Chills rolled over my skin and fear soured my stomach and throat. The nightmare of the Hush rushed back: wrists and ankles shackled, a hand pinning my throat while the Mother stitched my lips shut.
“We need to go,” Abbi piped up. She had a knapsack across her chest and a dark knitted cap over her white hair. She looked like a tiny smuggler ready to hit the docks.
“Are you staying out here?” Val asked Ricky.
“I’d be a liability in there. All my magic is too visible.”
“I can stay out here with you,” Val offered. “I’ll head in after them in a minute.”
Abbi fidgeted from foot to foot. “Now, Danube. We need to go now. My Shadow’s in there. I know it. I can feel him.”
“You stay close to me,” he warned.
Abbi just gave him a crazy, little-kid grin and grabbed my hand. “I’ll stay with Brogan. Just in case you try to pick me up and throw me over your shoulder for my own good.”
“Once,” he sighed. “I only did that once.”
She snorted, and Danube palmed her head, gripping her with his fingers and giving her a little shake. “Don’t be stupid. Be safe. I’ll go first.” He strode past us, toward the mouth of the cavern, every inch the protective big brother wolf.
“Hold on tight, okay?” I said to Abbi.
She nodded.
I looked over at Lu. There was a wicked glint in her eyes, and a set to her jaw and shoulders I’d seen a hundred times.
She wasn’t afraid of danger, wasn’t afraid of a fight. “Maybe you should stay out here with Ricky,” she said.
“Who?” I asked. “Abbi?”
“You, Brogan. Maybe you should stay back.”
I laughed, the reaction instant, the sound punching out before I could stop it.
She frowned.
“Not a chance,” I said. “Not ever. Certainly not now. Life, death, heaven, or hell. Into the cavern of the Hush. I go with you.”
She shivered, just once, as if throwing off one emotion for another.
“Together,” I said.
“Together,” she repeated.
We followed Danube, moving quietly through the dry grass to the mouth of the cave.
The Meramac Caverns were a tourist destination, really one of the original tourist traps, and a big pusher of bumper sticker advertising. You could see the place advertised for miles, the name written on billboards and barn roofs. After all these years it was still going strong.
A gift shop fronted it, and beyond and down, the huge first cavern was rented out for weddings and high school dances. Tours were offered daily, with a nice little patriotic film shown at the end.
But that wasn’t exactly where we were going. There was a hidden entrance—more than one—that led to all the unused tunnels, the hidden caverns, if you knew how to look for them.
Danube knew how to look for them.
He pushed between bushes and slipped from sight.
I took a step forward, but then Lu’s hand was on my shoulder, as she moved in front of me. Deadly, calm, she stalked through the brush and into the cave.
Abbi squeezed my hand tighter. “I’m scared.”
