He grins, but the nerves are back. “Okay. We have to crawl back over there when the worm is as far away as it can be. Then,we need to position ourselves in the middle of the hole. When I say ‘go’, hold on tight. Don’t let go. No matter what happens, don’t scream. If the air goes thin, just breathe slowly.”
I nod, trying to steady my own breathing.
We crawl back toward the main tunnel, moving slowly, making no noise. It takes us a while to retrace our steps, but eventually we find the ruins of the house once more. The worm is gone for now, hopefully hunting farther down the tunnel. The shaft of light above us is smaller than I remembered, and further away than I thought possible.
Ashton stands, dusts his hands, and faces me. “Ready?”
“No,” I say, my sword shrinking in my hand before I put the dagger away. “But do it anyway.”
He grabs my waist, pulls me against him, and moves his hand. Instantly, the air changes. It gets colder, sharper, but also lighter. For a second my feet feel hollow, like the floor isn’t there, and then I realize we’re not standing anymore.
We’re floating.
Like garbage caught in a tornado. The force jerks us up, up, until we’re spinning so fast I nearly bite through my tongue. Ashton is holding me so tight with his one hand I can feel the shape of every one of his ribs.
We shoot up the shaft, the floor getting further and further away. I want to scream, but I remember his warning and keep my mouth clamped shut.
Halfway up, the wind stutters. We drop, hard, my stomach flipping. Ashton’s arms slip, and for one awful moment I’m weightless and alone. Then he grabs my ankle, and the wind surges back, slamming us upward as I dangle beneath him.
We’re less than ten feet from the surface. I can actually see the sky and a little of the hedges!
Which is when the worm comes back…
It bursts from the dirt below, jaws open, feelers lashing. The sound is a shriek, but so deep and loud it shakes the world. Ashton yells, “Hold on!” and twists us sideways, the wind spinning us in a corkscrew as I hang beneath him.
The worm is closer now. I see its rows of teeth, the glisten of spit and old blood. Its body smashes the shaft, showering us in dirt and rocks.
But it doesn’t stop.
The worm twists, impossibly fast for something so massive, its body slamming against the walls as it forces itself upward after us. The tunnel groans, stone cracking, dirt collapsing inward as it drives forward, relentless. Its feelers lash through the air, snapping wildly, searching. Hunting.
One of them whips past my face so close I feel the sting of it against my skin. Another curls around my arm, yanking me down?—
I scream.
The sound rips out of me before I can stop it, sharp and terrified and loud enough to echo through the entire shaft.
The worm freezes for half a second.
Then itlocks onto me.
Every feeler snaps in our direction at once. Its entire body surges upward with terrifying force, faster now, driven by that sound. The shriek that tears from it is deafening, vibrating through my bones, through Ashton, through the air itself.
“Alette!” Ashton roars, tightening his grip, but it’s too late. The worm knows exactly where we are now.
Its jaws snap shut just beneath us, so close I feel the rush of air as its teeth collide. The impact cracks like thunder. Dirt explodes upward, rocks pelting my back, my arms, my face.
The wind falters again.
We drop.
Just for a second, but it’s enough.
The worm surges, mouth opening again, wider this time, its barbed feelers spreading like a net. One hooks into Ashton’s shirt, yanking hard enough to nearly tear me from his grip.
“No!” I gasp, clawing at him as I slip.
He growls, feral and furious, and the wind slams back into us with violent force. The feeler tears free with a sickening rip of fabric, and we rocket upward again, spinning wildly out of reach.
