Page 60 of Dragon Gods

He wanted to be home as much as she did, and he wasn’t the reason they were stuck out here dodging shapeshifters and faeries and discussing the merits of praying to dragons. The first thing he was going to do once they got back—after he threw her in the darkest cell in the prison—was take a hot bath and eat his body weight in anything other than rabbit.

At least they appeared to have finally made it to an area of the rainforest that actually had water. By midday, they had already stumbled on half a dozen other cenotes. Although none of them had been inhabited previously, two had been easy enough to climb down. Each time, they drank their fill of the water and rested in the coolness of the caverns.

The sun was low in the sky, sending long shadows through the trees when they came across another cenote, barely more than a thin crack in the earth. The only reason they found it was thanks to the echoing rush of water traveling up through the opening.

“We should go down,” Sofia said, leaning over the crack, a wind from somewhere below, making her curls sway.

“Are you kidding?” he said, legs straddling the thin opening. “We’ll find more water later.”

“The sun won’t be up for much longer and there is no guarantee we’ll be able to find water before then.”

“So you want to what? Cave dive and hope this widens at the bottom?”

“If anything, climbing down and back up is going to be easier than a wider cenote.”

“If we don’t get stuck.”

“I’m sure your muscles will fit,” she said, looking him up and down.

He smirked. “I knew you were ogling me.”

She only rolled her eyes. “I’m more worried about your big head getting stuck. “

His lips pinched, holding back a smile. But then he looked back at the opening she was suggesting they crawl into.

“I’m not going down there,” he said more firmly this time.

“Fine, have fun dying up here. I’ll pray to the dragon gods a jaguar gets you before you die of thirst or exposure.”

Her smile was predatory. Before he could find a retort, she was lowering herself down and disappearing between the open earth.

Her wild curls disappeared last, swallowed by the darkness, and his heart spiked. As if calling on the fear thrumming through his blood, the vines behind him shifted and moved under the footsteps ofsomething.

He couldn’t stay up here alone. He couldn’t go down there. He couldn’t breathe.

“Stop it,” he snapped at himself, taking a deep breath.Stupid. Weak. Useless. Child.

He let the voice in his head wash over him, pulling on it for motivation, even as it made his hands tremble.

“This is how I’m going to die,” he said as he slipped into the crack, ignoring how close the walls were on every side of him.

The journey down was longer than any other one they’d had, the earth pressed on either side of his body. He kept his face turned toward the widest part of the opening. But even still, he felt the earth against his back as he crawled down. It was convenient that at every minor slip, he had only to throw himself back to catch himself against the wall. The only sounds he heard were his shallow breaths and the steady rhythm of a stream growing louder and louder beneath him until it wrapped around him completely. His senses narrowed to only the feel of the wet, cool dirt and stone beneath his fingers, aware of every change in texture of the wall as he descended.

The earth never widened and then suddenly his feet were touching ground and the earth was still solid, wrapped around him.

The air caught in his lungs. The light from the sky above was gone, darkness surrounding him, choking him. The earth seemed to shift around him, tightening against his chest. His toes and his fingers were numb as he scrambled against the stone, trying to dig himself out. It was too dark. Too tight.

Ocon! Ocon!

His body was shaking and he pushed against the stone holding him down, trying his best to move it but he was too weak and the stone too heavy.

“Fox!”

He felt a hand on his shoulder, shaking him, and it was Sofia’s voice only a few inches from his ear.

“Take two steps to your left and duck down about a foot, the cave widens over here.”

Her voice was soft and slow, as if she were talking to a child. But he didn’t have the breath to berate her or argue. He listened, moving slowly, feet brushing against the ground as if to remind himself he was still standing. His shoulder hit stone and he flinched.

---