CHAPTER 34
WHAM!
The boom shook my bones as I hit the ground and rolled free of the stones just in the nick of time. I scrambled to my feet, ready to take off again, when Levi panted, “It’s okay. We made it.”
Buzzing with adrenaline, my instincts still in hyper-survival mode, I reconjured my orb and whirled around, searching the walls for even the slightest movement.
With surprise, I noted that we were no longer in the narrow passage.
We’d entered a massive cavern, and I willed more light into my orb, trying to see how high it went.
The ceiling was blanketed in shadows, but over Levi’s labored breathing, I heard the screech of bats from somewhere above.
“Look,” he grunted, jerking his chin toward the far side of the cavern. “Do you think it’s a shortcut?”
I glanced that way and immediately stiffened when I spotted what looked like a free-standing portal. Its glow was colorless, dim, and entirely eerie.
Enter me if you dare, it seemed to taunt, the glow of its magic undulating, beckoning.
Um, nope. I didn’t trust it. Not after almost getting squished.
“You can go that way if you want, but I’m not,” I told Levi and started forward again.
“Where will you go?” he asked, lurching after me.
“I don’t know, but I won’t enter a portal without knowing where it’s taking me.”
“Maybe it’s a test to see if we’re brave enough to face whatever’s inside,” Levi suggested.
“Maybe.” Probably. I still wasn’t ready to hand my life over to it.
We fell silent as I began searching for another way out of the cavern. After a few minutes, I still hadn’t found an exit. The portal continued to beckon, urging us to take a chance.
I clenched my teeth together until they ached. Nope. There had to be another way out.
“I’m gonna go,” Levi suddenly said, and I turned to see him standing in front of the portal.
Half his face was cast in shadow, but the other half was eerily illuminated by the portal’s glow, making him appear even paler.
Or maybe that was because he looked about ready to pass out.
I hadn’t dared look too closely at his crushed arm, but I could only imagine the agony he was in.
“You should,” I replied, understanding that he was willing to take the risk on account of his injury. “For your arm’s sake, I hope that it’s a shortcut.”
“Yeah, me too,” he said with a weak laugh. Then, “Thanks for saving me. I owe you one.”
I blinked, caught off guard by his sincerity. “No problem.”
He hesitated a moment, as if feeling guilty for leaving me here, then turned toward the portal and stepped inside. It swallowed him up, and when nothing bad happened, I was almost tempted to follow after him.
Almost.
I wasn’t desperate enough for that yet.
There had to be another way. The portal was too obvious, too easy. It felt like a trap, one that I hoped didn’t injure Levi even more. He had enough strength to finish this trial, but not if it required more use of his magic.
Setting my worry for him aside so I could focus, I closed my eyes and tuned into my senses. If there was another way out, my intuition would let me know. It had led me to Heartstone during my Initiation Trial, so I had to trust that it would guide me through this one.
A full minute ticked by. Precious seconds that I didn’t have time to spare.
My senses reached out to every corner of the cavern, listening to the fluttering and squeaks of the bats above, smelling the earthy, slightly musty scent of the cave, feeling the cool dampness of the air. I focused harder, digging deeper.
Drip. Drip.
Water.
My eyes snapped open. If there was water in this cavern, then it had to go somewhere. I focused all of my effort on those faint drips, a last-ditch attempt to find a way out. Water was my ticket. I just had to locate the source.
Another precious minute raced by, but the drips were louder now.
I frantically cast my orb of light over the cave walls, trying to find those elusive water droplets.
A tiny flash caught my eye, a reflection.
I hurried toward it, nearly crying out in relief when another drop of water fell and hit the cave floor.
I followed the thin, winding stream of water along the cavern’s edge, praying I wasn’t wasting my time.
The stream gradually widened inch by inch as more water from the cave walls dripped into it. I kept going and going, hope trickling through me the farther I went.
This way, my intuition finally whispered, and I couldn’t help but break into a grin.
I’d been right. There was another way out.
I followed the stream until I couldn’t follow it anymore, until it disappeared inside the cave wall itself.
Before I could spiral into a panic that I’d reached yet another dead end, I dropped to all fours and felt along the wall.
As my hand met the spot where the water disappeared, I watched my fingers vanish from view.
I jerked back, only to reach out again and watch my entire hand vanish.
An invisibility spell. Clever.
The exit was cloaked, something I should have considered from the start. Quickly standing, I felt along the wall until my hand disappeared again, then let the rest of my body follow after it. A second later, I was on the other side, once again in a narrow corridor.
Great. My favorite place to be.
Pushing my fear down before it could suffocate me, I started down the passage, paying extra close attention to the walls.
They weren’t smooth like the last corridor, but that didn’t necessarily mean they wouldn’t try to crush me.
The stream widened even more, making it hard to walk without stepping in it.
Minutes later, it stretched from wall to wall, and I had no choice but to get my shoes wet. The water was slowly becoming an underground river, and I could hear the current now. In no time, my shoes were completely waterlogged, the depth up to my ankles, then my calves.
Trying not to panic, to trust that my intuition hadn’t steered me wrong, I kept plowing forward.
Just when the water reached my knees, the current strong enough that I struggled to keep my balance, my foot slipped.
I frantically pinwheeled, but the current took full advantage of my error and knocked me over.
I fell backward, managing to gasp in air before fully submerging.
My orb winked out, plunging me into darkness once more, and I flailed about, trying to grab hold of something, anything.
The current forced me along, sabotaging my attempts to slow my speed.
I couldn’t see a thing, but it suddenly felt like I was going faster.
The passage beneath me abruptly dropped, and I fell over the edge.
A feeling like hurtling down a rollercoaster sent my stomach into my throat, and I belted out a terrified scream.
Water rushed all around me, forcing me down, down, down.
I desperately tried to keep my head above it, gasping in air whenever I could.
The water rushed faster and faster. Just when I thought it would never end, the passage floor disappeared completely, and a wall of water swallowed me whole. Fear spiked through me when everywhere I felt, there was only water. I was surrounded, sinking, but there was no bottom.
Self-preservation kicked into overdrive again, and I started to flail my limbs, desperate for air.
I didn’t know which way was up or down, if I was swimming sideways or deeper into the inky gloom.
But I kept flailing, kept fighting to claw my way out of the watery abyss.
My lungs were on fire, screaming for oxygen.
I fought and fought, grasping at the endless cavern of darkness.
This was what being lost to the Ether probably felt like, I randomly thought to myself, then fought harder, desperate not to die alone in the dark like this.
Just when my body began to convulse, the need for air too great, my head broke the water’s surface.
I immediately sucked in life-giving oxygen, dragging in mouthful after mouthful like it would be my last. Only when my lungs were satiated did it finally dawn on me that I could see the world around me.
I blinked in awe at the massive cavern, at the glowing blues and greens surrounding the huge underground lake and dotting the ceiling.
Glowworms. They were everywhere. Despite my close brush with death, I took a moment to appreciate the rare natural wonder, one that was created solely for this earthly plane and had nothing to do with celestial beings or magic.
Growing tired from treading water, I started toward shore.
My feet had just connected with the bottom when a sudden whoosh and blast of bright orange disrupted the quiet chamber.
I looked up and spotted a fiery ball headed straight for me.
Doing the only thing I could, I plunged my head under the water again.
The ball hit a second later, exploding over the surface.
A heatwave pulsed toward me, and I ducked even lower.
Another ball exploded over the surface, then another and another.
I backpedaled, sinking deeper into the lake’s abyss.
Several more fireballs struck the water, each one fizzling out before they could reach me.
Only when my lungs started to scream at me again did I dare approach the surface.
I swam farther out first, hoping the darkness masked my movements, then slowly rose.
Just one quick breath was all I needed. I wouldn’t even have to fully breach the surface.
I lifted my face out of the water only enough to draw in air, then dove below the surface again.
More fiery explosions rained down on me, but I was already out of melting range. I didn’t know how long this cat and mouse game went on, but my exhausted body couldn’t keep up much longer. I needed air and solid ground. Something had to give before my strength gave out.
Desperation started to claw at my chest once more when the fiery attacks abruptly stopped. I waited. Waited some more.
A trap. It had to be.
My lungs didn’t care, forcing me to the surface again to draw in air. But when I breached the water this time, shouting reached my waterlogged ears. Hesitating, I rose up a little more, just enough to hear better.
“We don’t have time for this, Alma. Either help me out, or we’re done.”
Blaze. Why was I not surprised?
Alma said something back to him, but I couldn’t quite make out the words.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” Blaze barked, clearly upset by whatever she’d said. “She’s a disgrace. A Mayweather. Since when did you become a stray-lover?”
“I’m not,” Alma replied loud enough for me to hear. “I just don’t want to drown her.”
Silence.
I was about to duck down again when Blaze said, “Fine. Then you give me no choice.”
I flinched as an explosion lit up the cavern once more. I prepared to slip beneath the surface again, but before I could, a scream of pain bounced off the cavern walls. Unable to help myself, I jerked my head out of the water and looked toward shore . . .
Just as Blaze sent a fiery blast of magic toward Alma.