Page 45 of Immortal Throne

“We’re running out of time,” he said, as if hearing my thoughts.

I pointed at the stalactites.

He clamped his mouth shut and reached up to tap the weird formations.

“I tried that.”

When he tapped out the same sequence, he tried the order in reverse.

“Tried that, too.”

He growled when his attempt didn’t yield any results.

“I wonder if we need to take them down. What if we need to move them somewhere else?”

He froze, his gaze flicking to the section of the cave he was just in.

“What did you find?”

He pressed his lips together.

“We’re supposed to work together.” I placed my hands on my hips…right over the hilt of the dagger and where I’d stuffed the secret message. The irony wasn’t lost on me.

“There are holes in the wall.” He reached up and ripped a blue stalactite from the nook and handed it to me. I took it and waited while he ripped the rest down, stacking them in my arms like firewood.

“Come on.” He waded past me, and we moved to the section he’d last searched. Sure enough, five smooth holes lined the wall.

The cave rumbled again, more water flowing in. The water level rose to my chest and covered the holes in the wall.

“Hurry,” I said.

Taking one stalactite at a time from my arms, Ryker shoved them in the holes while still holding the torch with one hand.

The stalactites made a clicking sound once fully inserted. When Ryker placed the last one in, the cave rumbled again. More violently, the whole cave shook, slapping water against the walls. The column formation in the middle of the room shuddered and broke apart. Large chunks of rock fell into the pool of cold water, splashing me and Ryker.

My heart lodged in my throat. Had we done it? Was the trial over?

After the water settled, and I swiped the water and hair from my face, I scanned the room. The center column had transformed into a stone staircase.

My heart pounded. This was it. Our way to freedom.

More water poured in, and I had to swim over to the bottom steps. Ryker pulled himself from the water first and turned toward me. He hesitated, his expression contorted.

Was he going to betray me? Push me into the water and hold me down?

He better not.

I hung onto the bottom step and peered up, my breath caught in my throat. He shook his head a little, turned and jogged up the steps.

He didn’t do it. He could have. He thought about it. But he left me to save myself.

I breathed out a sigh of relief and pulled my cold, bedraggled body from the water to clamber up the stairs after him. When I reached the top, I found him frowning. The stairs led to the top of the column, but there was nothing there. No exit hatch, no magical portal. Just the same gray rock surface that made up the rest of the cave.

I wrapped my arms around my chest and shivered. How was it possible to be in Hell, in summer, and freezing? There was a joke in there somewhere, but I was too cold and miserable to figure it out.

“There’s a message.” Ryker knelt down and brushed the dirt and dust from the small platform at the top of the column. The same weird symbol-style writing stared back at us.

The paper in my shorts burned against my skin.

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