She continued to shriek. “I got bit!” she cried.
“Oh, gods!” Kallie freaked over Oberi’s loud barks.
A fiery anger surged inside of me, and heat flared in my gut.Ava’s Fire, I realized. I could access it through the bond.
I didn’t think. I just acted.
The serpent snapped its jaws again, but I was faster. I lifted my hands and yanked at Ava’s magic. Fire blasted out of my fingers. The heat warmed my skin, so much that it was nearly unbearable.
The smell of burning flesh filled my nose, and a hellish shriek echoed down the tunnel. I didn’t know that serpents could scream, but this was no ordinary snake. Fire crackled over its skin, and it thrashed on the cave floor, its tail slapping into one side of the cave, then the other. The snake hissed one last time as it let out a breath and died, the smell of its burning flesh infecting the tunnels.
Ava whimpered beside me. “Charlie,” she said weakly. “The… venom.”
I turned to a statue. All hope had drained out of me. We were stuck in this shrinking tunnel— with no option to turn back, or we’d be crushed. In moments, the tunnel would be only inches wider than my body. We would die.
“We have to do something!” Kallie demanded. Though her voice came from beside me, it sounded distant as the floor rumbled beneath us.
“What do we do?” Marcus asked in that same distant tone.
It didn’t seem to matter now. Ava had been poisoned. Even if we escaped, the venom would work its way through her system in minutes. She’d be lost to me.
What the hell had I agreed to by coming down here?
Oberi grabbed my shirt in his teeth and yanked. I barely felt him. He placed his paws on my shoulder and shoved me.
“Charlie! Charlie!” Marcus tried to get my attention, but my head spun. I noticed the sides of the tunnel touch both of my shoulders, but it didn’t seem to matter.
My momentary lapse must’ve frustrated Oberi, because he growled, then bit my ear so hard it drew blood.
“Ow!” I cried, finally snapping out of it.
Listen to me, Charlie!a voice demanded firmly. I had no idea who said it, because it didn’t sound like Marcus or Kallie. I couldn’t even place it as male or female.
But the voice was firm and familiar. I’d only heard it once before, but that wasn’t what made me recognize it. It was the feeling behind it— like that voice had been speaking to me every day for months, and I’d never realized.
It wasOberi!
You need to snap out of it!he insisted.Ava’s in danger. We all are. Onlyyoucan get us out of here,and it’s not going to happen with you sitting on your pretty little ass like this is a fucking picnic.
Hell, he was right. If we had any chance, I had to get moving— and fast. Oberi nudged his nose into my chest, and I sprang to attention. My Earth magic surged, and I felt an opening in the tunnel up ahead, through a couple twisting hallways.
“We’re close to the exit!” I gasped.
I jumped to my feet. Ava tried to stand beside me, but she collapsed. I yanked her body to mine, and she wrapped her limp arms around me as I boosted up her legs.
“Let’s go.” I rushed forward as fast as I could. The Fire continued to scorch the serpent’s body. I used Ava’s Fire magic to calm the flames, and we sprinted over charred flesh. The snake’s bones crunched beneath my feet.
“Fuck, fuck,” Kallie breathed. “The tunnel’s going to crush us! We won’t make it!”
“We have to hurry up,” I growled. “The exit’s just ahead! I canfeelit!”
I kept on running, and Oberi barked to beacon everyone forward. The tunnel shrank so small that the fabric of my mining uniform ripped as I tried to barrel my way down the tunnel. I turned to the side, shuffling my feet as quickly as I could. It was a good thing Ava was so tiny, or I wouldn’t have been able to carry her down the narrow passage.
I held my breath. Up ahead, I felt the tunnel widen. But it seemed that the tunnel shrank another inch with every step I took. Debris from the ceiling peppered my face, and the floor shook even more violently beneath me. I wasn’t sure if we were going to make it.
Rishi grew frightened and began meowing loudly. “Ow!” Marcus cried. “He’s scratching me! I can barely hang on to him.”
“Just… a little… farther…” I broke out into the wide cave, but I was moving so fast that I tripped over my own feet. Ava and I tumbled to the ground.
