He smiled and reached down to pet her. “Yeah, you tried to warn them, didn’t you?”
“Mew.” Belladonna looked up at him and nodded.
“But what about Bly’s guys?” Luke asked. “What did you find out about them?”
“They’re still following a false lead from the box they got out of the basement of that store. They’re in the Bahamas right now, but it’s only a matter of time before they figure out they got the wrong box and get wind of your trip out here,” Matteo said.
“All the more reason for us to take advantage of the uninterrupted time we have on the island,” Jake said.
“I say we get back to camp and get Matteo set up in one of the cabins”—Luke flicked his gaze over to Jolene, who scowled—“or one of the tents. And then let’s make a plan for early tomorrow morning.”
Matteo grabbed his pants from the line and stepped into them. “Sounds good. Do you already have a game plan for tomorrow?”
“Not yet. What did you find down at the cove?” Morgan sat beside Luke, her arm linked through his.
“We saw some underwater caverns. Could be something to check out, but you need scuba gear to get in there, so it doesn’t seem likely to be where the treasure is,” Luke said.
“Why not? The sea level has risen since Mirabella’s time,” Cal said.
“And it’s possible the pirates used underwater entrances on purpose,” Matteo said. “Harder to get to.”
“Well, we didn’t see any quartz line in there,” Jake said. “The sea level hasn’t risen that far. I think it’s more likely that the caverns are part of the system that floods the tunnels.”
“I’d like to get farther into that tunnel that we accessed from the treasure pit,” Celeste said. “Even though we didn’t see the quartz line Mirabella told me about, the tunnel systems are all different now from when Mirabella was there. New passages have been dug, and I feel like we should explore more into the depths.”
Cal’s eyes narrowed. “It seems dangerous in there. Someone might have rigged that entrance recently, and we don’t know what else we’ll find.”
“I don’t think so,” Jolene said. “I didn’t detect any recent negative energy, and Jason said no one has been on the island.”
“Maybe it was Dubonnet’s ghost,” Fiona said.
Matteo’s left brow shot up. “Ghost?”
“Apparently, some old pirate ghost is haunting the island, trying to stop people from getting the treasure,” Jake said.
“Is that the source of all these fatal accidents?” Matteo asked.
“I doubt it,” Luke said, then after seeing Celeste’s frown, he added, “Maybe some of them, but I’m sure many of them had to do with living beings, probably paranormals that were after the relic themselves and trying to scare off treasure hunters who might find it by accident and not realize it was anything special.”
Jake nodded. “If one of them did, that relic could be hidden away in a private collection, and we’d never find it.”
“I vote we continue in the tunnel. If we steer clear of the section that has the gas and proceed cautiously, I think we’ll be okay.” Celeste didn’t have the same talent for reading auras as Jolene did or the amped-up intuition that Morgan did, but she felt that they’d been close to something important inside that tunnel. And one thing she did have was the ability to communicate with ghosts. If Dubonnet was in there, she’d at least be able to spot him and try to avoid anything he might lay out for a trap. Unlike previous treasure hunters who couldn’t see ghosts, Celeste would be able to see him doing sneaky stuff right in front of them.
“I agree,” Fiona said. “We need to check everything out thoroughly, and so far, that seems like the best course unless Cal has come up with something from the code on the rocks.”
Cal shook his head. “I’m trying some new ciphers out. Even if I do, though, we’re probably still going to need to find the missing piece of rock.”
“We’re doing a search for that while we stand guard to make sure no one approaches the island,” Buzz said.
“Okay, then I guess that settles it,” Luke said. “We’ll split up again. We’ll start a methodical search, starting at the peak of the island and working our way down to look for the missing rock. That could take days, so meanwhile, some of us will take a closer look at the cove, and some will continue down the tunnel.”
“Great. Let’s get back to the cabins and rustle up some chow.” Gordy kicked down the fire and spread sand on it. “Me and Buzz gotta get back to our lookout spot in case anyone else comes to the island.”
“Yeah,” Buzz said. “Hopefully if they do, they won’t be using submersibles—there’s no way we could see those.”
“Let’s hope we can find the relic and get out of here before anyone else comes.” Luke started toward the woods. “I want to get an early start tomorrow so we can get as much done as possible before we have to deal with more than just a three-hundred-year-old ghost trying to sabotage our mission.”
Chapter Seven
The next morning, Celeste and her sisters went into the tunnel again, this time steering clear of the section where they’d succumbed to the mysterious gas the day before. The farther they went, the damper the air became. The dank, salty smell of seaweed permeated the tunnel, and the floor became slippery.
“No wonder Belladonna didn’t want to come,” Morgan said. “She hates wet floors.”
“Yeah, she’s a prima donna.” Fiona flashed her light on the sides of the tunnel, revealing fissures where water seeped out. “But maybe she’s smarter than us. Maybe she knows there’s nothing in here. I don’t see any white quartz.”
“It might be farther down.” Something at the periphery of Celeste’s vision caught her eye.
What was that?
She whipped her head around in time to see what she thought was a misty swirl disappear into the dark. A ghost? Dubonnet? Or had Belladonna followed them in after all? No, it wasn’t Belladonna. She wouldn’t be ducking out of the way. She’d just trot right up to them.
Celeste wished it was a ghost, but not Dubonnet. She wished it was Mirabella. The one thing she could contribute to the mission was the information Mirabella had given her, but it wasn’t proving to be very useful. She’d gone to the cliff the night before, hoping to get some better directions as to where to find this quartz line, but Mirabella wasn’t there.
But if Mirabella had told her the truth, she wouldn’t be down here in the tunnels, because she’d said she never left the cliff where Constantine was buried. Which left only one person. Dubonnet. A chill ran up Celeste’s spine, and she peered farther into the tunnel. If a ghost had been there, it was gone now. Maybe it had been her imagination.
“So what’s up with you and Matteo?” Morgan, apparently unaware of Celeste’s ghost sighting, asked, eliciting an eye roll from Jolene.
“Nothing,” Jolene said. “Just because I saved his life doesn’t mean he owns me.”
“I don’t think he feels like he owns you,” Fiona said. “I just think he wants to be with you.”
“Sure he does. How come, before, he would just randomly show up, and now he seems to be around all the time?” Jolene asked. “I think he’s reading more into this life-saving thing than necessary.”
“Or maybe he figured out he wants to be around more. It happens,” Morgan said. “Look at Cal and Celeste. Or me and Luke, for that matter.”
“Whatever.” Jolene jerked her flashlight along the walls and ceiling of the tunnel. “I decide who I want to be with, not some stupid old wives’ tale. You guys should be looking for this line of quartz instead of interrogating me.”
Celeste smiled, remembering the charm she’d cast the night before. She’d snuck out of her cabin and gathered some moss and acorn caps. She’d crushed them up and spread them in a line between Matteo’s tent and Jolene’s cabin right when the moon was at its highest. A little connection charm couldn’t hurt. She knew her sister loved Matteo, and it was her own foolish stubbornness that was
keeping them apart.
Something cold brushed against her arm, and Celeste spun around, shining the light back behind her. Nothing.
Was Dubonnet messing around with her, or was she just being paranoid?
Her hand snuck into her pocket. When she’d been gathering the moss and acorns for Jolene’s charm, she’d also collected some ocean sand from the crevices of the rocks near the ocean and scraped some lichen from the granite boulders on the way. She could use them in a protective spell should they run into trouble here in the tunnel. She didn’t know if the spell would work, but at least she could try. Now, given the way she was feeling, she was glad she had at least something to try to safeguard them from the ghost.
“Did you see something back there, Celeste?” Morgan asked.
“Oh, no. I was just looking at the rocks, double-checking if there was any quartz. I don’t see any.”
“Not back there, but look at this!” Fiona’s light flashed on a streak of white on the side of the tunnel. She laid her palm on it, and a faint yellow glow flickered, as if someone were shining a light from inside. “This is it. The quartz line!”
“But it’s not parallel. It goes up through the ceiling of the tunnel.” Celeste’s voice was laced with disappointment. “Mirabella said to follow it to the junction of three tunnels.”
“Maybe she accessed it from another tunnel above this one,” Morgan said. “This line could go upward then level off. The rocks in this area are at all kinds of angles. We should definitely check this out.”
Celeste laid her palm on the side of the tunnel. Here, the layers of rock were almost vertical. They’d been heaved up long ago when the earth was being formed, but she knew that in other parts of the tunnels, the layers were horizontal. “But how? It goes up to the ceiling, and even though the layers might be horizontal farther up, I’m not sure digging is a good idea.”
“I did bring tools.” Jolene lifted a small pickax from her belt, which Celeste saw also contained a chisel.
“We won’t need them. Look.” Morgan had moved farther down the tunnel and was shining her light on an opening in the wall. There was a thin crack, beyond which another tunnel angled upwards.
Fiona stood back as far as she could, angling her light on the opening and the quartz line. “That passage looks like it slopes up at a thirty-degree angle. If that’s the case and this quartz vein continues at its current trajectory, then they should intersect up the line somewhere.”
“We should go in.” Jolene started, but Morgan pulled her back.
“Wait. Luke said we should only explore the main tunnel,” Morgan said.
Jolene scowled. “Since when do you do exactly as Luke says?”
“Good point.” Morgan let go of Jolene’s arm. Jolene slipped into the tunnel, and Morgan followed.
“We’ll just go a little ways in and see if we can find the quartz line, then we’ll report back to the guys,” Jolene called over her shoulder.
“Sounds good.” Fiona slipped in after Morgan.
Celeste glanced uneasily behind her. She didn’t see any sign of a ghost, but just in case, she pulled the sand and lichen from her pocket and trotted a few feet farther down into the unexplored part of the tunnel. That was the direction she’d seen Dubonnet’s ghost swirling in. She sprinkled the sand and lichen from one side of the tunnel to the other in a thin line while mumbling the protective spell that would hopefully stop Dubonnet’s ghost from coming in behind them. She wasn’t sure if she’d even seen his ghost, but if she had, she was sure he was hanging out deeper into the tunnel system, and this would hopefully keep him back there. She turned and jogged back up the tunnel to catch up with her sisters.
“Where were you?” Fiona flashed her light on Celeste as she trotted up to them.
“Just checking something out.”
Morgan frowned. “Is something wrong back there?”
“I don’t think so. Just making sure.”
Morgan nodded, and they continued on a few feet before Fiona stopped them.
“Look. Here’s the quartz line.” Fiona flashed her light onto the wall, and they followed the faint, thin white line of quartz, which angled up more steeply than the slope of the tunnel. The tunnel narrowed until they had to walk single file.
“I don’t know about this, guys,” Celeste said. “It’s getting pretty narrow.”
“Just a few more feet, then we’ll turn back.” Their shoulders were almost scraping the sides now, and Celeste felt the raw edges of claustrophobic panic clutch at her.
Suddenly, Morgan stopped, and they almost rammed into her.
“Check this out.” She took one step and moved to the side, flashing her light around so that the others could see that the narrow tunnel had opened into a huge cavern. It must’ve been ten feet wide and twenty feet long. The ceiling arched several feet above them.
“What is this place?” They moved into the cavern, shining their lights all around the walls.
“There are tool marks on the walls. I think this is man-made,” Jolene said.
Celeste inspected the walls, rubbing her fingertips over the sharp edges where tools had cut away the rock. Someone had carved this room out, but for what purpose? Could this be where the pirates had hidden the treasure, and if so, was this where Mirabella had hidden the relic?
Celeste spun around, flashing her light everywhere. “I don’t see the quartz vein, so I don’t know if this is where Mirabella would’ve hidden the relic.”
“They didn’t dig this out for nothing. There must be something important in here. Maybe we should do a little exploring before we call the guys in,” Jolene said.
“I don’t know if that’s such a good idea. There might be—”
Kaboom!
The explosion knocked Celeste against the wall. The sounds of falling rocks sparked panic in her chest, and she whirled around to see stones of all sizes—some the size of baseballs, others over a foot wide—falling in a pile in front of the narrow opening they’d come in through. She watched in horror as the rubble filled the entire opening in a split second. In a panic, she bounced her light off all the walls, desperately seeking a crack that would indicate an exit.
There were no other tunnels out.
They were trapped inside the cavern.
Chapter Eight
“No!” Morgan dove for the entrance, dropping her flashlight in the process. It bounced on the floor, sending beams of light ping-ponging around the cavern like a crazy strobe light.
“Morgan!” Jolene lunged for Morgan, pulling her back to stop her from becoming injured by the falling rocks.
Celeste’s pulse thudded as they stood staring at each other, riding out the aftershock of the explosion. After a few seconds, the rocks stopped falling. Jolene let go of Morgan, who retrieved her flashlight and waved the beam around the cavern.
“We’re trapped in here,” Fiona said.
“We don’t know that yet. Maybe we can dig out.” Jolene walked to the blocked entrance, shoved her small flashlight in her back pocket, and stretched to reach the top of the pile. She tugged carefully on a baseball-sized rock. She dislodged it, and two smaller rocks took its place.
“Be careful! Those could cave in and crush you,” Morgan said.
“Wait a minute. Let me check this out.” Fiona approached the pile of rocks slowly, holding her palms out in front of her. She closed her eyes and ran her fingers over the rocks, nodding and humming as she did. Some of the rocks glowed subtly as her fingers passed over them.
“Well?” Morgan asked.
“The wall isn’t that thick,” Fiona said. “But we need to be careful. We don’t want to cause these heavy rocks to come in and bury us. We’ll start at the top and pull out the smaller rocks first, letting things settle slowly.” Fiona pulled out a small pebble, then another.
The others joined her, carefully pulling out the smaller rocks and letting the wall shift slowly downward, careful not to disturb it in such a way that it caved in toward them.
“Some kind of explosion,” Jolene said.
“Do you think it could have been one of the booby traps?” Celeste asked.
“Either that, or someone caused it on purpose,” Jolene answered.
“Which means someone besides us is here.” Morgan twisted her lips. “But if they were, Gordy and Buzz would have seen them, wouldn’t they?”
“Unless they were sneaky, or they took Gordy and Buzz out somehow,” Jolene said.
“I hope the boys are okay up top.” Fiona pulled out a large rock, and they all stood back while things settled.
“We’ll head straight to them if we can,” Morgan said. “Hopefully, the exit isn’t blocked.”
The threat of what might be happening aboveground caused them to pick up the pace. The pile was only a foot thick, and soon, they had dug out enough at the top so they could scramble over and into the narrow passage.
The girls hurried down the narrow path as quickly as they could.
“Wait a minute. What’s that sound?” Jolene asked.
Celeste strained forward to hear what sounded like a hissing or a roaring. It was getting louder.
“I think that’s rushing water!” Morgan’s voice was tinged with panic, and they picked up the pace, rushing toward the opening that led to the main tunnel.
“It’s filling with water!” Jolene rushed in, but the force of the water repelled her. “I don’t think we can make it back to the entrance!”
Water rushed toward them quickly, soaking Celeste’s feet and swirling around her ankles.
“This water must be from the bottom of the treasure pit! Whatever happened must have flooded that pit, and now it’s rushing into the tunnel. We’ll never get through. We have to turn around and find another way out!” Celeste pulled them back down the way they’d come, sloshing through the now ankle-deep water.
Celeste hadn’t seen any other tunnels except the one with the mysterious gas, and they certainly weren’t going in there. The only hope was to find something farther into the tunnel system than they’d already ventured.
Fatal Fortune (Blackmoore Sisters Mystery Book 8) Page 6