Xavier continued ahead of us. My stomach dropped as he pushed his horse to a trot. The hooves clicked against the stone floor of the caves as he moved farther and farther from our sight.
And then it was just Jessiah and me.
And the tightening in my chest that told me something horrible was about to happen.
Chapter 24
Jessiah
“Well,” she said, adjusting herself on the saddle. “Let’s get this over with, shall we? This place creeps me out.”
When I didn’t immediately follow her, she stopped and whipped around.
“What are you waiting for?”
I inhaled deeply. “Are you going to tell me what you’re hiding?”
Her expression dropped, though she quickly recovered, replacing the shock with a sassy smirk. “That depends,” she goaded. “What makes you think I’m hiding something, Jessiah?”
Goddess above. There was so damn much at stake here. If she would just open up to me, I could do the same. We could trust each other like we used to. We could work together. I could help her.
She scrutinized me, her lips pressed together, nothing but suspicion and doubt on her face.
It was a lost damn cause. “Forget it.” I maneuvered past her and entered the dark tunnel.
The breeze from the cold outside ceased to exist. In fact, just a few feet inside the cave’s entrance, the air did not move.
Nothing moved at all.
It was as if this place did not exist in the real world, as if it existed in a separate realm from all that lived and moved outside.
Rummy appeared behind me, the slow steps of her horse the only other movement in the darkness.
The horses both whined and hesitated with every step.
My heart raced as if every part of me knew this was wrong.
Every cell went on high alert. Waiting.
With a thick swallow, I carried on, guiding us deeper into the caves.
I scanned the cavernous space, unsure of what we should be looking for. Last time, we had been deep into the caves before the whispers began.
Maybe the voices wouldn’t speak to us today. Maybe they’d told us everything we needed to know already and we’d fucked it all up by not sticking around for clarification.
“Hello?!” Rummy yelled, the single word echoing for several seconds.
I stopped in my tracks and spun to face her. Of its own accord, my hand fell to the sword strapped to my hip and my body braced for—well, anything.
“What are you doing?!” My whisper was amplified in the hollow space.
“I’m trying to speed this up!” she snapped. “We don’t have all night!”
This woman wasimpossible.
With one last glower at me, she tipped her head back and yelled into the void again. “We’re here for help, creepy, all-knowing cave spirits!”
Teeth gritted and hands balled into fists, I stepped up to her, ready to tell her this wasn’t working, that we needed to move deeper into the caves, when a strong wind nearly blew me off my horse.
