Emmett
Emmett stared at the sinkhole, fighting against the fog clouding his head.
Fog that had almost killed him.
Not that he hadn’t registered the pit on the trail. He’d been compelled forward by a sick curiosity that had overridden all his other senses, like someone—something—had hijacked him. Hypnotized him.
Still on the ground, he wriggled from his pack, propping himself up on his elbows and failing to catch his breath. His heart pounded so violently that his whole chest hurt.
If Siena had reacted a second slower, he’d be dead.
She dropped her pack and knelt next to him, his fear ebbing as she rested a palm on his chest.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
A voice in the back of his head screamed to get the hell up and pull Siena away from the pit.
Keep her safe. He couldn’t. He couldn’t lie, either. Not this time.
“No.”
He was angry with himself. Scared. Confused. And he wished more than anything Siena would hold him in her arms like she used to.
“I thought you... I thought I wasn’t going to be able to...” She drifted off and turned back to the pit. “Oh, god. Isaac...”
Fuck. Isaac had run off in this direction. The thought of him plummeting into the dark shook Emmett from his stupor. He scrambled to his feet, and inched as close to the edge as he dared. “Isaac. ISAAC!”
Siena dragged her pack toward her and tore into it, throwing clothing and food to the side until she tugged her emergency kit free. She dug through the contents until she found a flare, holding the thing away from her as she stood and uncapped it. An orange flame erupted from the tip with a loud rip, molten liquid dripping into the dirt. Siena flung it into the hole. It twirled deeper into the darkness before hitting the bottom with a scatter of sparks.
“What is that?” she asked. “Fifty, sixty feet?”
“About.” The flare hardly illuminated anything around it. He shouted Isaac’s name again to no response.
“There isn’t a cavern system this high, is there?” Her voice wavered, but she was doing a better job of holding it together than he was.
Emmett didn’t know if there were systems in these mountains. Hell, he couldn’t even remember if caverns this high in the Sierras were a normal thing. He remembered jack shit from school. The only science he needed to remember was what COtwo Industries wanted him to know.
He and Siena stared in silence at the flare before Emmett finally bested his fear. “I have to go down there.”
“Emmett, no.”
“And if Isaac’s hurt...”
“We don’t even know if he fell. And we don’t know where Cam is. She could be hurt, too.”
“I can’t do it alone, Sen. I need your help.”
Hesitation flickered behind her eyes as she retreated into her own thoughts. She was trying to find another solution, but unless Isaac was waiting for them back at the cabin, there was none.
“Let’s get the gear from the cabin. I’ll only rappel until I can see the bottom,” he promised.
Her lower lip trembled. “I hate this.”
Emmett tried to swallow, but his throat was too dry. “I know. So do I.”
Neither Cam nor Isaac was waiting for them when Emmett and Siena returned to the cabin for the climbing gear, and when the reality that they were alone settled in, Emmett grabbed Siena’s elbows, pulled her toward him, and wrapped his arms around her.
He knew it was wrong of him the moment he did it. He should have asked her first. Everything felt so fragmented—what was happening to them, his emotions, his and Siena’s relationship... He wanted to give half-baked answers for all of it, like he’d been doing for this entire trip. But he couldn’t.
She wrapped her arms around his torso and buried her face in his t-shirt, her body shaking as she cried. He pressed his lips to the top of her head and inhaled the scent of her sweat.
Fuck, he missed her.
“I don’t even know why I’m afraid, and that’s the worst part.” She sniffed. “Nothing makes sense, and nothing is logical, and I just feel like anything could happen to us at any moment and I wouldn’t see it coming. I’m scared... about Cam, and Isaac, and you.”
He pushed her away and gathered her face in his hands. “I’m going to be okay.”
“I said the same thing to you yesterday,” she said. “And I know you don’t believe what happened to me, even with the recording—”
“I do believe you.” I just don’t want to. He’d never be able to tell her that last part, because she wouldn’t understand his denial was how he protected himself. The vulnerability he felt facing the unknown was worse than the unknown itself.
Her eyes searched his, a plea for elaboration. He wanted to kiss her instead. But her fear left her unguarded, and it wouldn’t be right.
Dropping his hands, he stepped away from Siena to resist temptation. “You said there were guns in the cellar?”
She cast a suspicious glance at him. “Why?”
“I want you to hold on to one for now.” He headed toward the front door. “Like you said, we don’t know what’s going to happen.”
“I don’t know how to shoot a gun, Emmett!” she shouted.
“It’s not hard. I’ll be right back.” Emmett punched open the door and headed around the cabin, spotting the cellar doors. He lugged one open and hurried down the steps. A ringing grew in his right ear, and he unhinged his jaw to pop it. The weird pressure at this altitude was driving him crazy.
Emmett pulled his flashlight from his pocket and clicked it on, skidding to a halt when a beetle fluttered across the beam of light.
Behind a few scattered stacks of boxes, a hole in the back cellar wall yawned open. A dozen black beetles skittered from its mouth, roots dangling from the top like skinny teeth.
Just like the hole in the cabin Siena had found.
Emmett spotted the gun safe, carefully climbing over boxes and removing a rifle when he reached it. He took an ammo box off the shelf and clumsily reloaded the gun, returning his attention to the hole.
Whatever was happening to them, the answer was close. He could feel it.
The sooner he could figure out what the hell was going on, the sooner he could get them off this mountain.