Page 31 of A Sea of Secrets
Another Potential came through, followed by three others, and I was starting to freak out a little. The floor had almost fully reappeared; only one person could fit through now. I wrung my hands, desperately looking for Kayden to be the one.
“He’ll come,” Noah assured me, leaning up against a wall, a hand on his bad leg.
“Yeah, no fucker is getting past him unless he allows it,” Ace said, eyeing the Potentials who had just come through the sand.
The worst kind of thoughts crept into my mind. “What if he doesn’t? What if he gets stuck up there and I never get to say goodbye?”
“He’ll be next,” Noah replied with a grimace. “Trust me.”
Time passed slowly and I was starting to think no one was coming when the sand started shifting around. A couple of grunts had my heart skip and then Kayden dropped, gracefully landing on his feet like a cat, right as the floor above sealed shut.
“I knew you’d make it.” I smiled, hugging his bulky form. It was like cuddling a rock, all hard and rigid, but I didn’t care. The big guy was part of my pod.
“Sure, you did,” Noah scoffed, earning a chuckle from Ace.
A gargled scream drowned out our happy reunion, and then an eerie silence fell over us all. The lights went out, followed by specks along the floor lighting up, like guides along a theatre aisle.
“Guess we follow the lights,” Kayden said, striding past me and heading down the low-lit hallway.
Our small group of Potentials followed, and I did my best not to think about another dark passage from the second trial. I was starting to get a complex about being in the dark.
At the end of the passage, lights flickered on above, illuminating three elevators. Kayden jabbed a finger at the ‘up’ button and we stood watching as the floor numbers counted down above the metal doors.
“Which one?” Ace asked, looking between the elevators. He had Noah’s arm propped over his shoulders, holding the dude up. Ace was seriously such a sweetie when he wanted to be.
“No idea,” Noah replied. “But I think we should split from the other Potentials.”
“Agreed.” Kayden nodded, glaring at the remaining Potentials. His gaze caused one of them to stumble backwards into the wall.
Chimes filled the air as the doors of the elevators opened to reveal mirrored internal walls.
“Which—”
“This one,” I announced, striding into the middle elevator. “Something about it tickles my gills.”
“I hope that’s a good thing,” Kayden said with a raised brow at Noah.
“Silly sea slug.” I laughed, waving a hand at them all to join me. “Of course it is. All aboard! Hurry up, this ship is about to set sail!”
“Fuck it,” Ace replied, following with Noah. The trust between us, the two Dolphin Detectives, was palpable.
Kayden hopped in soon after and my heart was ready to burst like an overblown puffer fish. I loved these guys.
“Wipe that look off your face and close the doors,” Ace snapped, which was basically an admission of love because not long ago he would have hit me or something. Progress. We’d be hugging any day now.
Noah pushed one of the many buttons on the wall and the door slid shut, locking out the other Potentials, not that they were overly keen to join us with Kayden standing at the threshold massaging his fist.
An upbeat instrumental piece played over the elevator speakers, and I moved my hips to the rhythm. “This is it, dudes, this has to be the end of the trial.”
“You might jinx it,” Kayden said, leaning his back up against the wall, his broad arms folded over his just as wide chest.
“Whatever it is,” Noah began, looking between us all. “We’ll tackle it together.”
Okay, now he was screaming for a hug, I just knew it. I darted towards him, but Kayden flung out an arm in my path, just as a ding sounded. The elevator stopped, and the door slid open to another hallway.
A voice surrounded us, cool and calm. “Level Three, Veritas.”
Myclothesclungtome like a second skin, freezing me to my core as I climbed a ladder one rusty rung at a time. Small lights flickered on the panels beside my hands, growing scarcer the higher I went.
