Chapter 13
Chapter
Thirteen
I’m running before I even make the decision to move. The people still outside are shouting, but I can’t make out what they’re saying. All I can think about is Mia. I’m almost to what used to be the entrance to the cave, now just a solid wall of rocks, when strong hands yank me backwards.
“Let go!” I yell, thrashing.
“Wait,” Blackheart’s low, commanding voice hisses in my ear. “Just wait, Tess.”
“I can’t! I have to—”
Another deluge of stone rumbles down the mountainside and slams into the ground just in front of us. Blackheart pulls me back with him just in time, his arms like iron bars around me, pinning me to him. We stand there for a few moments, waiting for the last few pebbles to skitter downward.
“There is almost always a second slide,” he says softly, releasing me.
I don’t have time to thank him or even acknowledge what he’s said. As soon as I’m free, I fling myself at the rocks, desperately searching for a hole, a gap, a sliver of space, but find nothing.
“Mia? Mia!?” I scream so loudly my throat feels like it’s being ripped apart. My heart’s in my throat, my entire body cold as ice as I wait, but no response comes. “Makers, no...”
“Go for help!” Blackheart yells at someone, the command in his voice unyielding and absolute. “What about the auxiliary tunnels?” He asks someone else. “Go check—now!”
I keep searching for a hole, my hands flying uselessly over the packed, finding nothing. Fucking nothing!
“Mia!” I call again. “Mia, answer me!” No, no, no. Come on. Come on. “MIA!”
“Tess!” Her small voice makes its way through the wall of stone and a broken half-gasp, half-sob tears from my throat in relief.
“Mia!! Are you alright!?”
“I…I think so,” she calls back. “My arm is bleeding…my forehead too, but it doesn’t hurt much. One of the farmers shielded me. He…I don’t think he’s ok, Tess.” I can hear the tremble in her voice, the tears threatening, but she’s holding them back. She’s so strong, so brave.
“It’s going to be ok, Mia. We’re going to get you out. Just hold on!” I feel Blackheart at my back, his presence somehow calming. One of the soldiers runs up then.
“Sir, the auxiliary tunnels are both blocked as well.”
“Fuck,” Blackheart rasps. I know that can’t be a good thing, but I keep my focus on Mia.
“How many people are there with you?”
“We were the only two up here. Everyone else was down in the farming caves, but I can hear them running up now that it’s stopped.”
“Ok, that’s good.”
“They should stay down in the caves, by the fields. It will be safer there in case of another quake. They’ll have places built within the farms for shelter just for these events.”
I brace my hand on the stone, rough beneath my palm and Blackheart steps up beside me.
“Mia, go down into the farm with the others, alright?”
“No!” she cries. “No, I want to stay up here where I can hear you.” Her voice breaks and I can feel how terrified she is.
It claws at my chest, but I swallow hard and steady myself before I reply.
I can see Blackheart watching me from my peripheral.
I don’t know what he’s thinking and frankly don’t fucking care.
I keep my voice calm and even when I say, “I know, but it’s safer for you to be down there.
We’re going to get you out soon, but I need you safe until then, ok?
The others will help you. We have to move all of these rocks out of the way, so it will take just a little bit of time, ok?
” They should have some provisions and medical supplies down in the caves too.
“Have someone bandage your arm and forehead, and drink some water.”
“But…”
“Please, Mia.” I close my eyes, willing my heart to stop trying to beat through my chest.
“Ok,” she finally says, resigned. “Tess? You won’t…you won’t leave me in here, will you?” I can hear the wobble in her voice and can see her lip trembling in my mind’s eye, see those pale green eyes filling with fear.
“Never,” I say fiercely. “I promise I will get you out of there.” I lean my forehead against the stones and grit my teeth. “Don’t worry. Just go down into the caves and see if anyone else needs help. You’re always helping, so do that now, ok? They need you.”
“Ok,” she says quietly.
After a few seconds of silence, I assume she did as I asked and I let out a long, shuddering exhale.
I snap my eyes open then, fire filling my belly, scorching through my every thought.
All I can think of is getting to her. All I can see is the path to rescuing her. It’s my only goal, my only purpose.
I grab one of the small rocks and throw it aside, then another, and another.
I will dig her out stone by stone, piece by fucking piece if I have to.
Blackheart and the others step up and start doing the same.
They speak but I don’t know what they say, it’s all just muffled buzzing, my head too full of worry and this frantic need to get through this wall to Mia.
Soren is at my side then, a low, worried growl rumbling in his throat. I honestly don’t even remember sending anything to him through the pathway, but I must have in my panic.
-You were screaming,- he says solemnly, clawing at the stones with his massive paws and dislodging the loose ones in a small avalanche of rocks and dirt.
My heart soars, thinking it might be easier than I thought it would be, but then it plummets, right to the pits of the seventh hell.
The outer layer is loose, small stone that gives way easily, but beneath that?
It's like trying to tear a building down with my bare hands, but I don’t care.
I keep digging, keeping wedging my fingertips into the minute cervices between the stones, pulling and clawing and heaving.
I don’t know how long it will take help to arrive, but the few of us here keep going, determined to find a way through.
What feels like hours later, I stop for a brief moment to wipe sweat from my brow.
Every muscle in my body is screaming, but I can’t give up.
So, I let out a long, slow exhale, pull up strength from deep within myself, and keep going.
I curse my Gift as I dig, wishing it was something that could be useful right now.
Telekinesis would be perfect, like Charles has, but he’s out in the scouting party with Odessa.
My heart clenches as the thought rocks through me: Odessa is out there, possibly in danger, and has no idea what’s happening here with Mia.
What if we can’t get to her? What if Odessa comes back and I have to tell her that Mia is gone?
That I broke my promise? That now she’s not only lost her parents, but her little sister?
NO, I snarl silently at the Makers, letting them know loud and clear that they will not touch either of these girls, these two people who have shown me kindness when it wasn’t warranted, these two people who have become my friends.
Not today. Not ever. No, neither of them will be taken from me.
My Gift surges and I gasp quietly when the rock beneath my palm is suddenly coated in frost. I feel Blackheart start beside me, whipping his head towards me.
Did he feel my Gift break through his wall?
The rock is in a pile with the others before he can possibly see the ice, and I force my power to settle.
I keep going, not even acknowledging that he’s staring at me, acting as if nothing happened.
I dig, and scrape, and claw, moving along the wall when I can’t find a way through, my mind racing in a manic, frenzied storm of panic that won’t ebb no matter how much I try, no matter how much time passes.
“—ss!” Blackheart’s voice crashes through the haze of exhaustion that’s settled over my thoughts. His hand is on my shoulder, pulling me gently. I blink and look at him, forcing my vision to focus. “Tess, I’ve called your name three times. You need to rest.”
“No, I can’t.” I try to pull away but he holds fast. A low, warning growl rumbles in Soren’s throat. Blackheart eyes the cat but doesn’t let go.
“Tess, you must, look at your hands—”
“I WON’T!” I scream, my Gift rising up again and filling my entire being so quickly, that despite some part of my mind still aware enough to know I can’t let it break through his wall again, not with him touching me or watching me this closely, I would swear the temperature around us drops a few degrees.
“There are good people trapped in there!” I fling my hand towards the cave, towards the wall of stones still standing strong.
How is it still fucking standing?? “People who are just trying to feed their families, the families of everyone in this kingdom! Our people are in there too, damn you. I won’t leave any of them, and by all the fucking Makers I will NOT leave that little girl!
She is scared and her sister is gone and I will not stop until I get to her and make sure that she’s safe.
Do you understand me? I. WILL. NOT. STOP,” I seethe, baring my teeth, my power roiling inside of me like an icy tempest. Soren growls in earnest now, pulling himself up to his full height behind me and peeling his lips back from his massive fangs.
Blackheart looks between my familiar and me again, and seems to decide that I will not be moved.
“Alright then.”