That sounded ominous. Cora trailed her hand along the wall, keeping her eye on the small pinprick of light Bear was using. The limestone walls were rough under her fingertips, and the ground was uneven under her feet. The farther into the caves they walked, the darker it got, until all ambient light from the entrance was long gone, and they were engulfed in an inky blackness that felt eternal. The air felt dank and stale as a tomb, and Cora was grateful for Liam’s steady presence behind her. She told herself that all she had to do was turn around and follow the cave wall back outside into the sunlight, but the thought wasn’t very comforting. This place was like a maze, like nothing she’d ever experienced before. When she was a young girl, she’d gone on a trip to caves with her father, but that tourist attraction had been well lit, with tour guides leading the way. This cave system seemed infinite, and far more inhospitable.
Bear’s light stopped moving, and she slowed with her arm outstretched until she felt his massive back. Liam’s hand came to rest on her shoulder.
“We’re going to make a right turn in a minute,” Bear whispered. “You’ll need to step only where I step, because there’s about a ten-or twenty-foot drop on both sides.”
Cora gripped the back of Bear’s shirt, not caring whether he liked it or not. The idea of slipping into the gloom was worse than anything he might do. Bear started to move forward, and Cora reached back and grabbed for Liam until they were holding hands. When Bear veered to the right, Cora shuffle-stepped behind him, keeping her eye on the penlight like it was a lifeline. It was slow-going, and an icy breeze began to swirl around them, ruffling her hair and clothes. Even though Cora knew the displaced air was likely due to the fact that they were now walking across some kind of natural bridge with precarious drops on either side, it still felt eerie, like skeletal fingers reaching out to hold her back. She shivered, and suddenly lost her footing.
With a gasp, Cora yanked on Bear’s shirt but lost her grip. She stumbled and fell hard on her left knee. When she tried to gain balance with her right foot, it caught nothing but air. The realization that she was so close to the edge made her cry out.
Liam’s strong hand suddenly grabbed on to her arm like a steely vise. He yanked her up and she fell onto her left hip, gasping for breath.Safe.
Before Cora had a chance to process what was happening, she heard a scrape behind her, a muffled curse, and then...nothing.
“Liam!” she cried, reaching behind her. Nothing but uneven rock scraped across her palms. He was gone. “Liam! Where are you?”
Far below, she heard a grunt, and the sound of heavy breathing. “Here.”
“Oh, my God, Liam, are you hurt?”
She could hear a scraping sound like he was dragging himself across the ground. “I’m all right.”
Cora reached blindly for Bear. “We can’t leave him down there. We have to get him.”
“With what?” Bear scoffed. “Unless you’ve got a rope and grappling hooks in your pocket, lady, he’s staying where he is. We can come back for him later.”
“Are you out of your mind?”
“He’s on the bench,” Bear said. “Best he can do is take a nap and wait for us to get back.”
If it were bright enough to see, she’d have slapped him for sounding so blasé.
“Bear’s right,” Liam called from below. “We’re running out of time.”
“I don’t want to leave you,” she said as a lump formed in her throat.
“We gotta go,” Bear said. “Or we lose our chance to catch your captain. That’s why we came, ain’t it?”
“Go with him, Cora,” Liam told her. “I’m not hurt, and I’ll wait for you.”
Cora felt tears prick the corners of her eyes. Logically, she knew he was right, but she hated the idea of leaving him all alone in this place that felt like a catacomb. Like a place for the dead. “I’ll come back for you,” she said fiercely, swiping at a tear that escaped her eye.
“Be careful,” he said.
She felt Bear grip her wrist and slap her hand against his belt. Miserably, Cora curled her fingers into his belt as he began to move forward again. The darkness felt ominous, and a chasm of emptiness opened up inside her. With every footstep, Cora couldn’t shake the feeling that she was leaving a piece of her heart behind.
22
LIAM LAY PROPPED against the cave wall, breathing heavily. The fall had knocked the wind out of him. His backside felt bruised, but he’d broken no bones and sustained no internal injuries. As frustrated as he was to be sitting useless in the dark, it could’ve been much worse. It could’ve been Cora who’d taken the fall, so he was grateful she was all right.
He rolled a small rock in his hand, then threw it into the pitch dark with a heavy sigh. If there was one thing Liam hated to do, it was wait. He’d never been good at sitting still and doing nothing.“Bollocks.”
“Eloquent as ever,” an unimpressed voice said from the gloom.
Liam jolted upright. “Who’s there?”
A soft glow lit the cavern, and soon Samael and Agon appeared before him.
“Samael. Agon,” Liam said, leaning his head against the rock wall behind him. “Please tell me you haven’t come to take me back. I still have a wee bit of time, and you promised.”