Page 41 of Fated In Forever
“Fuck. We need light.”
Brightness flared, so fast and so brilliant, I squeezed my eyes closed, and only saw spots.
“Sorry,” Riordan muttered. “Too fucking much. Where the fuck are we?”
“Another tunnel, from the looks of it.” That was Finn, and when I opened my eyes, I did a quick head count—Finn, Rohr, Nash and Nikolai, and a pale-looking Brendan, lying on his back against a pile of tumbled stone.
“Where the fuck did Evie go? And Malachi? And that fucking room from hell?” I spun, taking stock of the cracked walls, the blocked corridor behind us. “They were right here.” I stared at the blank wall and a moment—a split second—of mindless panic flared, that irrational fear of being trapped and buried alive.
“What the fuck happened to Evie?” I ran my hands over the rough wall, but the entrance to the round chamber was gone. Where there had once been a carved archway, therewas now only a wall of solid rock, smooth and cold and trembling beneath my palms, like this entire mountain was about to come down around us.
“We have to break through this wall.” I said, giving Brendan a hand up.
“We dematerialize out. Regroup, use their heat signatures to pinpoint them.” Finn decided, pulling a small black device out of his pocket. “I’ve got two experts outside who are already tracking us…”
“We’ll do no such thing,” Riordan interrupted, hands balled into fire-covered fists. “Evangeline is right on the other side of this wall and we’re not leaving her.”
“We have no idea where she is.” Finn argued. “Because we have no idea whereweare. We start from the beginning, use the tech we have on-scene, and retrace our steps.”
“There’s no dematerializing out.” Nikolai said quietly. “Whoever…or whatever herded us down here, doesn’t want us escaping that easily.” He studied the blocked corridor, then turned the other way. “This entire tunnel system is designed as a trap. What did you say the name of Ravok’s thrall was? Not the Silverwoods…the other one?”
“Romulus.” I didn’t trust the too-still way the Elder held himself, his steady calmness in the face of my panic. The way he’d been following along, more as an observer, less of an active participant. I gathered my magic, intending a short jump to test his claim, only to find…he was right.
“We can’t dematerialize.” A clearly frustrated Nash muttered. “Something is dampening my power.”
“This is like before.” Riordan whispered. “When they kept us from reaching Evie in time.” His eyes met mine. “Which means they knew we were coming.”
“Theydon’t know everything.” Finn whipped out a satellitephone, flipped it open. “Give us our location, and how close we are to Evangeline and the main target.”
Some static, and then… “Less than fifty feet, directly to your north. Looks like you’re separated by solid stone. I’m not seeing any clear openings or passages.”
“So Ravok, or Romulus, or this fucking place itself, separated us from Evie.” I narrowed my eyes at Finn. “How the fuck do you know where Evie is? Did you tag her?”
The bastard nodded without a shred of guilt. “Put a tracker in one of the buttons on the clean shirt Aisling gave her. Figured if we got separated, I’d better be able to find her, or you two assholes would kill me. I knew the big guy wouldn’t let her out of his sight, so I didn’t bother tagging him.”
“Ravok’s here.” Riordan’s eyes met mine.He’s with her. And Malachi. You know he is.
In that fucking room. Is he planning to finish whatever he started?
Hard to say, but we have to get the fuck out of here and back to her. Fast.
“Ask your spotter to map us a way to Evie.” I finally said, studying the pile of boulders blocking our way. “Let’s hope it’s that way,” I hooked my thumb over my shoulder, toward the open, darkened end of the passage.
My heart raced during the too-fucking-long back and forth on the radio, then Finn shook his head. “Only way is through this cave in, and he says there are at least two more. But that other way only leads down, so deep he can’t tell where it ends.”
Fortunately, the only magic wecouldn’tuse was dematerialization.
We could move the rocks just fine, blasted apart withfire, rolled away with my shadows, even vanished into thin air with whatever magic Nikolai possessed.
We had barely broken through to the other side when then the ground beneath us trembled, a presence stirring in the darkness behind us at the far end of the corridor, and I knew to my bones who it was. I drew my knife, and Riordan did the same.
“Someone’s coming,” Nash muttered, drawing his blades. We put the pile of cleared rubble to our backs, Riordan casting a ring of fire that illuminated the tunnel for a hundred empty feet.
And we waited.
The pressure in the air thickened, darkened. Magic folded in on itself, made even more wrong when Romulus stepped out from a swirl of black shadows, his one good eye bright with anticipation, his smile carved from cruelty.
Half his face was still marked from my shadows—which somehow hadn’t killed him—charred skin disappearing down his neck into his shirt.
