“Maybe not everything right away,” he managed. “But hopefully before too long.”
Brody studied him with those impossibly wise eyes, then lowered his head to Noah’s shoulder.
Ahead, the torchlight illuminated Taran’s broad back. The litter he and Finn had carried Emily on when they started out lay discarded on the rocks. The newly fallen debris had made it too bulky and difficult to maneuver.
Taran cradled Emily in the protective curve of his arms, his shoulders hunched forward to shield her from the falling dirt and debris.
Holding the torch high, Finn moved several paces ahead of Taran, moving loose stones aside to clear the worst of the rubble. His shirt was torn across one shoulder where a falling rock had caught him. A dark line of blood traced down his arm, but he continued to move with relentless determination.
Another tremor, deeper this time, shuddered through the tunnel. Small shards of stone fell from a fresh crack in the ceiling. Noah instinctively dipped his head over Brody’s as he pulled Paige closer, but he couldn’t resist a glance back at Skye.
Austin’s voice cut through the gloom, sharp and venomous. “This is intolerable! Being stuck in this deathtrap is your doing, Skye. I should never have coddled you and allowed such an outrageous bargain in the first place. Believe me, it’s a mistake I will not repeat.”
Noah clenched his jaw so hard pain lanced through his temples. Every instinct screamed at him to turn around and rescue the woman he loved. But Taran’s whispered words in the deep cells held him back.
Trust her strength. She’s buying us the precious time Emily needs. Dinnae waste her sacrifice.
Forcing himself to keep moving, Noah took Paige’s arm and pressed on, recoiling when a deep, percussive boom from somewhere behind them shook the tunnel so violently they all struggled to stay on their feet. Brody cried out, clinging to him as Paige stumbled to the rock-littered floor.
Looking back, Noah saw that a section of ceiling the size of a wagon had fallen to the floor not thirty paces behind them, sending a wall of choking dust rolling toward them like a grey wave.
Ahead, Taran hunched lower over Emily, turning his back to the blast of dust. Noah gripped Brody tighter, helped Paige up and tucked her tight against his side as the cloud engulfed them. For several seconds he couldn’t see, couldn’t breathe, could only feel the grit scoring his eyes and the boy’s fingers digging into his neck and shoulders.
Noah strained to hear Skye’s voice but could only hear a chorus of coughing behind him.
“Ceiling collapse!” Finn bellowed from ahead. “Move faster!”
They pushed on, still coughing, stumbling, fighting their way forward through air thick enough to chew as the sound of more collapsing stone echoed around them.
After the worst of the dust settled, Noah glanced back. The passage behind them no longer existed. Tons of stone and earth sealed off the space where they’d been just moments ago.
Everyone stared, momentarily frozen. Two of the guards whispered urgently to each other, their voices tight with terror.
“Silence!” Austin snarled, but the authority in his voice had weakened. His eyes darted from the wreckage to the widening fissures in the ceiling above, and Noah saw something he’d never seen on Austin’s face before.
Fear. Genuine, unvarnished fear.
“Dinnae stand there,” Taran yelled. “Move!”
Battered and bruised,and after what seemed like hours of tremors, falling rock and choking dust, they finally made the last turn and reached the spot Austin had indicated the portal should be.
Noah’s stomach dropped.
Still nothing but solid stone, indistinguishable from every other section of wall they’d passed. No shimmer, no light, no ripple in the air he was told to expect. Just cold, dead, immovable rock.
“Mayhap ’twill be a wee bit safer here, against the portal wall,” Taran said to Paige, indicating the slight overhang of natural stone. “If ’tis a portal at all,” he added, glancing at Austin.
Once she’d settled with her back to the wall, Noah knelt and carefully laid Brody in her lap. He curled into her immediately, pressing his face to her shoulder. Paige pulled him tight, moving her lips against his hair in words too soft to hear.
“Rest while ye can, Love,” Taran told her, his voice impossibly gentle given the surrounding carnage. “And whatever happens, dinnae let go of the lad.”
Noah moved to Taran’s side. His sister’s face looked ghostly beneath a film of dust, her lips faintly blue in the dim light andher breath so shallow he was tempted to place his hand beneath her nose to confirm it existed at all.
“Let me take her,” he offered. “Give your arms and back a rest.”
“Nae.” Taran’s voice brooked no argument, though his arms must have been screaming. “She stays wi’ me.”
Finn appeared at Noah’s shoulder. “I’d like to take a turn, if you’ll allow it.”
