Page 240 of Empire of Shadows

Smoke coiled into the periphery of his vision in a few tentative wisps.

Adam sucked in a breath, drawing on his reserves to keep his shaking arms up as Jacobs bore down on them. Some of the smoke came with it. It smelled of freshly turned soil and the dew that collected on plantain leaves in the morning.

Time seemed to stretch—and then hold. Shadows gathered in the corners of his vision as Adam was consumed by the dark, skittering sense of something whispering to him from the corners of the world.

What do you want?

“How about… a way… to clock this bastard?” Adam replied through gritted teeth.

Jacobs’ eyes narrowed with surprise. For a critical moment, his focus broke… just as a light, impossible burst of knowledge popped into Adam’s brain.

It opened itself up to him like a birthday present.

His arms were shaking with the force of holding off Jacobs’ blow.

Hell with it,Adam thought numbly.Why not?

He shifted his grip to clamp Jacobs’ wrists with a single hand, gritting his teeth against the effort of it. He flailed out with the other, slapping it down to the flawlessly flat stone above him.

Something inside of him sang out with the knowledge of exactly how far he needed to reach. As more of that smoke curled up around both him and Jacobs, Adam’s fingers brushed against a hard, achingly familiar shape.

He grasped the hilt of his machete and slammed it into Jacobs’ temple.

The blow knocked the smaller man aside as he drew in a quick, sharp breath. Adam twisted free and lurched back to his feet—but more than the hit seemed to be slowing Jacobs’ reaction.

The dark-haired man wavered, wincing and unsteady.

“No…” Jacobs gasped wildly. “It couldn’t possibly be…”

Jacobs shook his head as though trying to knock something out of it. Adam wondered what the hell had thrown the man off—but not for long.

He spun the machete in his grip and faced Jacobs with the blade ready in his hand.

Jacobs’ eyes cleared. They locked onto Adam with dangerous focus—and Ellie’s voice rang through the chaos of the cave like a bell.

“I am holding a lit match,” she called out, lifting a hand where the fragile bloom of a flame flickered against the shadows. “And approximately six pounds of dynamite.”

In the other hand, she raised up the sagging form of Kuyoc’s homemade breastplate.

“I am about to light it and throw it into the chamber below us,” she continued crisply with a nod toward the ragged black opening in the wall of the cave. “If you’d like to escape the collapse of this entire cavern, I strongly suggest that you run.”

The blood drained from Adam’s face.

“Shoot her!” Dawson screamed.

Ellie touched the match to the cords of Kuyoc’s armor and tossed the hissing package of it through the hole.

Across from Adam, Jacobs stared forward with uncharacteristic shock… and then began to laugh.

A deep, earth-shattering boom throbbed through the cavern from below. The shudder of it was tangible through the soles of Adam’s boots.

There was a brief, terrible moment of silence… and a crack opened in the ground before him.

“That’s not good,” Adam concluded, staring down at it numbly.

He whirled away from Jacobs and bolted across the cavern to where Ellie wobbled as the ground shook under her feet.

Stalactites popped like firecrackers overhead, shattering to the ground like bombs.

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