strange rock formation. Only as Elina looked closer, she could see it wasn’t rock at all. It was a pile of white… bones. A huge stack of bones piled high against the side of the cavern.
“Are those what I think they are?”
But Jack had fallen quiet.
“Jack?” she said again. “Please tell me those aren’t human—”
“We need to get moving,” Jack said as he ignited another flare. “I think I know the way.”
Jack pointed in the direction opposite the pile of bones and moved quickly across the uneven floor. Elina hurried to keep up but could feel a presence somewhere off in the darkness. Some kind of impending menace, like an enormous shadow preparing to swoop down and swallow them.
After a moment Jack stopped, tilting his head.
“What is it?” Elina said.
At first the only sounds she could hear were her own breathing and the hiss of the flare. Then soon she heard something else. The eerie tapping sound she’d come to dread. But this time it was different. This time it sounded like more than one.
A lot more.
“Jack…”
But Jack grabbed her hand.
He led her on a zigzag route across the cavern. The flare crackled and sputtered and Elina thought she could see shadows scurrying along the ground just outside the ring of light. Jack pulled her behind him until they finally reached the other side. A black wall of rock loomed up in front of them. Jack looked like he was searching for something.
Maybe another tunnel. Hopefully the way out.
Something skittered along the rocks behind her and she screamed. A black shape raced toward her out of the darkness. It was a miniature version of the giant kirac, only the size of a dog. But it was faster and seemed far more aggressive.
Jack charged the creature, flare held out in front of him. He swung his leg and booted the beast back into the darkness. Then he turned and yanked her arm. “This way!”
They moved along the wall until they came to another opening. A passage leading up at an angle. Jack tossed the flare behind them and boosted Elina into the tunnel.
The flare landed a few yards away, where it illuminated a horde of the spider creatures—of all sizes— scurrying toward them.
Jack pumped his shotgun and blasted the closest one, flipping it backward into the pack. The others immediately converged on the wounded creature, tearing it to pieces. One of the bigger creatures launched itself toward them. Jack raised the shotgun and fired point-blank, blasting a hole right through it. It bounced off Jack, knocking him down, and landed on the ground, twitching in front of him.
Jack scrambled to his feet, covered in yellow guts, and pulled himself up into the tunnel. “Go, go, go!”
Elina turned and climbed up the angled passage, scraping her hands and cracking her head against the jagged walls.
“I can’t see where I’m going!”
Jack lit a flare and handed it to her. “Last one,” he said. “Now go—hurry!”
Elina held the crackling flare in one hand and climbed as fast as she could up the tunnel. Water trickled down past her and she had to keep the flare from getting wet. At length the passage widened out and came to a dead end.
She crouched in the space and turned around. “What now?”
Jack was clawing his way up just a few yards behind her. “Up. Climb straight up.”
Elina could see a small opening above her, perhaps into another passage. Water was streaming down through it. She stood and tried to find a foothold but couldn’t reach the opening.
In moments Jack had joined her in the cramped space. He took the flare and boosted her into the opening. Elina scrambled up and found herself in a wide, low passage, worn smooth by a constant flow of water. She could feel it angling the other way, sloping down into complete darkness.
Jack struggled to climb into the passage. “Pull me up!”
Elina reached down through the opening and clutched his arm. Suddenly she saw something moving in the passage behind him. One of the spiders, a big one, was coming up fast.
“Jack!”
“I know!”
He turned, pointed the shotgun down the tunnel, and pulled the trigger.
He pumped and tried again but was clearly out of ammo. He jammed the gun diagonally into the passage, wedging it tight between the walls just as the kirac slammed into it, hissing and growling. Elina could see its fangs twitching. Its forelegs reached through and clawed at Jack’s feet, but the gun held fast.
Behind it, Elina saw movement. More were coming.
Jack turned and jumped for Elina’s hand. She caught hold and pulled while he scrambled up. “Don’t let go!”
Elina pulled his arms and shoulders into the passage.
“Pull me up!” Jack said frantically. “Pull me up!”
Elina strained, her muscles burning. She leaned back into the tunnel as Jack clawed at the rocks, trying desperately to pull himself up. She could feel her hands slipping.
Jack shook his head, his eyes wide in terror. “Don’t let go!”
Elina pulled with all her strength. But his hands slipped through her grasp and her momentum sent her sliding backward down the passage into the darkness.
Chapter 45
Elina slid through total darkness, clawing at the sides of the tunnel but unable to stop. She slid down the passage until she felt herself falling through empty space and plunging into icy waters. She surfaced, gasping for air, and felt a current pulling her along, swirling and spinning until at last she felt solid ground again under her feet.
A rush of terror swept over her. She was lost in complete darkness, and now she was utterly alone.
And Jack was probably dead as well. He had risked his life to save her, but she hadn’t been able to save him. Elina couldn’t hold back her tears.
Then, above the sound of the waterfall, she thought she heard another sound.
It was soft but grew steadily louder until she finally recognized it. It was Jack’s voice. She heard him emerge from the tunnel above her and splash down into the water.
Her hopes rose. “Jack!”
“Elina?” he called back.
She laughed as relief washed over her. They called out to each other in the pitch-blackness until at last she felt his hands. She threw her arms around him and hugged him tighter than she had ever hugged anyone in her life.
He was laughing. “I know where we are. There’s an underwater passage here that leads outside. All we have to do is wait until daylight.”
With Jack leading, they found the shoreline and collapsed on the soft, pebbled ground, flooded with relief.
Elina lay on her back, exhausted.
Jack woke up to a dim gray light filtering into the cave. His head was still buzzing from the horrors he’d seen back in the tunnels. And yet his chest ached at the thought of losing the amulet in the pit. He wondered what the
