“What?” TS asked.
Dani turned back, with an unexpected ghost of his usual smirk. “My car is still at the park. Who is driving?”
“Driving where?!” Mariana asked when it became clear TS was too angry to.
“To the park, of course,” Dani said. “Am I the only one who actually listened to Jon?”
“When he relieved us of duty, you mean?” Charlie asked. “Or when he ordered us to stay away from the park? I didn’t think that would stop you but…”
Dani actually laughed. It was a somewhat hollow, forced chuckle, but it was a laugh nonetheless. “I mean when he ordered us to go to the park.”
We all exchanged a baffled look.
“Em…” TS said, thankfully sounded a little less furious.
Dani chuckled darkly again. “We’re wasting time.” He started walking down the aisle and we had no choice but to follow. “The park is off-limits to all MES personnel,” he said. “Jon just relieved us of duty – in front of all of those witnesses, I might add – which means technically, we’re not MES personnel right now. He said, and I quote,” he switched to Jon’s voice, “I don’t care where you go or what you do. But MES is not where you need to be right now.” Dani changed back to his voice. “He’s right, MES is not where we need to be; we need to be at the park, looking for Tom.”
“Bloody hell…” TS breathed.
“And he wants us to check in,” Dani added.
“Then what are we waiting for?” TS said eagerly. He sped up until he was even with Dani.
“My car is big enough,” Mariana said. “I drove my station wagon today.”
We quickly veered across the garage to her space. Dani wordlessly held out a hand for her keys, which she gave him. He got into the driver’s seat and Mariana sat next to him. I ended up in the backseat, in the middle between Charlie and Shannon. TS climbed into the cargo space in back.
For a couple of minutes, we drove in a tense silence.
“We need to drop Shannon off somewhere safe,” TS said.
“Excuse me?” my cousin said. “You’re not dropping me off anywhere.”
“It’s too dangerous,” TS said. “The last time you got mixed up with us you nearly died.”
“I was human!” Shannon said. “I’m a dhampir now, I can help.”
“Thomas is a vampire,” Dani said darkly. “Didn’t do him much good.”
“So, I’m not as strong or fast,” said Shannon. “But I’m another pair of good ears and a powerful nose. I can help.”
“Shannon,” TS pleaded. “You’re my only soul-packmate who… who isn’t in mortal danger. I can’t…” He whimpered and swallowed hard. “If something happens to you…”
“I’m going to be fine.” Shannon turned a little and reached her hand back behind her seat and rubbed his shoulder. “I’ll be careful. But, please understand, I can’t stay back here again; not when my cousin is getting into trouble. Thomas saved my life, I want to help him.”
TS growled softly, obviously struggling with the compulsion to not argue with a soul-packmate. Shannon’s expression softened; she understood. Her eyes narrowed slightly as she tried to figure out a way to make both of them happy.
While I would have hated for my cousin to get hurt, I didn’t think it mattered much as far as TS was concerned. If we couldn’t save Thomas, TS would die whether or not Shannon was somewhere safe. If by some miracle TS did survive Thomas’ death, Delilah was still in bad shape. TS would never survive the deaths of two soul-packmates.
“Tell you what,” Shannon said. “I’ll come with you and I’ll try to help track Thomas. At the very first sign of trouble, I’ll run. I’ll run as fast as I can back to the car and I’ll contact Ember or Jon and let them know what’s happening. Then, I’ll be able to lead them back.”
“That’s not a bad idea,” Dani said.
“No…” TS agreed reluctantly. “It’s not. Fine.”
With that, Dani sped up and we rode in silence. The drive seemed to take forever. I found myself hoping TS would suddenly announce he could sense Thomas again, while being terrified he’d say something had happened or just outright die. Rak kneaded my legs, purring as I absently pet him and the motion sent a pleasurable, relaxing tingle down my back and I tried to just focus on it and rest.
I don’t know how fast Dani drove, but it couldn’t have taken more than forty-five minutes to make the hour-long trip. Even then, that was too long. We were closing in on three hours since Thomas had gone missing and with each passing minute the chances of finding him were dwindling. The persistent rain only made things worse.
We hurried out of the car and Dani led us to a nearby clearing, with a couple of tents still pitched.
“I was here and…” Dani sighed. “Tom went that way.”
A massive wolf trotted by us in the direction Dani was pointing; I hadn’t even seen TS shift.
“I smell him,” TS said. “It’s faint and nearly gone, but I know his scent as well as my own.” Nose to the ground, he hurried off into the trees.
Shannon sniffed around with a frown.
“Smell anything?” I asked her.
She shrugged. “I think I smell him, but TS has a better nose. Besides, I’m sure he can smell his soul-packmate better than I can.”
I thought of the last time I was in the park and how badly it nearly ended. Our cautious trip through the forest felt so different than this one. Before we took our time, following the scent cautiously. This time we were practically running. Every moment counted. TS lost the trail a couple of times and had to circle around to find it. My heart was in my throat each time, dreading the announcement that he couldn’t pick the scent up again. I wasn’t sure how far a vampire could get in five minutes or how fast Thomas had been running, but after nearly half an hour I was starting to get discouraged.
The rain was getting harder. Charlie was hunched into his sweatshirt and Dani dried him off every couple of minutes. TS insisted the scent was still there, but I could tell I wasn’t the only one who was getting nervous. That said, I had no intention of giving up, not even if we were wandering around the forest all night long.
The trees opened into a clearing and we paused, making sure it looked all clear. TS snuffled along the ground, out from the cover of the trees. Charlie looked up at the open sky in concern, seeming content to wait until TS was across.
I don’t know who saw it first, maybe it was all of us, but suddenly, we all knew what Thomas meant when he said there was “another one”.
There, across the clearing, was a large tree with a human-sized hole in the trunk.
Exactly like the one that led to the blood casters’ cavern where we fought Fletcher.
Chapter Five
Jen
For a long moment, we stood still, staring in horror at the tree.
“If anyone hears a crackling sound,” TS said, breaking the silence, “run. Just turn and run.”
We all nodded, then slowly moved forward. Dani grumbled something about not having a gun, but pocketed one of his knives and put a hand on Charlie’s shoulder, keeping the rain off of him.
I didn’t except to, but we made it across the clearing safely and soon were gathered by the tree. The opening looked just like that last one. What was down there? Another cavern with an alter? More blood casters? Thomas?
“Can you sense him yet?” Dani whispered.
“No,” TS choked. “Still nothing.” He turned to Shannon. “Shannon, I think…”
She nodded reluctantly. “Yeah. I’ll go.”
“Be careful,” said TS.
“You too.” Shannon flashed me a weak, but encouraging smile. “You too, Jenny. Be careful.”
I hated to let her run off alone. “Can you find your way back to the car?”
“Yes and I can bring reinforcements back here.”
“Text me or something,” I said. “When you get somewhere safe.”
“I can sense her. I’ll let you know, Jen,” TS promised.
As much as I wanted Rak by my side, I realized that it was best for him to go with Shannon; she may not have been able to sense TS, but Rak could sense me. It was the only way we could connect our two groups after splitting up. Plus, Rak would be able to handle the communication with MES, minimizing Shannon’s involvement, and lead them straight back to us, even if the scent was gone.
“Rak…” I said softly. He nodded and I sensed understanding.
“I’ll go with you, Shannon,” he said. He paused and rubbed against my leg, radiating affection and concern.
“I’ll be okay,” I promised him. I gave him a quick hug and kissed him between the ears. He bumped his head against my chin, then went to Shannon.
My cousin picked him up, nodded to us, then turned and sprinted away; she was gone in a matter of seconds and I could feel Rak steadily moving away.
“Let’s go,” TS said.
With that, we turned to face the tree. Dani went in first, with Charlie right on his heels. I cast my night vision spell, then followed, with Mariana behind me, while TS brought up the rear. Just like the last cavern, the ground inside the tree turned into steep, stone steps. Slowly, we made our way down. This time, however, it started to curve out of sight.
“I’m going to check it out,” Dani whispered. “Wait here.”
“Dani, be careful!” Charlie said.
“I just want to see…” said Dani. He vanished around the corner. “It keeps curving,” he called softly. “It’s like a spiral stair—”
“Danio?” Charlie hissed as Dani abruptly stopped talking. “Danio?!”
My breath hitched as no answer came.
Charlie lunged forward down the stairs.
“Wait!” I gasped, rushing after him.
I caught him by the sweatshirt and tried to stop him before he suddenly disappeared too. I pulled him off balance and we both stumbled down a few more steps.
“Char! Wait!” TS cried from behind us.
But there was no stopping a fire elemental. Charlie regained his footing and tried to keep going, pulling me with him. We circled around another corner, then tumbled out into a small room.
Like the other cavern, it was almost a perfect circle and made of stone, but that was where the similarities ended. This room was no bigger than my bedroom, but there were several arched doorways around it, each one leading to more stairs.
“Danio!” Charlie yelled. He pulled free from me and spun around the room, frantically looking for any sign of his fiancé; his eyes flaring so brightly they were almost glowing.
“Shh!” I said. “We don’t know who else is here! You’ve got to calm down before you erupt!”
“I know…” He squeezed his eyes shut and took a deep breath.
Then it hit me. Like suddenly realizing the TV you stopped watching had turned off or the person you thought was sitting near you had left.
Rak was gone.
“Charlie, I can’t sense Rak!” I shrieked. “We have to go back!”
Several words I honestly wasn’t sure he knew burst from him as he rushed to my side. With one last, terrified, longing glance over his shoulder, he nodded to me and we rushed up the stairs. We ran up and around the corner. I didn’t know why TS and Mariana hadn’t already followed us. We circled another corner. Then another. And another.
Confused, we both stopped.
“Did I erupt and forget how far down we came?” Charlie asked.
“No,” I said in alarm. “We should have gotten back to them by now!”
We looked around; the stone stairs and walls looked identical. Not only should we have already found Mariana and TS, but I was pretty sure we had already gone high enough to be outside.
“Did we… did we take the wrong stairs?” I asked.
“I don’t think so,” he said. “We turned right around!”
After exchanging a concerned look, we wordlessly turned around and hurried back down, around and around and around again. But instead of emerging back into the circular room, the stairs flattened out into a long, larger tunnel.
“This isn’t possible,” Charlie said, casting a look back behind us. “We went right back down the same stairs we came up!”
Yet there was no sign of TS and Mariana or Dani. I still couldn’t sense Rak either. The sudden lack of connection with Rak had me freaked out that he was missing like Thomas, but all at once it struck me: what if it was us?
I pulled out my phone to see if Shannon had texted yet, surely she was at the car by now. No service.
“The line went dead,” Charlie said suddenly.
“What?”
He was looking at my phone, eyes flaring. “Danio…” He paused and swallowed hard. “Danio said he was on the phone with Thomas and thought that Thomas hung up on him…”
“But the line went dead,” I finished, suddenly feeling like I was going to be sick. “If he lost service…”
“Whatever happened to… to both of them…”
Charlie and I stared at each other in horror.
“It’s happening to us!” I cried.
We turned around again and rushed back up the stairs. This time, they curved around once and came out in another long tunnel. Charlie angrily hissed and clicked in Sadehic. Here I thought that being trapped in the cavern by Fletcher was scary. This was terrifying!
“How is this happening?!” I demanded. It was like a nightmare.
“I don’t know!” cried Charlie.
This time, we cautiously started down the tunnel. It was silent except for the echoes of our footsteps. I felt like we were deep, deep underground, but honestly couldn’t tell. I don’t know how long we spent walking.
Rak was still just… gone. His emotions were always like music playing in another room in my mind; easy enough to ignore unless someone turned up the volume or I stopped and focused to figure out what song it was. When he slept, it became muted and turned into general feelings of contentment and even sleepiness. I could also still feel him physically; if he was sleeping by the radiator or the fire I could sense the warmth. As long as I was paying attention, I could even feel a tingle in my limbs when he stretched in his sleep. I knew from unfortunate experience that when he was unconscious it became more like white noise. This was totally different. I couldn’t feel anything physically and his emotions were just… blank. I knew he was alive. I knew it. I was also certain it wasn’t just wishful thinking: I knew. That was it.
I kept waiting for something to happen. Something to change at least. But there was nothing. The tunnel was just one long expanse of rock – sometimes it got so steep we were practically climbing, other times it went the other way and we slipped and slid down it, hoping we wouldn’t fall and once the floor of the tunnel tilted so much we had to walk with one hand on the wall, stumbling as we struggled to keep our balance; I slipped, more than once, and bashed my knees. Still, we kept walking. Where did this even end? Charlie and I must have walked a few miles by now.
“Is this getting smaller?” Charlie asked suddenly.
I looked around. Was the tunnel smaller?
We kept walking nervously and it soon became evident that the tunnel was indeed getting smaller as we went and it wasn’t long before the rough ceiling was just inches above our heads. The sides had closed in as well. Even though Charlie and I had been sticking close together, now we weren’t in control of it, our shoulders bumped several times as we walked.
As the tense minutes ticked by I noticed he was periodically ducking low points in the ceiling. Charlie wasn’t much taller than me and we hadn’t gone far before I had to watch my head too. “Should we keep going?” I asked when I felt a low-hanging part scrape across the top of my head.
“Honestly, Jen, I don’t know.” He turned to look at me, eyes dim and flickering with worry. Even though it almost burned me, I took his hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze, not that I wasn’t frightened too.
Soon, we were forced to
walk single-file and both of us had to stoop to avoid the ceiling.
“Yeah, okay,” Charlie said reluctantly. “Maybe we should turn around.”
We did and walked for a few more minutes, but instead of getting gradually larger again it seemed like the tunnel was still shrinking around us.
“Is it just me,” Charlie began. My heart sank. “Or is it still getting smaller?!”
“It is,” I whispered.
Now I was really scared. An awful voice kept nagging at me, wondering if Thomas had been here too. Had Dani? Were they both wandering these horrible, shrinking tunnels alone?
It wasn’t long before we were forced to crawl. The rough stones hurt my hands and even through my jeans my knees started aching. My heart pounded as we slowly made our way through the small passage. Something scraped my back and I gasped in alarm.
“Charlie, it’s even smaller!” I cried.
“I know,” he said grimly. “I can’t decide if we made it worse when we turned around or if it would have gotten smaller anyway…”
The walls were hardly an inch from both of my shoulders and I tried to look behind me. “I don’t think it matters; I’m not sure we can turn around anymore,” I said, struggling not to panic.
The ceiling scraped along my back again. And again. Ahead of me, Charlie lowered himself down and began to pull himself along on his stomach. After a few more feet, I had no choice but to do the same. Even then, the ceiling began to get lower.
“Charlie?” I called softly after hitting my head again and banging my chin on the ground. “I’m… I’m scared.”
For a long moment there was no answer. Maybe he hadn’t heard me. Just before I gathered up the nerve to repeat myself, he whispered, “Me too, Jen. I am too.” I heard him sigh. “Just… stay close to me. Okay? I’ll… I’ll protect you.”
“Okay.”
I kept painstakingly scooting along on my stomach, heart in my throat. I couldn’t believe Charlie could still fit, the tunnel was starting to get tight. Although he had slowed down even more; he was radiating so much heat I couldn’t even tell what the actual temperature was like and felt like I was crawling through an oven and I was dripping sweat. I was pretty sure I was dripping blood too, I knew I had cut myself more than once on the sharp rocks.
Rise of the Arcanist Series: Books 1 - 6 Page 21
