Chapter 10 #2
He grins, but the nerves are back. “Okay. We have to crawl back over there when the worm is as far away as it can be. Then, we need to position ourselves in the middle of the hole. When I say ‘go’, hold on tight. Don’t let go.
No matter what happens, don’t scream. If the air goes thin, just breathe slowly. ”
I nod, trying to steady my own breathing.
We crawl back toward the main tunnel, moving slowly, making no noise.
It takes us a while to retrace our steps, but eventually we find the ruins of the house once more.
The worm is gone for now, hopefully hunting farther down the tunnel.
The shaft of light above us is smaller than I remembered, and further away than I thought possible.
Ashton stands, dusts his hands, and faces me. “Ready?”
“No,” I say, my sword shrinking in my hand before I put the dagger away. “But do it anyway.”
He grabs my waist, pulls me against him, and moves his hand. Instantly, the air changes. It gets colder, sharper, but also lighter. For a second my feet feel hollow, like the floor isn’t there, and then I realize we’re not standing anymore.
We’re floating.
Like garbage caught in a tornado. The force jerks us up, up, until we’re spinning so fast I nearly bite through my tongue. Ashton is holding me so tight with his one hand I can feel the shape of every one of his ribs.
We shoot up the shaft, the floor getting further and further away. I want to scream, but I remember his warning and keep my mouth clamped shut.
Halfway up, the wind stutters. We drop, hard, my stomach flipping. Ashton’s arms slip, and for one awful moment I’m weightless and alone. Then he grabs my ankle, and the wind surges back, slamming us upward as I dangle beneath him.
We’re less than ten feet from the surface. I can actually see the sky and a little of the hedges!
Which is when the worm comes back…
It bursts from the dirt below, jaws open, feelers lashing. The sound is a shriek, but so deep and loud it shakes the world. Ashton yells, “Hold on!” and twists us sideways, the wind spinning us in a corkscrew as I hang beneath him.
The worm is closer now. I see its rows of teeth, the glisten of spit and old blood. Its body smashes the shaft, showering us in dirt and rocks.
But it doesn’t stop.
The worm twists, impossibly fast for something so massive, its body slamming against the walls as it forces itself upward after us. The tunnel groans, stone cracking, dirt collapsing inward as it drives forward, relentless. Its feelers lash through the air, snapping wildly, searching. Hunting.
One of them whips past my face so close I feel the sting of it against my skin. Another curls around my arm, yanking me down—
I scream.
The sound rips out of me before I can stop it, sharp and terrified and loud enough to echo through the entire shaft.
The worm freezes for half a second.
Then it locks onto me.
Every feeler snaps in our direction at once. Its entire body surges upward with terrifying force, faster now, driven by that sound. The shriek that tears from it is deafening, vibrating through my bones, through Ashton, through the air itself.
“Alette!” Ashton roars, tightening his grip, but it’s too late. The worm knows exactly where we are now.
Its jaws snap shut just beneath us, so close I feel the rush of air as its teeth collide. The impact cracks like thunder. Dirt explodes upward, rocks pelting my back, my arms, my face.
The wind falters again.
We drop.
Just for a second, but it’s enough.
The worm surges, mouth opening again, wider this time, its barbed feelers spreading like a net. One hooks into Ashton’s shirt, yanking hard enough to nearly tear me from his grip.
“No!” I gasp, clawing at him as I slip.
He growls, feral and furious, and the wind slams back into us with violent force. The feeler tears free with a sickening rip of fabric, and we rocket upward again, spinning wildly out of reach.
The worm screams.
It thrashes in the shaft, slamming its body against the stone, tearing it apart in its desperation to follow. The ground itself seems to shake with its rage, its massive form coiling and striking again and again, chasing us, reaching for us—
Too slow.
Too late.
We shoot up, out, into open air, and for a moment we’re flying for real. Then gravity catches up, and we land hard on the grass, rolling through moss and bramble.
We’re alive.
I don’t move. I’m shaking too bad.
Ashton groans, rolls onto his back, and stares at the sky, gasping. He’s scraped raw from elbow to shoulder, dirt packed into every line of his face. I crawl over and touch his arm, just to be sure he’s real.
He pulls me into his lap, wraps both arms around me, and buries his face in my hair.
“You did it,” I say, not believing it.
He laughs, breathless. “I almost killed us, but yeah. We’re out.”
The grass beneath us is spongy and damp. The air is sharp and cold, and deliciously clean. Basically, it’s perfect.
We sit there, holding each other, shaking and bloody, but alive.
After a minute, Ashton leans back, eyes wide and wild. “I promised I’d get you out.”
“I never doubted you,” I say, and this time it’s the truth.
He kisses me.
It’s not sweet or gentle. It's a desperate kiss that feels like we’re drinking each other in. It lasts forever, or maybe just a second, but when we break apart, I feel like I’ve been struck by lightning.
He stares at me, dazed. “Sorry,” he says, but he’s not.
I laugh, dizzy and half out of my mind. “Don’t be.”
We’re both breathing hard, covered in mud and blood and fungus, and I’ve never felt more alive.
For a while, we just lie there, side by side, watching the clouds move. Above us, the maze is silent. No sign of the worm. No sign of Zomas or his court. No sign of the other three kings.
Just us, and the impossible sky.
But I can’t help but wonder about the others. Are they safe? Have they faced their own challenges? And when will we see them again? Gods, I hope we see them again.
They can’t have just disappeared. They need to be somewhere. Right?