Page 112 of The Girl in the Forest

The tunnel floor vibrated beneath the stony collisions.

“Move,” I shouted at Cybelle. More rocks fell, then a sliding rush as the cave ceiling collapsed, kicking up clouds of black grit. The closest wolf flattened—but his shadow oozed outward, then up the wall as if still seeking a way through.

What in the bright hell was I fighting?

Not normal wolves. I pulled as much energy as I could and kept it flowing. The tunnel filled with choking gray dust. Chunks of rock shot out like shrapnel. The pinging echoed off the stone walls, the ceiling. Shards cut across my face while my heart pumped, fueled by the fear that it wasn’t enough energy—or too much—and I’d be consumed the way Njal had. Either ripped apart by hybrids or crushed beneath the falling rubble.

But I was not consumed because Brin stood beside me. Her hands were outstretched, like mine. She’d been watching me, studying. Learning, and I was grateful for her help because I felt like I’d been underwater and was slowly returning to the surface.

Muffled sound became a dull thunder. Flashlights flicked through the swirling dust. Brin darted forward to snatch my backpack before the rocks buried it—I hadn’t thought about needing what was inside. My equilibrium was off. I stumbled. There was only one direction to go since I’d blocked the way back.

“Kaz!” Cybelle had her hand on Kazamir’s shoulder, jerking him around. “He’s gone.”

Kazamir bared his fangs.

Her expression softened. “I’m sorry,” she said.

I shivered when the vampire glared at me.

“Listen to me,” Cybelle snapped at Kazamir. “She had no choice. If she hadn’t stopped those hybrids, we’d all be dead.”

“He had a chance.”

“They were hybrids, Kaz.”

Brin was shivering with her arms wrapped around my backpack. I pried it from her, gently. Slid the straps over my shoulders. “Thank you.”

“She’s still after us,” she said. “That Amal lady. She doesn’t just want you. She knows about me, too.”

“But we fought her off,” I said. “We stopped her wolves.”

Brin still stared at the mess we’d made together. “Who would have thought wolves turned into shadows?”

“I just wanted to stop them.”

“We were lucky, then.”

“Or brilliantly smart.”

Brin huffed a dry laugh. Her resilience was creeping back. She picked up the flashlight, shook it, and played with the switch. “These batteries are running down.”

“We need to move.” Cybelle took the lead, and as I followed, I thought about Njal, knowing these tunnels because he’d spent months in them running security checks.

I thought about batteries running down. Trying to get through a maze of tunnels in the dark. Needing a map in the backpack I’d almost left behind.

I searched for the bow and quiver of arrows. Found them by the rock just as the weak glow moved on from Brin’s wobbling flashlight. But having the weapon in my hand was not comforting. I remembered being in another dark cave with a bow in my hand, and either I was overreacting now, or my overused faille senses were mis-firing, because Amal’s warning was everywhere. In the shadows. The wolves. A warning that said, I see you. I can find you. I can destroy you. It’s only a matter of time.

My skin dampened and grew icy.

CHAPTER 34

Noa

I found it funny, how the dark played tricks with human senses. Amplifying every sound. Teasing my imagination. I strained to identify each noise. Place it in terms of how close, to which side, natural or unnatural.

A soft grunt came from behind—probably Julien—but the duck-waddle thud of a kicked rock was ahead and to my left, which meant Levi was stumbling.

The slosh of water in a bottle meant Brin. She was ahead of me but behind Levi. Laura could be tracked through her breathing. Cybelle and Kazamir were too silent to know for sure where they were. I took their positions on trust.

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