Page 81 of Diamond

Suddenly, I fall through, hitting my shoulder painfully. I feel around with my hands to find somewhere to stand on. There is a little hollowed-out space in the ground. It is tight so I can only barely stay crouched but it is better than the hole I just crawled through.

"Nasrin!"

The air here is thin, so I carefully continue to move back and forth, wiggling myself until I drop down. All the while trying not to expend too much energy.

A cloud of dust follows me, getting into my eyes and mouth, but I wave my hands in the air to disperse it.

Through the fog, I spot Nasrin's bright hair and her black-clothed hand stretched out in front of her. When I get closer, I notice that she is stuck under a pile of dark gray rocks. "Nasrin!" I call out as I move toward her as quickly as the tumultuous, rocky ground will let me.

"Kuret! I'm so glad you aren't hurt."

When I reach her, I notice that there is a gap in the ground, but I ignore it and get down on my knees to pull the rocks off her. She is not screaming anymore, but her face is shiny with wetness.

There's terror etched on her face.

"Are you hurt?" I ask her as I am moving the stones from her body, but her eyes are stuck to the crack in the ground below us. I look back again but it is mostly filled with stone. "Nasrin, youhave to tell me if you are hurt," I say again, and she finally looks up at me.

Her eyes are overflowing with water and her lips are quivering. She starts to speak in a language I don't know and I shake my head. "I don't understand."

There is a frantic look in her eyes as she stumbles over her unfamiliar words, but I try to stay calm for the two of us.

She winces painfully, clears her throat and sniffles. "Olivia is gone, Kuret. I lost her in the-the—" She begins another round of raucous sobbing.

I attempt to pull her to her feet, but she pulls herself away from me and toward the sinkhole. "She went in through there and I couldn't save her in time. It took her."

She is now pointing down toward the darkened hole but I still don't quite understand.

She is still speaking, but I cannot make out her words anymore as she babbles. I pull her away from it and to a safe enough corner so that I can calm her down. "I cannot understand you, Nasrin. Slow down and tell me again."

I am trying and failing to keep her on task, but she is terrified.

She shakes her head up and down and then begins to draw in deep breaths. She wipes her face again and I replace her hands with mine, both of them shaking as I hold her precious, delicate features.

This time, I don't stop myself or wonder if something is wrong between us because I became her… whatever the word is. Not a donor. I pull her close and holding her face cupped in one hand and press my lips onto her wet cheek.

Then I get myself back under control.

We need to leave, but she is resisting me, trying to move toward the hole to go deeper into the ground.

I can only hope that we don't run into more hunters with her like this.

When she has calmed down, she speaks clearer. "The other girl, Olivia. She was taken by something under there." She points down.

I am still confused. "Who is Olivia, who took her?" The question leaves my mouth, then the answer enters my head—it was the sleeping woman in thecryo chamber. The emerald-haired woman. "Did you see who did this?"

She shakes her head. "Not really, just some glimpses of light, but they said she was theirs. Like she was property. We need to save her."

I stand up and pull her up. "We will find her, but we can't stay here. It's too unstable."

She lets out a long breath, then moves her head to show agreement, the decision clearly causing her pain.

With a grunt and the pain of my injuries surging, I push her out of the hole. Then I scramble out of it, my movement causing the ground to shift and fill it part of the way back in.

We scramble away as the bushes start sinking, me holding her tight to me.

We're both shaking and I want to hold her close and move my hands all over her to check for wounds, but we need to find a better cover.

We head into the thickforestnearby.

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