Chapter 20 #3
When I get to the end and turn with the tunnel, I don’t find an exit waiting for me.
It’s a door. A thick, metal door. A faint glow around the seal of it casts a thin halo of light around it.
It takes a second for me to realize it’s cracked open just a hair.
No sound emerges from the other side; no fresh air hits me as I approach.
Still, my heart leaps in my chest in hope.
This could be a way out! I take a step forward, but the toe of my boots—the only thing Braum saved of mine—hits the lip of something.
Using my flashlight, I find a tall cement step that sits a foot out of the water.
I step up and use the flashlight to search for a handle.
Instead of a handle, the light finds an emblem branded in the middle of the barrier.
The hope that filled my heart vanishes, replaced with shock and dread.
“What the…” My whisper trails off as I stare.
Staring back at me is a crest; the same one embossed at the bottom of my brother’s suicide note.
But rather than a simple shield and head of a stag, this one is more intricate with additional design elements likes leaves and vines around the shield.
Beneath the crest is a banner. As I step closer, I realize there are words etched into it.
Dominium. Prosperitas. Vitalitis.
With a trembling hand, I reach up and caress each one with the pads of my fingertips. Why is this here? What does it mean? My eyes lift from them to the stag.
Beware the Children of the White Stag.
I snatch my hand away. Peter’s words were the warning, the embossed design at the bottom of his letter a clue—something to keep an eye out for.
Something to avoid. I don’t know what the Children of the White Stag is.
I don’t know how it ties to Peter’s life, or Serenity Falls, or why it’s considered dangerous.
But I’m smart enough to understand that a door with this emblem, the one from Peter’s letter that carried a mysterious warning, here in the dark tunnels can’t lead to something good.
Peter and I may not have been close these past few years, but I’ll take his warning for what it is.
Before I can take a step back, the door suddenly shuts.
It was as if a hand gently pushed the door the rest of the way closed. It would’ve been less menacing if it had banged shut.
I yelp and jump back with a start. It results in me splashing down into the water. Water that’s now calf high.
“Shit!”
Panicking, I scramble away from the door. With it completely closed, the muted light it emitted is gone, leaving me with just my flashlight once more. I use it to run back the way I came. Moving through the rising water is difficult and my racing heart picks up the pace.
It doesn’t take me long to realize I made a wrong turn. I approach a split in the tunnel, one with three options. Crap, I haven’t been here before. So much for following my way back. Shooting my beam of light down each one, I try to figure out the best course of action.
“Eenie, meanie, miney—” my throat closes up abruptly.
Another beam of light flashes down the tunnel to my right. It’s at an angle, telling me the tunnel hooks left and that’s where the person is coming from.
Rowan didn’t say anything about someone joining me down here.
So who is it? The person on the other side of the door I’d just run away from?
No, that can’t be right. They’d be behind me, not over there.
But what if… what if it’s someone joining them?
Someone else connected to the mysterious Children of the White Stag?
“Everly!” someone calls out. The blood in my veins turns cold. Oh, no… It can’t be… “Everly!”
I dart down the closest tunnel and run as fast as I can through the rising water. Well, running is a generous word. The water’s halfway up my thighs now, making movement hard.
“Everly!”
Maverick’s voice, deep and gravelly, bounces off the walls. I don’t know how the hell he found me, but I’m not going to be caught up in his volcano of fury.
The water suddenly shifts. I’m taken aback by the sudden swell of it, and I stumble. I struggle to stay upright, but more importantly to keep my flashlight out of the water. My gasp of alarm is overpowered by the sound of my name being called. It happens just as a beam of light hits me from behind.
“EVERLY!” Maverick bellows, having seen me.
I don’t look back. Panic overwhelms me, sending adrenaline coursing through my veins. The water is climbing up my body, now at my waist. It’s slowing me down but I fight through it.
“Get back here! Everly!” He’s getting closer. I can hear him struggling to move through the water but doing much better than I am.
How did he find me? So much for this place being a maze. I make a turn and then another. When I hit a dead end, I backtrack quickly. On my way, I catch sight of him. His face is mostly shrouded in darkness. What light does make it up from his flashlight only gives him a sinister look.
I dart away, making a beeline for another opening of the tunnel.
It’s the correct one. I see the light, the ladder, and the red flag. A hard sob of relief wells up as I race toward it. As I grow closer to it, light hits me from behind.
“Everly!”
Fear keeps my throat constricted. Maverick isn’t in his right mind tonight. If he gets his hands on me—especially down here—I’ll probably end up a floating corpse. The image is grim and motivates me to keep pushing forward even as my lungs begin to burn from the exertion.
It takes what feels like an eternity, but I get to the end of the tunnel. I reach up and grab the rung and attempt to pull myself up. I don’t get anywhere. Turns out, I don’t have a ton of upper body strength. Add sheer exhaustion to the mix, and my attempt is absolutely pathetic.
I suck in a few deep breaths, brace myself, then jump. This time, I manage to grab it and pull myself up. The metal grate at the top is still on, but I climb upward anyway.
“Hello!?” I cry out as I ascend. “Is anyone there?”
“I’m here!” someone calls from above me. It’s a male voice I don’t recognize, but even if I did, I wouldn’t care. Not if they get me the hell out of here. Fingers wrap around the metal, and with a hard grunt it’s pulled away.
A hard sob rips past my lips as relief threatens to overwhelm me. Just as I get to the top, the ladder rattles hard.
“Everly, just wait a goddamn second!” Maverick calls from behind.
I don’t wait. Instead, I pull myself over and topple onto the ground with a relieved sigh.
“Hey, are you alright?” A face appears over me as I roll onto my back to gulp in fresh air.
For a split second, I don’t recognize the guy, but then I do. He was spotting Maverick in the gym during my visit.
“Get the fuck out of here, bitch.”
Scurrying away on my butt and hands, I stare back into wide, surprised eyes. The guy is crouched down on one knee watching me. Is he here to capture me for Maverick?
“Everly, are you okay?” he asks more pointedly this time. “I can get you out of?—”
Back in the tunnel, Maverick bellows, “Everly!”
Nolan flinches with a start, his head whipping around to the exit of the maze. “Please don’t tell me that’s Vick yelling. I told him not to come.”
“Well he came!” I snap while scrambling to my feet. “And he’s acting wild!”
Nolan gets to his feet too. “Don’t run, Everly. Let him get up here, see you, and if he has something to say, I’ll make sure he does it without hurting?—”
Maverick’s head pops out of the drain hole. “Ever?—”
Nope . That furious gleam in his eyes is enough to tell me there’s no sticking around to talk. I’m off before he finishes my name. I move on unsteady feet, having trudged through water for too long.
“Wait!” his friend calls. “Damn it, Vick. Can’t you see you’re doing this all wrong? You’re not even supposed to be here!”
I run as hard and fast as I can. Each step is heavy, my shoes soaked as well as my clothes.
I have to find somewhere warm to hide.
But where? As the question pops up, a sarcastic little voice sneers in my head, “Where the hell are you even going? No plan. No resources… You have nothing. You are nothing.”
The voice sounds eerily like Father’s.
It’s not wrong, though.
There’s nowhere to go, nowhere for me to hide.
I could slip out of Serenity Falls the way I came, but what about Maverick?
He wants to see me dead . An invisible crack runs down the length of my chest, sinking deep enough to rip through my heart.
I can’t blame Maverick for his hatred. My family ruined his life.
It doesn’t matter that I’m trying to save it.
I’m Maverick’s enemy .
Why did I think I could do this on my own? It’s too much. Too hard. I’m so screwed. And pathetic. Useless and?—
I trip over a raised root. With a yelp, I tumble forward. I twist just in time to not face plant in the dirt. A hard groan slips past my lips. As I roll onto my back, my mass of hair—free from the messy bun I’d tied it up in— tumbles into my face.
“Everly.”
My heart plummets. At the same time, the blood leeches from my face. I force my head upward. Peering through a split in the thick curtain that is my hair, I find Maverick standing there. His stormy gray eyes are pinned to me, his mouth pressed into a hard line.
For a split second, it feels like the world has stopped turning.
It’s me and my Mavie. The past and future mean nothing. I don’t care that the sweet kid I used to know has turned into a man with rough edges. All that matters is we’re together now. The heartache, the devastation, the pain of being apart all ceases to exist.