by Megan Linski
Liam scoffed. “Yeah, well, I’m team Captain. If we want to survive, I have to push you guys.”
“No, Liam,” I insisted. “You don’t have to be like that all the time.”
He just shrugged.
“The landslide is past,” I said. “Why are you still freaking out?”
Liam took a long breath, then let it out in a whoosh. “Because I’m an asshole.”
I couldn’t help but giggle. “That’s not true. You always have a reason.”
Liam dropped his gaze, his expression suddenly shifting. There was a sad look in his eyes when they met mine again. He spoke softly. “This is… this is a lot like how Nashoma died.”
My heart fell. He wasn’t just scared for us… there was something darker in his eyes, like he was reliving Nashoma’s death and trying to keep it all together at the same time.
I reached out a hand. My fingers grazed against the skin on his arm, sending electric tingles up my hand. My fingers trailed down to his, and I felt his hand tremble beneath my touch.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered.
A stretch of silence passed between us. Time seemed to slow as I stared at the shadows flickering across his face. I only snapped out of it when I heard Imogen shift in the tunnel next to us. I didn’t know why I was still touching him, so I pulled away.
Liam cleared his throat. “How’s it coming, Imogen?”
Imogen sniffled. “I… I can’t do it. It’s too much at once.”
“Take it layer by layer,” Liam suggested, irritation entering his tone.
“It doesn’t work like that,” Imogen called back down the tunnel. “There’s a limit to my powers— a range. Any earth between me and the end of that range acts as a barrier. I’d have to move it from the inside out, or all at once.”
“Come on back, Imogen,” he said.
As soon as she emerged from the tunnel, Liam ducked inside.
“What does he think he’s doing?” Imogen asked under her breath.
“Just let him go,” I said. “He needs something to do.”
“He’s wasting his energy,” Imogen said, her voice cracking. “There’s no way out. We’re going to die down here.”
Imogen broke into quiet sobs and stomped over to the other side of the tunnel. My light barely reached her. She curled up in a ball beside Sassy in the corner, while Jonah had his eyes squeezed tightly shut and was chewing fiercely on his lower lip.
I turned to Imogen, but as I approached her, she buried her head into her knees and turned away from me.
“Go away,” she mumbled.
My stomach sank, and tension formed in my head. “I just want to help,” I whispered, squatting down next to her.
“You can’t help me,” she sobbed without looking up. “Go help Jonah.”
I backed away from her slowly, feeling like the worst member of the team right now. I was useless.
“Hey, Jonah,” I said softly as I approached him.
His eyes were still closed, and his breathing was ragged. Guilt consumed me. I wanted to offer Esis to heal him, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. Not yet, anyway.
I sat beside Jonah, holding Esis in my lap with one hand and a flame in my other. “How bad is it? Your foot?”
He shook his head without looking at me. “That’s not what’s bothering me.”
I breathed a sigh of relief.
“It’s this damn cave,” he muttered. “I don’t do small spaces. I’m totally claustrophobic. There’s hardly any air down here. I can’t use my element.”
“Oh,” I said flatly. How was I supposed to help with that? “Would you rather I put my flame out? Then you wouldn’t know the difference.”
Jonah slowly peeled his eyes open, but quickly shut them again. He nodded.
I closed my hand, and the cave went dark. I could still hear Imogen in the corner and Liam shuffling around in the tunnel. Jonah reached out in the darkness to take my hand. He squeezed it so hard that I thought he might crush my fingers, but I bit my lower lip to keep from crying out. As long as I was helping someone, that was all that mattered.
“You know, Jonah,” I said. “When I’m scared, I like to sing a song.”
“I’m not scared,” he said, though I could hear the fear in his voice. “I’m just… uncomfortable is all. But… you can sing me a song anyway.”
I hesitated. I was in choir in high school, but only so I could goof off with my friends. I’d never considered myself a good singer. But I opened my mouth to sing anyway. The truth was, I was a little scared myself, and I knew it would help. I went with the first thing that came to mind, a lullaby my mom used to sing to me when I was a kid, one I’d nearly forgotten until now.
“Earth, Water, Fire, and Air
Gifted to us by the breath of a prayer
Separated these powers shall be
Until reunited in sweet harmony.”
My voice drifted away on the last note. I’d never really paid attention to the words until now. Maybe my parents hadn’t hidden everything from me…
“What are you doing, Sophia?” Jonah asked.
“Huh? Um… singing?”
“You’re butchering the song,” he accused.
I laughed lightly. “I never said I was a good singer.”
“Your voice is fine,” Jonah said. “But the lyrics are all wrong.”
“What? No, they’re not. My mom used to sing it to me all the time when I was a kid.”
“Yeah, well, your mom must’ve changed the lyrics,” Jonah said with amusement in his tone. At least I was cheering him up.
“Okay, so how does it really go?” I challenged. I only did it to indulge him, even though I knew I was singing it right— my version, at least.
Jonah began singing, taking on the same tune I’d used, though he sang horribly off key.
“Earth, Water, Fire, and Air
Powers almighty for children to share
Those in the clouds will forever be
The perfect balance of harmony.”
I raised my eyebrows, though he couldn’t see me. “Those in the clouds? It sounds like you think very highly of yourself, Yapluma,” I teased.
“You’re both singing it wrong,” Imogen said from her corner, though she was being anything but playful. “The original song didn’t have any lyrics. It’s the tune the ancestors played when they gifted us our powers. Each House took the tune and turned it into something else. So if you want to be accurate, you wouldn’t use lyrics.”
It sounded like something she must’ve read in one of her books. She didn’t sound interested in it. It was more like she was stating fact.
“Let’s hum it, then,” I suggested.
Jonah and I began humming the tune, though the last line was a little shaky, since we couldn’t quite agree on the rhythm. Eventually, we compromised until Jonah began drifting off. He slumped against Squeaks like she was a pillow and began snoring.
I sat there for another hour in the dark, trying to not make any noise so that Jonah could rest. But I couldn’t take the sounds of Liam clinking rocks together in the tunnel. It didn’t matter how determined he was. He wasn’t going to dig his way out of here. I could hear his breathing becoming more and more labored with each passing minute. He needed a serious reality check.
“Liam,” I whispered, bending down to the tunnel opening with a flame in my hand. All I could see were the soles of his shoes, since rocks and dirt were piled up around the rest of his body. When he didn’t acknowledge me, I repeated his name.
“What?” he snapped, turning his head back to me. His forehead was covered in sweat, so much that long strands of hair stuck to the sides of his face.
“You need to rest,” I said.
“No,” he protested. “I need to get us out of here.”
“We’ll get out,” I assured him, though I couldn’t know that for sure. “But maybe we can take turns. You’re working yourself too hard, and you need a break.”
“I’m fine,” he
lied. “You can save the lecture for when we get out of here.”
“Liam,” I said firmly. “You need to stop.”
He glanced back at me. “I'm making progress.”
“You're making yourself sick,” I countered, taking note of the faraway look in his eyes.
“Trust me,” he said, “I've handled worse.”
“Yeah, well, I haven't,” I snapped back. “What am I supposed to do when you pass out? We have no resources down here. You're no use to us unconscious. Please, just take a break.”
Liam clenched his teeth before letting out a sigh. “Sophia, I—”
“No excuses, Liam. Lie down and rest.”
I wasn’t going to put up with this. He didn’t get a choice. I climbed into the cave and reached for his ankle.
“Ancestors, pawee.” He jerked away. “Fine. I’ll take a short break.”
“Good,” I said, satisfied.
I backed up to let him out. Liam stood straight and wiped the back of his hand across his forehead. His knees visibly shook, and he looked two minutes from passing out.
I pointed to a level spot near the edge of the cave. “Lie down. I'll start digging.”
“You don't have to do that, Sophia.”
“Why not?” I raised an eyebrow at him. “Because I'm a girl?”
Liam shook his head. “No, but…”
“But what?” I asked. I knew digging would be useless, but Liam didn't seem like the kind of guy who could rest if nothing was being done. Only one person could dig at a time, so at least he wouldn't feel the need to jump right back into it.
Liam shrugged. “I don't know. It's… it's cold down here, don't you think?”
It sounded like he was just making small talk, but I wasn't really in the mood for that. Instead, I stomped up to him and grabbed his arm, dragging him over to where I'd pointed. He seemed curious and didn't speak.
I sat down and patted the spot next to me. “Come on.”
Liam did as he was told, though it seemed to take him forever to lower himself to the ground, as if he had the body of an eighty-year-old. Which I could tell through his skin-tight shirt was definitely not the case.
I lay on my side facing him, and my arms curled in front of me and pressed against his chest. His breath rushed across my face, and I caught the scent of a pine forest after a fresh rain. He hesitated a moment before draping an arm across my body. Esis scurried up next to me and snuggled into the small space between us. I called upon my Fire just enough to warm the surface of my skin. Liam's body felt so cold on mine, like the chill from the ocean, but I barely noticed.
Instead, I was focusing on the nervous pounding of my heart and the voice in my head screaming. When the hell did you grow a pair of balls, Sophia? Seriously, where did the courage to yell at and then cuddle a guy I wasn't even dating come from?
My body trembled against his. I only hoped he didn't notice. Fantasies of what I'd like to do with Liam— to Liam— here in the dark ran through my mind. I couldn't control it. I should not be thinking things like that at a time like this. Besides, it wasn't like anything was going to happen between us.
Which might've been a lie. Something was definitely going on. I could feel it. Liam shifted his hips until I could no longer feel him against me.
“Better?” I asked, my voice shaking.
Liam's shoulders relaxed. “Better,” he whispered.
It felt like hours had passed when I finally woke. I didn't have the sun to judge by, but I guessed it was already morning. Jonah and Liam were still asleep, but Imogen sat staring at the tunnel with a blank expression on her face. I wiggled out from under Liam’s arm. Esis stirred but didn’t wake. He shifted just enough so that his head curled down by Liam’s chest and his butt stuck up in his face.
“Hey, Imogen,” I said softly as I made my way over to her. A small flame in my hand lit up her face. Sassy lay curled up in her lap. I took a deep breath, but it didn’t feel like I was getting enough air.
“Hey,” she said flatly without meeting my eyes.
I sat beside her and spoke in a whisper so I wouldn’t wake anyone. “Are you ready to talk about it?”
Imogen shook her head.
I bit my lower lip, unsure of what to say to her. I settled for the truth. “We need you, Imogen. Liam may think he can dig his way out of here, but he’s just being stubborn. We need a Nivita. We need you.”
“I’m sure that’s what Trace’s team said to him, too,” Imogen mumbled.
“Is this… is this how your brother died?” I asked. I wished there was a way to tiptoe around the subject, but there wasn’t. We had to face this head-on if we hoped to make it out of here.
Imogen nodded. “Trace failed his trial. His team wanted to take a shortcut through the mountain. They thought that by going through a cave they could bypass the trials and make it to the finish line first. But you can’t outrun the trials in these mountains. The cave collapsed, separating their team. The Koigni girl and Yapluma guy on their team said Trace and the Toaqua girl were far enough ahead that the cave-in wouldn’t have crushed them. Which can only mean one thing… Trace failed. He couldn’t get them out. The half of his team that survived had to backtrack to the cave entrance and face the rest of the trials alone. They were the last team to make it back.”
“Imogen,” I whispered. “I’m so sorry.”
“Can you imagine?” she asked rhetorically, like she hadn’t heard me. “I found out about my brother’s death while watching TV in my living room. His teammates walked out of that cave without him, and I just…”
She broke into sobs again, her shoulders shaking. I wrapped an arm around her but didn’t say anything. It took Imogen a few minutes to compose herself again.
“It’s funny,” she said. “The day I lost my brother, I found my soul.” She stroked Sassy’s fur.
“That's when you bonded?” I asked.
She nodded sheepishly. “As soon as I saw Trace didn't make it, I ran out of the house and into the forest. Cade was there because his family was watching the tournament with us. I didn't want him to see me cry, so I ran. He followed, calling my name. I kept going until I tripped over a rock. I remember just lying there with my face in the dirt, letting my tears soak into the earth while I thought about how I'd never see my big brother again. I heard Cade's footsteps behind me. He bent down and ran his hand through my hair and down my back. He told me it was going to be okay, that I'd see Trace again one day. I told him I didn't want to wait until death to see him, that he should've made it out of the tournament alive. Trace had promised me he would.
“And then— I remember it so vividly— Cade went rigid, and the whole forest went silent. It was like time had stopped. He whispered my name and told me to look. When I lifted my head, there Sassy was, staring at me through the underbrush. I still remember every detail of our bonding. The color of the trees seemed brighter, and I heard the sounds of a flute in the distance. It smelled like the pages of an old book and tasted like honey. It was enough to give me a sliver of hope. Sassy walked toward me until her whiskers were tickling my face… and then she licked me.”
Imogen let out a light laugh, but her face quickly fell again. “It just doesn’t seem fair.”
“No,” I replied sadly. “It doesn’t. But Imogen, this isn’t the same thing.”
“It’s exactly the same,” she argued.
“No, it’s not. That rock out there? Those aren’t the same rocks your brother had to move. And you? You’re Imogen, not Trace. You have different strengths.”
Imogen sighed. “If we have any chance of making it out of here, I have to move more rock than I ever have before. I know I’m Nivita, but I’m not good with dirt and rocks. I’m better with plants.”
“Okay… well, that’s a strength.”
Imogen glared at me. “It’s not exactly going to help us, is it?”
My mind raced a million miles per hour. What could I possibly say to her to convince her to give it another shot? An id
ea suddenly struck me.
“Yes!” I cried. “Maybe it will.”
Imogen’s eyebrows drew together.
“I saw this documentary once,” I explained. “It showed a time-lapse video of roots growing through concrete until the concrete broke. Imogen, your power is strong. What if you used the roots to get through the dirt and rocks?”
Imogen’s eyes lit up, and I could see the gears turning in her head. “You think that will work?”
I honestly didn’t know. “All I know is that we can’t give up yet. I believe in you, Imogen.”
Imogen visibly blushed. “I guess it’s worth a shot.”
Yes!
“But Sophia,” Imogen said in warning, “if this doesn’t work, I’m sorry.”
I refused to accept her apology. “It will work, Imogen. Trust me.”
A hint of a smile touched the corner of her lips. “I do.”
“Then let’s get going,” I encouraged.
Jonah stirred. “Hey, what’s going on?”
“We’re strategizing,” I said vaguely as Imogen and I stood. I didn’t want to tell him and put too much pressure on Imogen.
“Oh, okay,” Jonah said in a groggy voice. “Let me know when we’re out of the woods.”
Imogen scoffed. “Sweetheart, if this works, I’ll carry you out of the woods myself.”
“Deal,” Jonah agreed.
Imogen just rolled her eyes and started for the tunnel. Sassy climbed in behind her. I squatted at the entrance to offer my light. Imogen crawled over the loose rocks Liam had left behind and to the end of the tunnel where a pile of dirt blocked the path. She placed her palms flat to the rock and took a deep breath.
I waited. And waited.
Finally, she dropped her hands and twisted back to me. “There are roots all around me. I can get to them, but I’m going to need some time to figure out exactly what I’m doing. I don’t want to risk caving in the tunnel.”
“That’s all right,” I told her. “Take all the time you need.”
