent the air, and then nothing was right. I felt like I was flying, then falling, then I was on my back again, slamming into what felt like a million sharp needles. I rolled sideways, then felt the ground beneath me give way. I bounced off something hard, felt something near my hip crack, and then rolled some more before coming to rest. Around me, I could hear rocks skittering down a mountain, like someone was walking along in small gravel.
The last thing I heard was my name. It sounded like Lucy's voice, but I couldn't orient myself to even look. Then I was out again.
Chapter Twenty-Four
I groaned. Everything hurt. Every breath was sharp and painful, and every bone in my body felt seared with fire. My skin was cool.
I tried to open my eyes, but the light was a throbbing blur. I closed them again.
Chapter Twenty-Five
I was choking. I jerked my head around and gagged, but nothing came up. The light, too bright, still hurt. I wanted to cry, but I didn't have enough energy. I moaned and fell back into oblivion.
Chapter Twenty-Six
A soft female voice brought me back this time. The room spun a little, or felt like it, but the pain was gone. In fact, I didn't feel much of anything, except cold. My hands were freezing.
I opened my eyes, and there was only a dim light, off to my right somewhere. It wasn't glaring into my face. I could handle this.
A woman stood over me. Her hair was dark and pulled into a low bun. Her stocky frame and white uniform made me think of World War II pictures of nurses. She smiled at me with tired eyes and reached to feel my forehead. "Hi there. We've been waiting for you to come around."
"Mm." My throat was so dry it felt stuck. I coughed.
"Need some water?" She was already reaching for a pitcher on a small table beside my head.
I nodded, and the room spun harder. I clutched at something, anything, and caught only flimsy cool cloth. Sheets. One of my arms was stiff and painful, and when I looked at it, I saw that it was wrapped in a thin canvas brace. Only one hand worked right. My legs felt heavy and the idea of sitting up - or turning over - seemed exhausting. When I looked down, I saw a thick white cast from my knee down. The nurse turned away and I heard water pouring. It made me think of that cave, that trickle of water. I turned my head but she slipped her hand under my neck and lifted it for a drink. I barely felt it, and realized that my head had bandages.
It hurt to swallow, but the cold water soothed the ache. I moaned and sucked the cup dry, then croaked out, "More, please."
She gave me more, and then even more. Right then I considered her my very best friend in the world. Then I closed my eyes and fell back to sleep.
It wasn't the unconscious darkness this time, though. I was vaguely aware of occasional movement, voices, and even a few light touches. I was just too tired to open my eyes to see what was going on.
Eventually I did, when a more familiar voice pierced my fuzzy dream world. Lucy. I looked over, toward her voice, and saw her sitting in a chair beside my bed. She was holding my hand. I couldn't feel it.
"You came back," she said brightly. "We were getting worried about you."
I tried to talk, to answer, but my throat wasn't working again. I let my eyes drift away, looking for more delicious water.
Lucy got me some. "That probably helps a lot, huh?" She put the little pink plastic glass down on the table and tucked her hair behind her ear. "Can you talk?"
I tried again. "Hurt."
It was true. I wasn't hurting as badly as before, but a dull ache radiated through my whole body, making me want to seek relief in sleep again. My chest didn't hurt, exactly, but it felt like I couldn't draw a deep breath. Like something heavy was sitting on my chest. What looked like a hundred different wires and tubes flowed from different parts of me to various machines that beeped and hummed, blending in with the sounds of beeping, humming and conversation that filtered in from the hall and other rooms.
"I'm sure you do. Do you want me to ask them for more pain medication?"
I shook my head. I didn't want to knock myself out. I'd already lost...what? Hours? Days? It felt like months, but I had no way of knowing for sure.
I took as deep a breath as I could. "Is everyone all right?"
Lucy's attempt at brightness faded. "Everyone is home, and fine, for the most part. Even me. The sheriff has some recovery ahead of him - he's down the hall, by the way."
"Isadora?"
She nodded. "She's alive, if that's what you're asking. Raul sent men to get her two days ago, and he'll be here tonight."
Why wouldn't he come himself to take Isadora into custody, or whatever they called it? She was dangerous, and the last thing we needed was for her to break free and cause even more trouble.
I must have looked confused. Lucy found my hand again and squeezed it. "It's OK. Raul knows what he's doing. He wouldn't be coming at all, but he told me that he wants to ask a favor of you."
I licked my lips. "Me?" My throat hurt too bad to speak more than a couple of words at a time, but this surprised me.
She nodded. "Yes. Don't ask me what kind of favor - I don't know."
Well,
I was happy that Isadora was out of commission, and I could deal with Raul and his favors once he got here. For now, I felt better just knowing that things had gotten back to normal.
Then I wondered if things actually were back to normal. "The barrier?"
She smiled. "Back in place, thanks to Pearl. Remember? She was able to do the work while you had Isadora distracted." She took a deep breath. "She was willing to kill you, Indigo."
I nodded. I knew that, maybe better than anyone. All because what she wanted wasn't part of the natural order of things. Just like Christa, who was trying to bring people back from the dead - Isadora was trying to keep death from happening in the first place, even when it was time. Neither of those things were natural.
I wondered what might drive someone to do that, even if it meant harming so much. Was it selfishness? A thirst for power? Maybe both of those things?
I didn't know, and thinking about it made me tired. There would be time to figure all of that out later.
Right now, I wanted to be home in my own bed, but I didn't know if that was possible. "How bad?" I asked Lucy, nodding toward my body.
She frowned. "Not as bad as it could have been, but you aren't going to slay any dragons in the next few weeks, either."
"Can I go home?"
"Not yet. But Miranda sent cookies." She reached down to her purse, hanging off the side of her chair. "She said to eat both, whether you liked them or not."
I smiled. If anyone could fix me up quick, it was Miranda.
"Don't get caught eating them," Lucy said, handing them over. "The nurses might not like it."
I unwrapped the cellophane. They looked like normal peanut butter cookies, but I didn’t doubt there was some sort of healing concoction in them. "Watch the door."