“I have a question.” I raised a finger. “How are we going to move all of this?”
“We leave it and return with a new crew,” Brie said.
I threw her a skeptical look. “Like I’d trust you not to return on your own and steal it.”
“You are welcome to stay and guard it.” She sneered, baring her fractured smile.
“Your tooth is still broken.”
Her mouth clamped tight.
A loud crash of stone reverberated in the cavern, sending a shock through me, and a surge of muddy water erupted from multiple directions overhead. Rocks and sharp stalactites showered us and as a stone graced my shoulder I cried out and stumbled backward.
“Find cover,” Andrew shouted.
“Adriana, move.” Brandon yanked on my arm and pulled me to safety in the passage they’d come from, just as several chucks of the ceiling fell. William and Brie rushed to us too.
Andrew yelled again, but over the roaring chaos, Brie shrieking, and blood pounding in my ears, I couldn’t hear what he’d said. Richard scrambled up onto a slithery rock, losing the emerald tiara in the process, and Andrew grabbed his hand and helped him out of the pool. They pressed their backs into the wall opposite us, near where Brie and I had entered the cavern earlier, shielding their heads with their arms.
Another crack thundered and an enormous ceiling slab caved and plummeted onto the chests. Daylight split the darkness. My eyes connected with Andrew’s, and I saw fear in them for the first time. Hairs rippled down my back. What if it was about to entirely cave in and bury us all?
ChapterThirty-Two
The water levels rose at a rapid speed. Andrew yelled something to Richard and jerked his head indicating they had to move. A whirlpool developed near the hole Brie and I had crawled out of and into the cavern. That wasn’t good. If Andrew got sucked in, he would either drown or die when the flow spat him into the ravine at the other end.
Andrew and Richard edged in our direction, water beating down on their bodies. Andrew slipped, losing his hat, but he held on to the wall. When they neared the passage, I leaned out, throwing my arm to Andrew. William held on to my belt.
“Grab on, Andy.” Brie also stuck out her hand while holding on to Brandon.
Ignoring her, Andrew grasped my outstretched arm, and I pulled him to safety. He brought me to him, and I shivered in his embrace. He cocooned me in his warmth, sheltering me from the devastation we’d most likely caused. Andrew kept whispering everything would be okay. I wanted to believe him.
The ground shook again, and the corridor crumbled several yards from us, blocking the passage. We were trapped wet rats.
“How do we get out of here?” I cried.
“That’s our way out,” Andrew shouted over the noise, pointing at a hole in the cavern ceiling where a fallen tree was sprawled across, the ends of four thick hanging vines swaying and writhing like snakes in chaotic waters.
The cold drops hit my head and face. I looked up to discover a large crack over our heads. We had to move.
I wiped my damped face with my arm. “What about William’s foot?”
“I’ll be fine,” William said.
We’d have to climb up fifty feet to reach the opening. Fragility and hunger drained my adrenaline. I touched my aching shoulder. “I don’t think I can do it. My arm is too weak.”
Andrew’s eyebrows pinched, and his eyes searched the space. He glanced at my brother and then at Brandon and Richard. “Take off your belts.” He began unbuckling his own. “You too, Adriana.”
Andrew took the belt out of his pants and secured it tight around his waist, then he collected our belts. Looping the first belt over his, he fastened it to the next one, then tied them in one knot to ensure they stayed together. He repeated the steps with the others.
“Raise your arms,” Andrew told me, then circled the end of the assembled strap around my chest. “It will hurt, but I’ll haul you up this way.”
The water level was thigh-high now, and treading through the rotating flow would take some strength which I didn’t have.
Gold glimmered in the turbulent water. Here. There. Then, more and more, the pieces of treasure bubbled up. Dickhead jumped into the water and began snatching coins.
“Leave it. It isn’t worth it,” Andrew yelled, waving his hand.
Richard lost his footing. He tried to get up just to fall again. I watched in horror as an undertow dragged his body toward the dangerous vortex, his arms flapping in all directions, searching for something to grasp. At the last moment, he caught a stalagmite and held on to it, sheer panic on his face.
