I really am doing this.
Or maybe not.A tiny, hopeful voice echoed in my head.Maybe you just had a hallucination. You hit your head in the fall. The lighter must have had a spark left. You blew air on it when you exhaled. That’s a much more sensible explanation than you summoning fire from your fingers.
Nope. That wasn’t true.
I can’t pretend any more. I really do have some sort of power.
Well. Fuck.
But I couldn’t worry about that now. I needed to find Zehra. Groaning, I rolled over on my side and grabbed the lighter, holding it up as I pulled myself into a sitting position. Pain stabbed my hip. I held the lighter down, admiring the fresh tear along the seam of my Derleth Academy blazer and the scrape visible through my ruined stockings. From somewhere deep in the recesses of my mind, the god groaned with pain.
It doesn’t matter. I’m here. I made it.
I dug out the soaps and inspected them under the light. They were completely undamaged, the tiny impressions of the keys packed inside. I didn’t have the map, but if I told her what to look for, I knew Zehra would figure it out.
The cave felt different somehow, changed and oppressive, the stones closing in on me. A fine dust wafted in the air, rippling and curling around the flame. The dust stuck to my lungs, scratching the back of my throat. I coughed loudly.
Something clattered against the stones. My heart pounded. I called out into the gloom. “Zehra? Are you here yet?”
The only answer was darkness. Clamping one hand over my stinging hip, I crept down to the next shelf. I held up the lighter, but I could only make out a couple of feet in front of me.
“Zehra?” I moved to descend to the next step. “I hope you’re not waiting too far into the cave—”
My words caught in my throat as the light illuminated a rock protruding vertically from the edge of the shelf, blocking my way.I don’t remember that from last time…
I ran the lighter along the surface of the rock, searching for a reason. The flame caught something dark etched across the stone. I recognized the symbol anywhere – the sign of the Eldritch Club.
What’s it doing here?I ran my fingers along the edge of the rock, searching for a way around. The eerie veins pulsed as they crisscrossed at the edge of my vision. My nails scraped the edge of a second rock. Confused, I stood back and thrust out the lighter.
What I saw made my stomach turn.
The stones seemed new to me because theywerenew. There was a hole above the stones. The cave groaned as another piece of rock slid out and cracked on the shelf next to me. The roof of the cave had fallen in. That must’ve been the rumble I felt before.
The cave-in completely sealing the tunnel. No one was getting in, or out.
Chapter Thirty-Six
I clawed at the stone, shoving it with all my strength until I managed to topple it onto its side. I dragged out a second stone, opening a tiny gap in the wall. Blackness rushed at me. “Zehra?” I called into the gloom. “Are you in there?”
No reply.
Get help. Get the guys. She could be trapped on the other side.
If that was true, there was only one way she could go – deeper into the cave, closer to the god’s cavern.
I clambered back up to the entrance and crawled out from under the ledge, pausing to listen for the sounds of a search party. No one was out looking for me. I don’t know whether that was a relief, or a warning. I sucked in a deep breath and ran toward the pleasure garden stairs.
My feet skidded on the damp stone as I took the path as fast as I could. The pleasure garden stood empty, eerie now that it was devoid of life – the crumbling rotunda appearing otherworldly, the angles bent all wrong. I located the path behind it that wound up toward the tunnel entrance and ducked inside.
Once inside, I flicked on the lighter, but this time it had well and truly fizzled out. I squeezed my eyes shut.Focus. Stop panicking. You won’t help Zehra if you panic.I knew the tunnel like I knew the burn on my wrist. I walked slowly, keeping one hand on the wall and the other on the low ceiling. The familiar scritch-scritch-scritch of the rats powered me onward, drawing me back to—
My body slammed against something hard.
Huh?
I reeled, my head spinning. I staggered back and thrust out my hands.I must’ve disoriented myself in the darkness. The tunnel runs practically straight, so I can’t have run into—
My fingers scraped stone. I felt around, my hands sliding over dressed blocks, mortared in place. A wall of stone that filled the entire tunnel, without space for even a rat to fit through.
