by Alicia Rades
“I can help,” I offered. I forced my shaking hands to steady, thinking back to Sondra’s lesson on controlling my emotions. It hadn’t been much, but it was all I had. “That way you won’t drain your energy so fast.”
“Okay,” Sondra agreed. “But we have to act quickly. She can’t feel a thing right now, so we’re going to have to set the bone.”
“I’ll take her back,” Teagan offered. “The rest of you are more useful in this cave than I am.”
“No, Tea—” Ryland started to protest, but Sondra cut him off.
“We don’t have time to argue,” she said in a surprisingly calm voice.
You need to stay calm, too, Rachel, I reminded myself. Now’s not the time to freak out. Remember what Genevieve said about resilience. You’re going to need it today. So grow a set of lady balls and calm your tits.
“Teagan will take Fiona back, and the rest of us will continue on,” Sondra decided. “Ryland, hold Fiona’s leg here. On the count of three—”
The sound of rocks clashing together rumbled above us. The water rising around us rippled. Alarm shot to everyone’s faces.
“Did that just sound like—?” I started.
“A cave-in?” Venn’s voice rose several pitches.
I cursed. “I’ll go check it out. You help Fiona.”
I shifted and shot into the air. There was no light to guide me through the tunnel and back to the entrance of the cave, but I could sense where I was by the sound of air coming off my wings and bouncing off the cave walls. The tips of my wings skimmed the edge of the tunnel several times, almost knocking me out of the air, but by some miracle, I managed to stay airborne.
I knew when I’d hit the first cavern because the air moved differently, sounded different. I landed and shifted back to human form, my chest heaving from the exertion. My eyes darted around the pitch-black cavern. There should’ve been a sliver of light cast through the darkness, even in the midst of the storm, but darkness completely consumed me.
I stepped toward the wall and ran my hands over a rocky ledge. I knew it was the same one I’d set my bag on earlier. Inching further along the wall, I felt my way across the cavern until my hands met nothing but air. It was the opening to the room I’d looked into before, the one that was nothing but a dead end.
Skipping over the dead-end room, I continued along the wall until I thought I was standing in front of the tunnel leading outside. My foot caught a rock, and my ankle twisted under me. I crashed to the ground and caught myself on a sharp rock.
Fear tumbled around in my gut as my fingers blindly roamed over rock after rock. In the quiet, I could just barely make out the sound of wind whistling through the rock. The storm outside raged on, but I would’ve preferred standing out in a thunderstorm to my new reality.
We were trapped.
16
I sprinted down the tunnel, back to Venn and the others. When I broke out of the narrow space and into the room with the hole in the ground, my eyes finally found a dull glow from a flashlight. But light wasn’t the only thing I found. Fiona lay on her back, and Teagan leaned over her.
“I’m going to need you to shift, Fiona,” Teagan demanded. “It’s the only way I can carry you back.”
“It hurts,” Fiona cried, tears streaming down her face.
“Sondra shouldn’t have wasted power getting you back up here,” I said breathlessly.
“Rae?” Venn called up to me.
“Yeah,” I shouted back.
“We need to leave now!” he cried. “There’s a tunnel, but—”
I stuck my head over the top of the hole so I could see him. “The main entrance caved in. Teagan and Fiona are going to have to come with us.”
Teagan shot to her feet. “What?!”
I whirled toward her. “I’m sorry, but we can’t go back the way we came. Our only chance is to go forward.”
“How are we going to get Fiona…?” Teagan glanced down at her somberly. She lowered her voice. “Sondra did a pain relief spell, but it’s already wearing off. This isn’t something you can just heal in a matter of minutes.”
“I know,” I said.
“We’ll stay here—” Teagan started.
“And what if the water rises to this room?” I asked. “There’s no other way out. Fiona, you can shift, can’t you?”
“Not with a broken leg,” she protested. “What if it doesn’t heal right?”
Teagan bent beside her and stripped off her backpack. She pulled open the main pocket and began digging the contents out of it. “Your leg will heal fine. Sondra made sure of that. Now, will you please shift and get in the bag? I’ll carry you the rest of the way.”
I bent to scoop up Teagan’s food and supplies, then put them in my bag that still sat beside the hole.
Fiona groaned and shifted into a small fox. She was careful not to put any weight on her leg as Teagan helped her into the backpack and zipped up the sides to secure her in, leaving nothing but her head poking out.
“What’s going on up there?” Venn demanded. “I meant it when I said we had to leave now.”
I picked up my headlamp from where I’d left it on the ground and adjusted it on my head. “Watch out. We’re coming down!”
I glanced into the hole to see the water was high and the coast was clear. Without hesitation, I jumped.
Cold water hit my skin and swallowed me up. My feet touched the cave floor. I bent my knees and shot myself upward. I sucked in a deep breath when my head broke the surface, and I wiped the water from my eyes. When I opened them, my gaze fell on Venn, who was treading water several feet away from me. Reaching out my arm and kicking my feet, I swam over to him.
“You’re okay?” he asked with concern.
I nodded. “I am.”
“Tea?” Sondra called up to us.
“Coming!” Teagan shouted. “Hold your breath, Fiona.”
Teagan leapt into the hole. Water splashed into my face when she landed. She came up for air a moment later, and Fiona sputtered in the backpack behind her.
“Let’s go,” Sondra ordered.
I swam behind her. Ahead of us, a tunnel was carved out high in the room. The water had already reached the base of the tunnel and was rising fast.
“This can’t be the only way out,” I theorized. “This water has to go somewhere.”
“The water’s enchanted,” Sondra replied with certainty. “In fact, the whole cavern is probably enchanted. Can’t you feel it?”
Now that she mentioned it, I could feel a tingle of magic if I focused closely.
“So, how do we know this is the tunnel we have to go down?” Ryland asked, making strong strokes through the water.
Sondra’s hands curled against the edge of the tunnel, and she pulled herself onto a dry cave floor. She turned to give me a hand. “We don’t, but we sure as hell don’t have time to figure out if there’s another enchanted tunnel around here. The water’s rising too fast.”
Ryland bent to pull Teagan from the water just as it hit the edge of the tunnel. The cavern we’d just been swimming through looked like a lake. I shivered from the cold. Venn’s gaze roamed my body and settled on my goosebumps, but he didn’t get a chance to offer me relief from the chill.
“What the—?” Teagan said.
The water rose higher and higher, but it stopped at the opening of the tunnel. It met up with an invisible barrier, as if there were a pane of glass between the tunnel and the lake.
Ryland breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank God. The tunnel’s safe.”
Sondra didn’t take her eyes off the water surface as she stepped away from it. “Let’s not make any assumptions. Come on. We don’t know how far we have to go.”
We hurried down the tunnel, leaving the water behind us. The lights from our headlamps bounced up and down against the rock on either side of us. Ahead, there was nothing but darkness, as if the cave stretched on for miles with no outlet.
I watched my footing so that I wouldn’t trip
over rocks jutting up from the cave floor or slip across mud. I quickly started to notice that the tunnel was dipping lower and lower, taking us further down beneath the surface of the earth.
“How far do you think—?”
Ryland was cut off by the roar of rushing water, as if a dam had just broken.
We all exchanged a quick glance before Venn cursed. “Run!” he yelled.
We all broke into a sprint. Water rushed by my boots, passing me. My feet slapped against the ground, spraying up water as I ran. Collectively, we picked up speed, but there was still no end in sight.
“Christ!” Teagan cursed. “How long is this freaking tunnel?”
“I can feel… another enchantment… not far ahead…” Sondra said through heavy breaths. “Just keep up the pace… and we should—”
Sondra’s feet slipped out from under her, and I nearly went down behind her as my boot skidded along the slick cave floor. Venn quickly wrapped his arms under Sondra’s and pulled her to her feet, but a second later, the wall of water caught up to us.
The water swept me off my feet like a giant beast swiping at my ankles. Within a split second, I was tumbling through the strong current. I couldn’t see anything, even when I tried to open my eyes. My back slammed into the side of the cave before the water caught me again and sucked me downward like a sink drain.
My lungs burned in protest, and my hands instinctively shot out, as if I might be able to find some relief and control my momentum. But relief didn’t come. Only pain as the skin on my hands skidded against sharp rocks. On instinct, my lungs opened to fill with air, but they were only assaulted by the sharp pain of water burning up my nostrils. I didn’t know where Venn was. I didn’t know where anyone was. For the brief time the current took hold of me like Mother Nature’s beast, I was completely alone.
My stomach jumped up to my throat as the sensation of falling washed over me. Suddenly, the current was gone. I was suspended in the water, finally gaining control of my movements again. But I had no sense of which way was up or which way was down. Panic shot through my chest, sending my heart pounding so hard that I could hear it pulsing in my ears. I did all I knew I could to save myself. I kicked my feet and swiped my arms through the water, hoping beyond hope that I wasn’t pushing myself deeper underwater.
My lungs were on the verge of imploding when my head broke the surface. I gulped in a greedy breath of air. Relief washed over me so fast that I thought I might cry.
Four headlamps shone back at me, and the tension in my shoulders immediately eased. We were all safe.
Spotting Venn, I swam forward as fast as I could. He’d wrapped me in his arms before I could even fling my hands around his neck. Water brimmed in my eyes, and it wasn’t cave water, either.
“Thank God!” Teagan cried in relief as she swam toward Ryland and Sondra.
Ryland hugged her, but his eyes were on his sister. “Are you okay, Fiona?”
Fiona coughed, but she nodded her little fox head.
Venn reached out and wiped a long strand of wet hair from my face. I glanced around while we treaded water. Beyond the headlamps, there was nothing but darkness. Even when I looked upward, all I saw was black. A jet of water spewed out of a tunnel above us. All around us spanned an underground lake inside a massive cavern.
“I see shore,” Sondra stated, pointing.
The shore was barely visible in the dim light. The closer we swam, the more I could make it out. There were only a few yards of shoreline before the ground met up with the cave wall, where six separate tunnels split off in different directions.
By the time we reached the thin beach, I was physically exhausted. I fell to my back on the cave floor, not caring that my pack was uncomfortable on my back. I inhaled deep, audible breaths.
“I need a quick break,” I said as I pushed myself to a sitting position and pulled my pack onto my lap. I reached inside for a drink of water and a granola bar, hoping it wasn’t soaked. I rifled through the contents, past a first-aid kit in a water-tight container and another rope, until I found a granola bar that looked safe to eat.
“We’ll take five minutes,” Sondra agreed. “But let’s hurry, because this cavern is heavily enchanted, and—”
I never got to hear the rest of Sondra’s sentence. My entire body gave a jolt of terror. Pain shot through my skull as cold fingers tangled in my hair and dragged me backward into the depths of the deep, dark tunnel behind me.
17
An earth-shattering scream ripped out of my lungs. “Venn!”
The light from my headlamp darted across the rock above me, but I was moving so fast that the cave ceiling was just a blur. My fingers dug into the dirt beneath me, and sharp rocks skidded along my lower back, biting at the skin between my shirt and jeans.
When I found no relief clawing at the ground, my hands shot above my head and clamped around damp, cold flesh. My fingernails sliced into the creature’s wrist. It responded in a high-pitched hiss, but it didn’t let me go. It continued to drag me by the hair, nearly tugging my ponytail out of my scalp.
“Ardeat ignis!” I shouted, but the fire I expected never came.
Shit. How am I supposed to let go of negative energy at a time like this?
I squeezed tighter on the creature’s wrist, using all the strength I had, but it still didn’t drop me. What the hell was this thing? Its wrists should be broken by now.
“Let go of me, you mother—” I kicked my feet off the ground and twisted. Hair ripped from my scalp, but I was no longer being dragged. I quickly sprang to my feet. All I saw was a shadow the size of a child as I kicked the creature with all my strength. It went flying across the tunnel.
Then my light caught it. It was less than half my size, with hairless, translucent skin the color of dirty dishwater. It was bipedal, with long nails growing from its human-like fingers. Its eyes were mere pin-pricks, and its ears were just holes in the side of its head. It had a flat nose and a row of sharp, razor-like teeth. My breath wavered at the sight of it.
A deep, guttural bark resounded through the cave. A moment later, the shadow of a large canine crossed my light’s path. A low thud met my ears as Venn leapt forward in wolf form to fight off the creature made of nightmares.
The creature showed no fear. It leapt forward and sank its nails into Venn’s snout. Venn shook his head violently, whipping the creature off of him. It slammed into the cave wall so hard that the rock above us shook. I expected it to fall to the ground unconscious, but it sprang right back up and lunged for Venn again as if it’d felt nothing.
Bile rose to my throat when I saw that the first creature was the least of our problems. At least fifty others crept into the light. Their muscles twitched unnaturally as they moved, making them look like something from a horror movie.
They can go straight to hell.
Venn let out a howl as the creature’s sharp teeth tore at the flesh on his front paw. Bones crunched. Venn immediately lunged forward, his jaws snapping until they clamped around the freaky thing’s throat. Though it let out a low sigh as it went limp, it didn’t bleed.
The being vanished from between Venn’s jaws upon its death. Which could only mean one thing. These creatures were made of magic.
Taking a deep breath in through my nose, I released the air out through my mouth. This better work.
“Venn,” I whispered, holding out a hand cautiously.
He looked to me, his wolf eyes glowing back at me.
“Step away slowly,” I instructed.
Venn followed my gaze and noticed the other cave creatures approaching us for the first time. His body tensed, but he retreated with careful steps. The beings eyed us with interest, inching closer and closer with each passing second.
“When I say so, get ready to run,” I warned.
Venn nodded.
I waited until the creatures were only a few yards away. “Now!” I screamed just before shouting the incantation for fire.
Orange flames shot out of m
y hands like an explosion, assaulting the creatures. Heat touched my face. I just barely saw the beings scurrying away before I turned and ran behind Venn.
The light from three other headlamps bobbed in the distance. Venn shifted as soon as we met up with the others.
Sondra reached me first and placed her hands on my cheeks, looking me over with panic in her eyes. “Are you okay?”
“Yes,” I said, glancing behind me to make sure we weren’t being followed. “But Venn isn’t.”
I shrugged my bag off my shoulders as Venn shifted. Teagan was immediately at his side, inspecting his bleeding hand.
“What happened?” Ryland demanded breathlessly.
I pulled the first-aid kit from my backpack and stole another glance down the tunnel. It was completely deserted, but that didn’t keep me from working quickly in case they were on their way.
Venn slumped against the wall and sank down to the ground. He sucked in a sharp breath and closed his eyes, looking weak and worn out. The cut was deep. He was losing a lot of blood.
I gently took Venn’s hand and began wrapping gauze tightly around it. “We were attacked by these… things. I don’t know what the hell they were.”
“They didn’t bleed,” Venn said in a labored tone. “And one disappeared like a vampire when I killed it.”
Sondra knelt beside him and whispered an incantation under her breath. I wasn’t sure if it was to help with the pain or restore his energy, but as soon as she finished, he opened his eyes, looking more alert.
“Here,” Sondra said, shoving a water bottle toward him. She gently lifted it to his lips, forcing him to drink. “How are you feeling?”
“Better,” Venn admitted once she drew the water bottle away from him.
“What about you, Sondra?” I asked with concern. She was starting to look a little pale. “You look like you’re exerting too much energy.”
She waved a hand like it didn’t matter. “I’m fine. I’m a high witch. I can handle a lot of magic.”
Except something told me that despite her ability to cast complicated spells, she didn’t have the stamina to cast them all at once.