Pressing the off button, I turn sharply and start racing back to the cavern.
The woman and her two kids chase after me, yelling something at my backside. Their arms are flailing in midair and their faces are red with anger as they point at the cellphone I still have gripped between my fingers.
“Shit, I’m so sorry,” I say, stepping toward the woman handing it back to her. “Rahatsızlıktan dolayı özür dileriz. Hadi bakalım.”
She snatches the cellphone back and skins me alive with a look before throwing her arms around her kids and rushing away. They speak frantically in Turkish—clearly pissed.
“I said I was sorry,” I call out after her.
Well, that’s me scarring her and her kids for life. Way to go, Diana. They’re never gonna help another poor soul like me again.
Taking a deep breath, I butt the palm of my hand to my forehead and turn back to the cave.
Where in the hell would he be? Better yet, how the hell am I gonna find him?
The tourist groupings have dwindled to only a small handful of people as the sun continues to set. Without the ability to reach out and find Blake with my abilities—I’m truly lost. We only have a few hours before the girls are moved and I don’t even know if Blake managed to get in touch with Interpol.
What if he hasn’t? Holy crap, could this seriously get any worse?
How am I meant to split my allegiances between saving the girls and finding Blake? Hell, for all I know, he needs saving too.
I am so in over my head.
I curse myself again for not having a backup plan with Blake in case we get separated.
Christ, you’d think after all this time I wouldn’t be so dense.
On the verge of hyperventilating, I hunch over, trying to slow my breathing. My fingertips dig into my scalp as I wrack my brain.
There has to be a way to find him.
A young man’s voice filters into my awareness as he says, “Yeah, Mom. We’re on our way back to the hotel. Seriously, you should have come out this way. You would have loved it. The Temple of Apollo is amazing. Plus, we hiked to this cave by the site—”
I stand up, suddenly revitalized.
Of course—I’m Diana freakin’ Hawthorne. I’m Apollo’s Oracle—or so I’ve recently come to understand—and even if I can’t get a read on Blake, I can get a read on everyone else.
My eyes flit to the young man just a few feet away. Reaching out with my abilities, I search his recent memory for any signs of Blake to see if he may have seen what happened. I might not get a full idea, but perhaps snippets the way I was able to with Aiden. Unfortunately, it’s all clouded with make-out sessions with the redhead he’s standing next to.
Immediately, I turn to the next person—an older gentleman with a broad, worn smile and kind eyes. He’s been here a while, but unfortunately, his eyesight isn’t very good, and he spend the majority of his time listening to his tour guide who’s been urging his group to start heading back to the tour bus.
The tour guide hasn’t seen anything unusual—she’s been too hell bent on rounding up the stragglers, so she can meet up with her boyfriend for a romantic dinner in town.
I switch from person to person, hunting for the information I’m looking for—but no one, not a single person witnessed anything about Blake I can use. Unless of course, I’m being completely blocked.
“Dammit,” I whisper under my breath. “Okay, okay… there has to be something I’m missing. Or someone.”
Trekking the last bit up to the cave’s opening, I walk inside and have a look around. A man and woman with one small child are all that remains inside. I take a seat on one of the stones resting at the entrance and close my eyes, allowing my senses to reach out and find their way to the man first.
He’s enthralled with the geological formation and the way the cavern was created. Clearly someone with far less imagination than the others I’ve surveyed, as he doesn’t overly care about the sociology or history. His wife stands by his side, nodding her head and holding the young child’s hand. She acts engaged with whatever the man’s saying about the rock—but her mind is back at the hotel as she longs for a bath and a glass of wine—alone. She’s been the one chasing the three-year-old all day and all she wants in this whole wide world is for a few minutes to herself.
Releasing a sigh, I open my eyes and bite my lip.
Nothing. Not a damn thing.
How is this even possible? How can a grown ass man just disappear?
I roll my eyes. He could have been thinking the same thing about me. I wandered off into the—
No… he wouldn’t have gone deeper into the cave without knowing where I was. Would he?
Suddenly, I get flashes of a police car and a puppy—the name Chase comes to mind. It switches to a disjointed image of a mask and a cartoon-like cops and robbers imagery, but still with dogs. Something like Papatroll comes to the forefront but I have no idea what the hell that means.
I sit up straighter, trying to find the source of where the images are coming from. My eyes rest on the little boy whose eyes are trained on the dark abyss leading deeper into the cavern. It’s freaking him right out.
The images change again to a brightly colored water gun pointed at the middle of a man’s back. It switches to a man, with arms raised like the cops and robbers imagery as he gets edged toward the back of the cavern.
The little boy shudders, remembering…
“And just what do you think you’re doing here?” the man with the gun says. “Make a scene and you’re dead. Start walkin’— you’re comin’
