Page 60 of Red Dreams

“The sea cave,” Cassie says. “We’re almost there.”

I pick up my pace, spurred on by the sweet promise of escape.

The roar grows louder with each step until it fills the tunnel, drowning out all other sounds. Cassie rounds a final bend and stops dead, forcing me to pull up short behind her.

Before us, the passage opens into a yawning cavern. Choppy seawater sloshes against a narrow strip of rock, with the tang of salt heavy in the air.

Cassie steps out onto the narrow ledge, her lithe form silhouetted against the mouth of the cave.

“We'll have to time it right,” she says over the roar of the waves. “The tide's coming in fast.”

I peer out at the churning water, wondering which is worse, being buried alive or drowning?

Kaden comes up beside me, then sidesteps closer to Cassie, Ethan’s limbs dangling like a puppet’s. He edges forward, scanning the waves for a break in the swells. I try to calm my breathing and steady my nerves.

“Get ready,” Kaden says, his voice tight.

On his other side, Cassie grins, ready to leap.

A heartbeat passes. Two. Then Kaden barks, “Now!”

We surge forward as one, sprinting across the slick rock. The ledge is narrow, barely wide enough for a single person. One misstep, one slip, and we'll be swallowed by the hungry sea.

Kaden charges ahead, Ethan bouncing limply on his shoulders. I'm hot on his heels, my lungs burning with the cold, salty air. Cassie brings up the rear, her breath coming in sharp bursts.

We're halfway across when a rogue wave crashes over the ledge, drenching us in icy brine. I gasp, blinded by the salt spray. My foot skids on the wet rock, and I stumble.

A hand grabs my arm, yanking me upright. Cassie. Her grip is like iron, her eyes glinting with mirth in her phone’s light. “Saved ya.”

I blink away the stinging salt. “Am I—do you want me to thank you?”

She laughs. “Of course not.”

She skips around me and continues on.

Once I recover, I notice that the ledge curves sharply to the left, angling up toward a fissure in the cavern wall.

Kaden reaches it first, ducking into the crevice without hesitation. Cassie follows, slipping into the narrow gap. The rock is cool and damp against my skin as I squeeze through, scratching my palms on the jagged stone.

Then we're through, stumbling out onto a rocky beach. The night sky stretches overhead, the stars blurred by a thin veil of fog. The crash of the waves is muffled now, the sea kept at bay by the towering cliff face at our backs.

Kaden lays Ethan down on the sand, his chest heaving.

“Now what?” I ask, my voice nearly lost to the wind.

Cassie scans the beach, her dark hair whipping across her face.

“There's a path. It leads up to the old docks.” She points at a faint track snaking up the cliffside.

Kaden crouches beside Ethan, checking his pulse again. “That path’s too steep to carry him.”

I chew on my lip. Kaden’s right. He cannot manage Ethan’s dead weight up that incline. Not after the toll the tunnel took.

“We need a boat,” Kaden says, pushing to his feet.

“There.” Cassie points at the tip of a small skiff bobbing just out of sight and camouflaged with underbrush. Had she not pointed it out, I would never have seen it.

“It's one of Papa's,” she explains, reading my mind. “For emergencies.”

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