But, eventually, even she grew tired. It was cold down here, and miserable. The situation was hopeless and he knew it. Ari stopped, leaned back against the wall of the cave and slowly slid down to sit on the sandy path.
‘Are you all right?’ he asked.
She waved a hand at him. ‘I just need a minute or two. I’m parched. It’s a shame we don’t have any water.’
It was. He’d been thinking that himself.
That was when the first torch picked its moment. It flickered and then died.
‘Get the other one,’ Ari said and he reached for it, ready to turn it on.
She frowned and furiously rubbed at her eyes, wiping away tears she didn’t want him to see. She looked so tired, drained. He could see the lines of her face and—
Wait, he could see her?
He could see her face, her eyes, the way her hair, dry now, shifted softly in the breeze.
The breeze!
‘Ari!’ He surged to his feet, looking around desperately, trying to see where it was coming from. He could smell it, fresh air, air from outside the caves. The ambient light came from their left, filtering down from a steep slope.
They scrambled up as far as they could and found the ground turning wet underneath them. Water splashed onto his face, fresh water. That was rain. He tasted it, like it was a miracle. It was a way out.
The light flashed, bright and blinding after the darkness. Lightning. Outside, the storm still raged.
The gap at the top was narrow, but not too narrow. Ari was slim enough to get through it, even if he wasn’t. She could get help.
‘Come on, this way,’ he told her. ‘Up there.’
‘I see it. Can you get me up there?’
He lifted her and she scrambled up the sharp incline, sending a scattering of gravel and dirt down on his face.
‘It’s a way out,’ she called down, then wriggled through and disappeared from view. ‘Rafael? I’m out on the cliffs leading to the point, not far from the manor.’ Her arm appeared, hanging down, reaching for him.
‘Go and get help,’ he yelled up.
‘No. Not without you. It’s wide enough. Take my hand.’
A rumble of thunder shook through the earth around him.
‘Ari, don’t be silly.’
‘I’m not leaving you in there. Come on. And hurry up. It’s raining, Rafael, and it’s cold. Blowing a gale. Let’s go.’
He grabbed her hand and braced himself against the rocks, scrambling up as best he could. She was surprisingly strong, or maybe it was just her determination, but she hauled him out into the storm and fell back, laughing as the rain pelted down on them both, and the wind tore at the low scrubby bracken on the Pointe de Castelmeur. Lightning flashed overhead and the sky lit up, the clouds boiling like the sea.
But they were out in the open.
Safe.
CHAPTERTWENTY-TWO
It was dark by the time they made it back to the manor. There wasn’t a light on inside. Barefoot and cold, the two of them made their way to a back door, where Rafael fished a key out from behind a plant pot.
‘Highly secure,’ Ari said.
‘Don’t complain. It means we get inside. Besides, they’ve only started locking doors around here in the last twenty years. We’re in the middle of nowhere, remember?’
