What to do? What to do? What to do?
There was an opening behind her, another tunnel.
Her gaze shot to mine, an odd mixture of relief and fury pinching her expression.“GRAY!”
I fumbled for my bandoleer, pulling out a smooth vial and thumbed it open. I hurled the vial faster than my approach.
It punched through the cavern like a bullet—
Exploded as it struck the cavern’s wall.
A thick, furious buzzing noise came from the dragonflies as they escaped the smashed container. An iridescent sheen of neon colors hummed with the beat of thousands of wings as the dragonflies engulfed Mela.
She disappeared from sight.
I drove forward, pumping my weary limbs, stomping tiny critters beneath my boots.
However, the krekenn swarm had split into two enormous masses, and one rushed toward me.
Mela, Mela, Mela!
And then the dragonflies lifted from Mela in a stream of brightly colored wings. They’d eaten the tiny creatures until there was not a shred of them left.
But the horde was nearly upon Mela.
Fuck, fuck,fuuuck!
Snatching up a grenade from a leather loop, I freed the safety pin and threw it right into the swelling sea of krekenns.
I crashed into Mela like a freight train, driving us both into the tunnel behind her. We hit the rocky ground hard, my shoulder and hip barking in pain, rolling again before we came to a slow, dizzying halt. I protected Mela’s body with my own and covered my head with my hands. There was one brief moment when our gazes locked with mutual relief, and then—
The grenade exploded.
A deafening sound of rock striking rock.
A thunderous jolt.
The tunnel’s walls shook and trembled.
The ground quaked, chattering my teeth and rattling my bones.
Wildfyre lit up the cavern beyond in a haze of blistering heat. Flames roared and blew into the tunnel, scorching overhead in waves of blue. And a horrendous noise of screeching pierced my eardrums as the unnatural fire ate the krekenns.
As the passage shivered with the shockwave’s echo, fissures ran in splintering lines up its slick walls, and debris rained down, pelting my body.
The shaking slowly faded, then stopped.
Both Mela and I were breathing hard and covered in dust. The stink of smoke choked the air. I blew out a relieved breath, my limbs growing lax with the exertion to get to my friend in time.
Thank gods.
Mela shoved me angrily off her.
The fuck?!
I rose and paced the tunnel, slipping in and out of the yellow beam from the headlamp fixed to Mela’s night-vision goggles propped on her forehead, while I tried to smother the fury at what she’d gone and done.
Mela and I were used to hunting and being without comfort, so we’d kept our supplies minimal, enough food and water to last our time down here. Neither of us was up to talking much or over-sharing. She’d closed down after what had happened at the engagement blessing, and for me—besides hunting this creature for Sirro—I’d grieved the loss of my cousins and friends. But eventually every thought circled back to Nelle and what I was going to do. Every minute I didn’t have Yezekael was a minute away from her.
