Rise of Fire (Reign of Shadows #2)(3)

It was a nest, a vast stretch of earth with holes that imprisoned humans.

“Fowler?” I whisper-shouted over the pitiable sobs and pleas for help. Swallowing, I took on more volume. “Fowler! Are you in here?”

His response was almost immediate, alongside the cries of others, answering me, begging for their release. “Luna! What are you doing here?”

Elation burst inside me, sweeping over me and making me almost limp. “Fowler!” I started to step forward, but his sharp warning stopped me.

“Careful, Luna. You’ll fall in. Drop to your knees and crawl.”

Lowering to my knees, I started forward, patting the ground ahead of me. It didn’t take me long to figure out why I should crawl. The ground broke off into a pattern of holes. I crawled between them. Sticky residue was everywhere. I practically had to peel my palms off the narrow stretches of ground between holes.

Other people pleaded with me, calling for my help, but I kept an even line to where Fowler was lodged. His voice was a steady wind of encouragement that I followed until I reached him. My hand landed on his shoulder.

“Fowler . . . are you hurt?” I skimmed the curve of his shoulder, quickly understanding that he was wedged deep in the hole, his arms trapped. This must be why none of them were moving.

“Luna, you have to go.” Panic sharpened his voice. “You don’t have long. Get out of here before they come back—”

“I’m not leaving you. I’m here. Now help me get you out.” My hands roamed, trying to find some leverage to pull him out.

“I’m stuck tight and this sticky mess everywhere isn’t helping. It’s like one giant spider’s web.”

“Then I’ll cut you out,” I declared.

“What do you—” His words died abruptly as I used my knife and started hacking at the edge of the hole trapping him. I worked hard, panting as I cut and clawed the crumbling ground away from him with my fingers.

“Luna, there’s no time.”

I shook my head, pelting mud-soaked strands against my cheeks. I’d come this far. I wasn’t leaving without him.

He released a grunt of frustration and then started struggling, apparently grasping the fact that I wasn’t giving up and he might as well try to break loose.

My arms burned as I hacked at the ground. He jerked inside the hole, wiggling his upper body as I widened the opening a fraction at a time.

“It’s not . . .” Whatever he was about to say was lost as one of his arms suddenly broke free. He flung his body to the side and squeezed the other one out. I grabbed his shirt and helped haul him out, although now that both his arms were free he managed most of it on his own.

The others came alert and called out, their voices ringing around us, begging for help.

Fowler grabbed my hand and tugged me to crawl after him, ignoring them.

“Fowler,” I began, listening to the sound of a woman near him, crying and begging for us to save her. “We need to help—”

“There’s no time, Luna.” His fingers tightened on my hand as if he feared I would slip free.

I turned my head, facing the direction of her sobbing pleas.

“Please, please help me, too. Don’t leave me here. Don’t leave me here to die!”

I pulled against Fowler’s hand.

“Luna!” he growled, turning his body to snatch me by the shoulders. “We have to go! They’re lost. Most of them are covered in toxin, and it’s nearly midlight!”

For once in my life, midlight signaled the end of safety. Not the dawn of it. The irony wasn’t lost on me.

I shook my head, but then everything started shaking. The very ground we crawled over vibrated. The underworld cavern trembled and shuddered, great clumps of earth falling from the ceiling.

“Dwellers,” he growled over the buzz of their return, as though I didn’t know. As though the rot of them wasn’t choking. “They’re coming.”

This time I didn’t resist as he pulled me after him.

A woman screamed, her cry of despair bouncing inside my head as we crawled over the nest and ran. My chest constricted, aching at the cries of the others we left behind, certain they would haunt me forever.

We ducked into the tunnel that I took to get to the nest. The earth still trembled as we ran down the tunnel, wet chunks of dirt showering all around us. I felt the telltale draft and knew we had come to the crossroads. Fowler started to pull right, but I stopped him, tugging him hard to the left. “This way!”

This time I led the way, clasping hard to his hand, relying on my memory.

“Not much farther,” I tossed over my shoulder, backtracking the way I had come. “We’re almost there.” I could smell the brackish water running softly down the chute that spat me out no so very long ago.

The rumbling intensified. More mud fell, showering us in thick clumps. Except it wasn’t just mud this time. Dwellers. Entire bodies emerged like infants pushing their way into the world. Their world. We were the interlopers in it. Never did I feel that more keenly.

“There are too many of them,” I murmured past numb lips, a calm settling over me as I tilted my face to the deluge of sludge and dwellers.

“No! This way.” Fowler jerked me into another tunnel, his strong fingers clenched hard around mine. He didn’t even care if we were going in the wrong direction. The goal was escape. Desperation drove him and his fear. The emotions filled my nose like burning feathers on the air.