Page 51 of Soul Bound

His nose wrinkles at the nickname, making me smile. He walks forward into the tunnel and I follow close behind.

“I don’t know what’s worse, going first, or being in the back. It’s like going through a haunted house, you know? The person in the front is the first one to get scared but if you’re in the back, something might sneak up on you. Frankly, I’m not sure I prefer either position because either way, you’refucked.”

“Where would you rather stand?” Ranger humors me as we start to descend the stairs.

“Preferably? Far, far away from the stairs that I’m pretty sure might lead to hell.”

“Hell isn’t real.”

“Neither are werewolves or witches,” I remind him.

“Wolf shifters.”

“Don’t care.”

We go down the rest of the rickety metal staircase. Ranger was right about this not leading to hell. It does however lead to an underground tunnel. The walls are made of the rough rock and dirt the tunnel as carved into. Similar to a mining shaft, wood beams had been brought in to add stability to the structure. The tunnel doesn’t seem to have been made for every day, convenient use. Instead, as I had guessed, it seems to be an‘in case of emergencies’kind of tunnel. Even with the wood beams, I don’t get the impression it’s that stable.

“We shouldn’t stay down here long…” I whisper. “I’m envisioning the walls caving in and us being buried alive.” The thought alone sends a shiver down my spine.

In general, I don’t fear death, but being buried alive is probably up there in worst ways to go—below being burned alive becausethatwould be the worst. No questions asked.

“Well, that’s a morbid thought,” Ranger mumbles. “But I agree. Let’s just see where the tunnel leads. Thalia wanted us to come down here for a reason.”

“If she accidentally leads us to our death, I’m going to kick her ass in the spirit realm,” I vow.

We move through the tunnel in silence, the sound of our boots hitting the dirt floor the only sound. As we walk, I think about how it makes sense they were able to disappear so quickly with the baby. They just slipped through the secret passage and went undetected because they were several stories underground when Ranger and his family searched the facility. I hate to give them props, but the plan was genius.

The tunnel goes on for ages, we have to had walked over half a mile by the time we come to where it splits into two.

Ranger flashes the light down each of the new tunnels, both look equally dark and unwelcoming. We both look between the two caverns, trying to decide which one to go down.

Too bad the bad guys didn’t leave us a road map.

“Eeny, meeny, miny, moe?” I offer.

Ranger squats at the mouth of the one on the right, using the light to illuminate the dirt floor. “There’re footprints in this one, they look fresh.”

My heart freezes in my chest. “How fresh?”

He rises to his full height and steps closer to me, his spine straight and his eyes serious. He’s on guard. “Someone was here recently.”

“Shit.”

A freezing blast of cold air blows past me, making the hair in my ponytail fly around my face. It’s a strong enough gust even the hood of my jacket moves. As the wind blows around us, I hear something near my ear.“Danger,”the voice, just barely a whisper says. I swear I can even feel the breath against my ear as they speak.

“Ranger…” I hiss. “Something’s wrong.”

His head cocks to the side like he’s listening to something I can’t hear. It’s followed by the slightest rumbling coming from Ranger’s chest as his hand grips my forearm, pulling me to his side. “We’re not down here alone.”

As if on cue, the redheaded spirit from earlier appears at the mouth of the tunnel Ranger was kneeling at before. Her translucent, ethereal body stands in the beam of the flashlight. She shakes her head, her cloudy eyes wide. “They’re coming.”

I take a step back, pulling Ranger with me. “We need to go.Now.”

The ghost points to the other tunnel, gesturing for us to go that way. I don’t need to be told twice, I yank Ranger’s sleeve and tug him toward it. Ranger doesn’t hesitate or ask questions; he instead takes my hand and we break into a run down the dirt tunnel.

I was right when I said this place was a horror movie.

My heart is beating so fast I can barely hear anything else as we run. This tunnel also isn’t just a straight shot like the last one, it branches off multiple times, each time the redheaded spirit stands in the correct entryway, leading us hopefully the right way. The farther we go into the tunnels, the smaller they get, Ranger is forced to lead us by going first through some of the passageways because the width is no longer wide enough for us to pass through at the same time.

---