Down here at least we have a chance.
I straighten, ignoring the lingering stiffness. “We head down the tunnel. Stay close. Stay quiet.”
Sylvian nods. “And if anything looks bad, we run the fuck back here and get out. Between my earth magic, and Ashton’s magic fairy dust, we should be able to get ourselves out.”
“Okay, so into the creepy tunnel,” Alette whispers softly. “Which is somehow better than facing the cannibals.”
Oberon steps forward, his flame cutting through the darkness as we begin to descend deeper into the tunnel. The walls seem to close in as we go, the air growing colder, heavier. The sound of the storm fades behind us, replaced by something else… a low, constant rush.
Water.
It echoes through the stone, distant but unmistakable. I don’t like it. I don’t like any of this. But I keep moving anyway. Because whatever waits ahead, It’s still better than being hunted from behind.
17
Alette
The air isthick and wrong. Every breath tastes like damp earth and rot. The tunnel presses in on all sides, low and narrow, the walls slick when my head occasionally brushes a low spot. Oberon’s flame doesn’t push the darkness back. It just makes it move.
We’ve been down here too long.
My legs ache. My ribs protest every breath from the fall, a sharp reminder I try to ignore. I keep moving anyway. I don’t want to slow them down. I don’t want to think about what happens if I simply stop to rest and then can’t get back up again.
My mind keeps dragging me back to Lord Ferngull’s house. To the smiles. To the way they looked at us almost kindly. Yet, the whole time they planned to eat us.
A shudder rolls through my body.If not for that woman, that strange woman, I don’t know what would have happened to us. Maybe we would’ve escaped.
Maybe we wouldn’t have.
I swallow hard and force the thought away, but it doesn’t go far. It lingers, crawling under my skin.
The tunnel isn’t better. It’s just quieter and dryer than the surface.
I move closer to Sylvian without thinking. My arm brushes his, and he glances down at me, his expression softening. His fingers close lightly around my arm, his thumb brushing once in a quiet reassurance.
I cling to that more than I should.
We keep walking. There’s no end. No change. Just stone and dark and the soft, awful echo of our steps.
“We should go back,” Oberon says, his voice rough, edged with frustration. “Find where we fell. Climb out.”
“And walk straight into them?” Sylvian snaps. “No. There’s a way forward. There has to be.”
Their words bounce off the walls, louder than they should be, filling the tunnel.
I flinch, my gaze flicking into the darkness ahead, half-expecting something to answer. Anything.
They step closer, tension rising, the space between them tightening. I don’t know which is worse. The people above us. Or whatever might be down here.
Ashton moves between them, one hand raised. “Enough.”
The word hangs in the air, thin but final. Silence follows, heavy and listening.
I realize I’m holding my breath and let it out slowly.Please let this tunnel end. Please let there be a way out.
Ashton looks at Sylvian. “Do you think you could create a hole for us to climb out of here?”
Sylvian shakes his head, his expression strained. “I can’t be sure how much earth is above us. If I get it wrong, I could bring the entire tunnel crashing down.”
