She felt her heart clench.
“You should have asked if he would punish me.”
Olivia knitted her fingers together, squeezing them tight enough to make her knuckles ache. “Yes. There might be some consequences. But are you telling me that you’re willing to kill Luke Garner because you are afraid?”
“I am not a cowering dung beetle!” he thundered at her.
“Then take the chance on coming back.” She stepped to him, clasping him to her, locking her hands behind his back.
She knew he was strong. Strong enough to break free of her grasp. But as she stood there with her heart pounding, she realized deep in her soul that he wasn’t going to yank himself away.
“Thank God,” she murmured, pressing her lips against his cheek.
He turned his head, too, and their mouths met.
She made a glad exclamation that was swallowed by his mouth as he began to kiss her with a hunger he didn’t hold in check.
As his lips moved over hers and his arms tightened around her, pure and absolute joy surged through her.
But when he lifted his head again, his expression was grave. “Do you happen to know the way back?”
The question hit her with the force of a rock striking her chest. “No,” she whispered.
She looked toward the light.
It still tugged at her. But she knew she must walk away from it—if she wanted to go home with Luke.
Turning her back on the warmth of that glow, she looked toward the other end of the tunnel where she saw darkness. She had come from that darkness. Returning there seemed like her only option.
The terror of plunging into that nothingness again made her hesitate. But Luke reached down and clasped her hand. It was warm and strong.
“I know how I got here,” she whispered. “Will you take a chance on going back that way?”
“Yes.”
His hand tightened on hers, steadying her for the leap into the black abyss. Whatever happened, they were going to do it together.
“Come on, before I lose my nerve,” she whispered.
Together they ran down the tunnel, away from the light, toward something she couldn’t see or feel or hear.
Then, suddenly, the solid surface under her feet fell away, and she might have screamed if sound could have come from her throat.
She had faced this once. But that didn’t make it any easier the second time.
As she hurtled downward, the terror threatened to swallow her whole.