Avow (39 page)

Heather’s eyes widened. “Werewolves are super scary.”

“I
know
.” Nate’s eyes widened as well.

Dear God. It was like traveling with six year-olds.

The sound rumbled again and Gabriel frowned. That hadn’t sounded like the wind…

The ground started to shake and the floor in front of them began to split open.

“Ooh,” Heather blinked. “I’m bouncing.”

Nate looked around. “Is this an earthquake?”

Gabriel started to back up, but the floor behind them was crumbling as well, falling into black oblivion just inches away from their feet.

Heather peered down into the nothingness below and whispered, “Wow.”

Gabriel grabbed her arm and pulled her away from the ledge. He guided her forward, hurrying to cross as much of the still-remaining cave floor as possible before the rest of the ground gave way beneath them.

They were almost to where the cracks in the floor were still small enough to jump across, when another rumble shook the walls and the last bits of earth that connected the plane the stood on to the other side of the tunnel fell to pieces.

The shaking came to a quiet standstill and Gabriel surveyed their situation. Behind them was an impossibly wide canyon of blackness, so turning back wasn’t an option. And in front of them was a canyon just as wide.

They were stranded on an island of shaky cave floor.

***************

Scarlet gasped for air as she struggled to swim above the current that had pulled at her once she’d hit the water. She was being sucked toward the center of the dark whirlpool and couldn’t swim her way out of the powerful vortex.

Tristan planted his feet in the waist-deep river water, tugging at the rope around her wrist, every muscle in his body rigid with exertion. Glancing back, Scarlet watched the tunnel they jumped from collapse in on itself, thrusting large rocks into the river. The water began to rise and thrash about with the incoming rocks.

Scarlet was pulled under the cold, dark water
and
the whirlpool
sucked
her closer
.
She was no match for the wild water and the current pressed down on her. The rope cut into her wrist as Tristan—wherever he was—pulled against it.

Her lungs started to burn as she paddled toward the surface. The current kept pushing her down, though, and the whirlpool whipped at her ankles.

She started to feel lightheaded when her wrist jolted a bit then, slowly, her body was pulled away from the whirlpool and to the top of the water.

She broke the surface and gulped in oxygen before Tristan dragged her further away from the spinning waters and fought against the current to hold her steady.

More rocks tumbled into the river and angry waves chopped up the water.

Scarlet started swimming for the tunnel ahead but was yanked under the water again by her wrist.

Tristan.

She pulled on the rope and followed its tension
to find Tristan
under the water
, pinned beneath a rock from the collapsing cave
by the river wall
. He strained to push it off, but the boulder wouldn’t move.

Scarlet dove down and tucked herself between the
river
wall and the rock, her back against the wall and both feet on the rock.

Squeezing her eyes, she and Tristan pushed against the rock together.

Nothing.

Tristan would not die. He would not die.

They pushed again. Her stomach muscles burned. Her legs burned. And her lungs were on fire.

The rock budged. It was just an inch or so, but it was enough for Tristan to shove out from under it. With their wrists still connected, they swam for the surface of the water.

Gasping for breath, they paddled to the other side of the tunnel where the cave was still intact. The current picked up behind them, racing toward the waterfall, and Scarlet and Tristan reached for the ledge, clawing their way onto the Bluestone floor.

They pulled themselves up and watched the avalanche behind them drown in the depths of the rushing river.

“I think this cave is trying to kill us.” Scarlet tried to catch her breath.

Tristan nodded. “I think you’re right.”

****************

Gabriel stared over the edge of the cave island they were stranded on and frowned at the infinite blackness below. At least twenty feet of cave floor was missing, so jumping to the other side wasn’t an option. And the tunnel they’d originally come through had caved in, effectively sealing them into the glowing blue cave.

Yeah.

This was a problem.

“Hmm,” Nate rubbed at his chin as he looked across the black canyon before them. “You know what this looks like?”

“A shortcut to Hell?” Gabriel offered, gently pulling back on Heather’s arm as she drifted toward the ledge.

“A chasm,” Nate said. “This looks like a
deep
chasm
.”

Gabriel rolled his eyes.

Nate tapped his chin. “Now, what could we use to cross this chasm? Gabriel, do you have anything that could help us in your backpack? No? Perhaps
I
have something that could be of service.” He shrugged out of his backpack and riffled through it until he held up his whip in glee.

“Well, look at that!” Nate grinned. “A whip. How incredibly helpful and convenient.
I’m so glad you brought a whip with you, Nate.
Why, thank you, Gabriel. I always try to be prepared.”

“You really think that little whip is going to get all three of us across this gap?”

“Across this
chasm
? Why, yes. Yes, I do. All we have to do is find something to latch it on to…” Nate looked up at the cave ceiling and frowned. “Okay, this might be more complicated than I thought.”

“I don’t think I want to trust our lives to a fake whip you bought at Comic Con.” Gabriel clasped his hand around Heather’s wrist as she drifted near the edge again.

Good God. The girl was going to give him a heart attack.

“Why does everyone assume I buy all my things at Comic Con? This is a
real
whip.”

Gabriel said, “Where did you buy it?”

Nate paused. “Comic Con.” He hurriedly added, “But Comic Con sells real whips. Oh! There we go.” He smiled as he caught sight of a potential anchor.

Unwinding the whip, he flicked it toward the anchor.

It slapped his wrist.

“Aw, man.” Nate tried again and the whip snapped against his leg.

Gabriel stared at him. “Does Comic Con provide whip lessons? Because that would be money well spent.”

Nate tried again.

Heather plopped on the ground and laid on her side, her cheek pressed against the hard earth as she drew small circles on the ground with her finger.

“Give it up, dude.” Gabriel walked to the ledge and looked over again. Maybe there was a way they could climb down and across?

Heather sat up and bit her thumbnail.

Nate snapped the whip at the ceiling again and this time it wound itself around the anchor and held steady.

“Ha!” he cheered. He looked at Gabriel. “That’s thrice now that you’ve mocked a Comic Con purchase of mine that ended up saving our lives.”

“What?”

Nate listed things off on his fingers. “My Zelda sword that saved your ass against the Ashman in the cabin. My Buffy the Vampire Slayer video game that taught me how to slay zombies in the graveyard the other night. And the Indiana Jones whip that will most assuredly get us across this chasm to safety.” He looked across the canyon to the dark blue tunnel ahead. “Or death. I’m not really sure what’s waiting for us over there. But, either way, this whip will get us there.”

Gabriel nodded. “You’re right. I’m sorry. Your toys are awesome.”

“So what should we do? Take turns?” Nate yanked on the whip to make sure it was secure.

“Sure.” Gabriel nodded. “You go first.”

“What? Why me?”

“Because Comic Con sells real whips…right?”

“Of course.” Nate shook out his arms and legs—weird—then leaned back with the whip with a deep breath. “Here goes nothing.”

He kicked off the ledge and swung himself across the abyss, sailing through the air.

And then back.

“You have to jump off.” Gabriel watched his friend swing back and forth in terror.

“I know, dude.” He swung back. “It’s just so high and scary.”

“Jump. Off.”

Nate jumped off and fell ungracefully to the ground. “
Whoo-hoo
! I totally didn’t die just now. Score.”

Gabriel caught the whip as it swung back and looked at Heather, who was drawing circles on the ground again.

“Your turn, Heather.”

“This is the worst hike ever,” she said, now rocking back and forth on the ground. “Scary witches and thorny vines and nobody sees the dragonflies and Nate’s saying words like
thrice
—”

“Hey, what’s wrong with the word thrice?” Nate said.

Gabriel held out the whip. “Come on.”

“I don’t think I can.” She scratched her neck. “I think I just want to sit here.”

“Yeah, that’s not a good idea. So why don’t you stand up and we can swing to the other side of this very unstable tunnel and you can sit there. Okay?”

“I can’t.” Her eyes darted around the cave. “I’m kind of freaking out.”

“About the whip?”

“I don’t know!” She bit her nails. “I’m just
freaking
out
.”

“Okay.” He nodded. “Do you trust me?”

“Yes.”

“I trust you too,” he said. “And I know you can do this. You’re Tomb Raider, remember? You’re tough.”

“I’m not tough.” She shook her head and kept chewing on her nails.

“Yes you are. You stab Ashmen with scissors and you take blows to the face and you kick ass in your imaginary pink boots. You’re tough and you can do this.”

Gabriel was desperate to change the expression on her face. She looked so…lost.

“Come on,” he said. “We’ll swing over together and then you can freak out all you want when we’re not standing on an island of doom, sound good?”

She stopped biting her nails and stood up, nodding as she walked to the whip. “I can do this.”

“Damn straight, you can.”

They both grabbed the whip and held on as Gabriel kicked off the ground and swung them across the chasm.

There was a cracking sound above and Gabriel looked up to see the stalactite anchor starting to break. They were almost to the other side when pieces of the anchor began to crumble and fall into the abyss.

“Jump!” Gabriel told Heather as the anchor broke off from the ceiling. Their momentum stopped, threatening to send them flying into infinite darkness, as Gabriel hurled his body—which was now wrapped around Heather—to the other side of the gap, landing on the hard ground with Heather beside him. The whip fell straight down into the black hole.

Gabriel stood and helped Heather stand as well. The three of them looked back at the half-destroyed cave and the chasm of death they’d barely escaped—using a
whip
, no less.

Gabriel shook his head.

His life was so weird.

***************

Scarlet bunched up the bottom of her tank top and twisted water from the material. Tristan had pulled his shirt off to wring it out—which was much more effective.

Guys had it so easy.

They had walked until they found a small alcove that was free of deadly vines, rushing rivers, and breaking walls, and decided to camp there for the night.

Tristan’s forearm muscles shifted beneath his skin as he wrung out his shirt. The sound of their dripping clothes echoed off the cave walls, but aside from that
it was silent and it felt like
they were in their own world.

It was a world of man-eating vines and falling rock—so not exactly paradise—but they weren’t sharing it with anyone else, which made it seem magical.

In a good way.

Not in a blue-water-evil-witch-curse way.

She caught him staring at the scratch marks on his arms and smiled. “Is it freaking you out to have scars on your body?”

“Not at all. I’m just not used to it. I’ve been injured plenty of times, but I’ve never had a wound mark me before.” He smiled. “I kind of like it.”

“Me too. It’s hot.”

“Oh yeah? Do I look tough?”

She shook her head. “You look mortal.”

His eyes held hers for a moment and wild hope burst inside her. If Tristan drank the fountain water, he would be mortal. And if Scarlet could somehow find a way around sacrificing herself, she could be mortal with him. And they could live a mortal life together and eat pancakes and live happily ever after.