Page 52 of Alpha Exile

"Do you feel that?"

Brows drawing together, Kieran looks around us—and pauses, as he realizes what I just did.

"The ground is shaking." A piece of stone dislodges itself from the ceiling above us, and Kieran jumps back, grabbing me and jerking me away. "Run!"

We both turn around, spotting Lance, Bastian, and Finn in the distance, lit by the single flashlight beam. They're further away than I realized—in our mad dash to get to Roarke, Kieran and I ran flat out. The ground that carried us down now fights against us, slanting sharply uphill. We have to run to match our previous pace.

As we do, I feel the earth rumble behind us, and hear several alarming crashes and bangs as the ceiling of the caverns dislodges itself.

A rock hits the back of my head, making me inhale sharply and nearly fall forward.

I lose my concentration, and the flame of light in my palm goes out. Everything around me is trembling, and the only thing I can make out in the darkness is a distant circle of light from the flashlight.

Kieran grabs my arms, pulling me up and jerking me out of the wall as the ceiling behind me collapses. We race towards the others as they run towards us, making it just in time to get back beneath the steadier section of tunnel and wait out the shakes behind us.

I stare straight ahead, watching the glow of blue light on the tunnel walls slowly wink out.

By the time things have calmed down, and I turn back around with my palm full of flame in one hand, the way to the pool is blocked off completely.

My heart twists, and I grit my teeth. "I'll blast through it, then."

"No." Lance grabs my arms and jerks me back, shaking his head. "Destroying any further stone will make everything unstable. For all we know, the blasts we set off earlier are why this cave-in happened in the first place."

Looking up into his eyes, I blink tears away. He understands instantly, and gathers me close against his chest, letting me loose a bit of my sadness against him.

When I'm done, I pull back, stare at the cave-in, and reluctantly realize that he's right.

"We'll come back," I tell them all, making plans in my head, thinking of the new possible spells in the books we found, of the technology that built this place from the start and may be able to build it again. "Wherever he is, we'll find him. I'm not going to give up."

Lance nods sharply. "None of us are."

As we make our way back through the tunnels, though, I can't help but feel that some part of me is a traitor.

I'm leaving my lover behind in the darkness.

No promise in this world will ever change that.

Twenty-Two

Kieran

We fight on, determined to find another way in.

After a meal over a campfire and a brief check-in with Cat, Kerry, and Niall—all is well in town, and Kerry came to pick up the spell books, promising to study them and bring them back—the first thing Delilah wanted to do was look for another way in.

Which is exactly what we're doing now.

Shifting into our wolf forms and scouting ahead in either direction, we circle the base of the mountain, running up and down its jagged edges and scenting the air for the smell of the caves. More than once, I catch a damp scent trail on the tip of my nose, and follow it towards some cave or another that's only large enough for a pigmy goat to fit through. I search the rough, pebbled ground for the scent of Roarke and despair at finding nothing.

He may not even be close to the center of the caverns anymore. With Delphine controlling him and that foreign spirit taking over his body, he could be anywhere. By the time we reach his last known location, there may not even be much of a scent trail to follow.

But it's our only lead, so we can't give up on it, just like we can't give up on him.

It takes several hours for us to find another tunnel in, this one on the northern edge of the mountain range. Finn finds it, sending out the location with a weary,This one looks like it actually leads somewhere, though whether it intersects with the pool I have no idea.

Stay there,Delilah sends back, my senses telling me she's somewhere east of me, while Finn is north and west.We'll be right there to make our way in.

No. We need rest.Lance's booming thought comes from the woods just south of me; he's been following up behind my scouting trail, darting off the path and further up the mountain where needed.We can't spend one more night in those tunnels. It's been nearly forty-eight hours, and we all need to sleep.

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