Page 59 of Asher

“Trust me, he’s really not,” I call down to them, frowning at the screen. We’re all so stupid. “The text won’t go through.” Because we’re in a cave at the top of a mountain and there’s no service up here. Which we allknew, but somehow forgot in the past two minutes. “I’m coming down.” I know Asher, and probably Zac too, will have a hissy fit if I open the crate without checking the symbol first, so I slide down the ladder like I’ve seen people do in movies. It’s fun!

Asher’s yell of alarm warms my heart, but less so when he snatches me off the ladder with a jolt.

“You ruined the landing,” I complain as he mashes my face into his chest. The words are muffled, but I stamp my foot—unfortunately, right on top of his—and that seems to get my disapproval across, because he lets me go.

I look up to scold him some more, and the big idiot is smiling. A demon-size smile, but still. “You’re so violent,” he marvels. “It’s kind of hot.”

Um… what? And they say hellhounds are weird. Ignoring him—maybe I accidentally kicked him in the head when he grabbed me off the ladder?—I turn to Zac and hand over the phone. Everyone immediately crowds around.

“I’ve never seen that before in my life,” someone announces.

“Zac, go home and internet search it,” Micah suggests. “We’ll wait here.”

Zac’s laugh is loud and derisive. “Like I’d trust you all here without me. You take it. Try to be quick.”

“Yeah,” I agree, trying to look casual as I lean back against the ladder. In actual fact, I don’t want anyone getting bright ideas about it being “their turn.” I’m going to be the discoverer of what’s in the crates. It’s my destiny.

Muttering about how we better not have any fun without him, Micah teleports out. “Let’s look at the wall while he’s gone,” Asher suggests. “That’ll piss him off.”

Zac bites his lip, torn between sticking to the original plan and doing something that will infuriate one of his cousins. I feel his pain. “Fine,” he concedes. “But we do it carefully. And I need someone else’s phone to record with.”

Asher hands over his, then, as we make our way closer to the wall (I hang back until everyone’s moved away from my ladder), enthusiastically fills the group in on the theory that we’re alreadyinsidea secret room.

“Maybe,” Zac says. “Assuming this is a door.”

“What else could it be?” one of the others asks, and I realize with a little start that I don’t know his name. We were in a search party together and now we’re in the same discovery team, but to me, he’s just a random demon. Whoops.

Guilt trickles through me. I haven’t spent as much time socializing and getting to know people as I should. I know all the families associated with the school pretty well, since I made a concerted effort to do that, and of course Asher’s family and their intimates are part of my inner circle—which is a little frightening. But outside of them and a few others at the bar and the supermarket, I don’t really know anyone in town. I’ve been too wrapped up in the school and Asher and trying to find a point of attraction about the village that will make other species want to live here.

That has to change.

But not right now. First… the wacky wall. Later, I’ll make friends.

Zac stops three feet from the wall, prompting the rest of us to stop too, and shines his light on it. Up close, we can see some minor—very minor—rust on some of the metal pieces.

“You’d have noticed if people were using this cave since you moved here, wouldn’t you?” I ask Zac.

He shrugs. “Depends. If they were moving crates like that in and out and had teams of people here, yes, definitely. Even if I didn’t see them, I’d have seen signs of them. But one or two people who know what they’re doing, just stopping by to check on things? Maybe not.”

“What if the entrance to the cave is miles away, down a long tunnel on the other side of this door?” Asher asks. I raise an eyebrow, and it’s his turn to shrug. “What? It could happen.”

“My point,” I say, turning back to Zac, “is that you’ve been here for over fifty years and never knew about this cave. Can we assume this has been abandoned for longer than that? I thought it hadn’t been that long, since there’s not much dust on top of the crates and they’re in good shape, but I guess if the cave was mostly sealed… and it’s very dry in here too.”

“I guess. I didn’t want to make an assumption like that just yet. Even as dry as it is, this isn’t a lot of rust for fifty years.” He plays the light over the closest metal components, then frowns. “Huh.”

“What?” the rest of us chorus, and I choke down a giggle.

“I thought these bits were all screwed into the rock, but they’re not.” He takes a step closer, and we all follow suit. This close, it’s easy to see he’s right, even without the bright light. There appears to be a backing between the sticky-outie components and the rock wall… Wait. Is there even a rock wall? Fumbling out my phone, I turn on the flashlight and hurry along the wall to the end, where the last of the components is, where it meets the adjacent wall.

“Garrett?” Asher follows me. “What are you doing?”

I run the light up along the corner, looking for any sign—

“There!” I reach out and prod the tiny, millimeters-wide gap. It’s not completely visible, I’m guessing because of passing time and lack of use. “It’s a door. Definitely a door. It’s not part of the cave wall at all—it’s blocking off a tunnel or another part of the cave.”

The others join us and see for themselves. Once you know what you’re looking for, it’s obvious that there’s a seam, though it’s a pretty good fit.

“Let’s check the other side,” Zac says.

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