Page 57 of Welcome to Bone Town

“Did you just trip a fucking booby trap?” I growl at Jax.

“Those really exist?” Bear questions.

“Not often.” Archer answers. “But there’s evidence that suggests ancient civilizations protected extremely valuable items with deterrents.”

Waving an arm around us, I grit out, “Deterrent is an understatement, don’t you think?”

The water is now above our ankles. We need to get out of here. Dashing up the stairs, I don’t get more than a couple steps before another scraping sound echoes around us. The little firelight that had reached us from our makeshift campsite is being snuffed out as a large stone wall slides across the middle of the stairwell. I pick up my pace, and hear the others splashing behind me. If I can just get there, maybe I can hold it open for them. But water is gushing down the stairs now, up to my knees as I try to wade upstream. The wall closes in, blocking us from the exit.

“Oh my goddess!” Cora cries as Bear yells out, “Fuck!”

When I spin around, Jax is staring between the new wall and the quickly rising water, likely trying to figure out what to do, but not fast enough. I grip his bare shoulder hard, squeezing so he looks at me.

“Find us a way out.Now.” I don’t care that the command comes out as a bark. He got us into this mess by bumbling in here without caution. There has to be something he can do to break through that wall. Now that I think about it, there must be something holding all this water in. Another door, maybe.

Pushing past the useless treasure hunter, and the rest of the group, I run into another stone wall. Shit!

There must be a hidden trigger mechanism to get it to open. At least I hope there is, I’m not ready to drown inLunara’s temple. My gaze lands on Cora, my mate. She’s shivering against Bear, eyes wide with worry.

I can’t let her die. I won’t.

I drag my hands along the wall from one side to the other, scraping and pulling at any crevice I find, the blue glow from the water highlighting the grooves and divots in the stone. There has to be a way out. There has to besomething.

Noticing what I’m doing, Bear pushes a trembling Cora into Archer’s arms, then wades toward me. With the torch in one hand, he places his other high on the wall. “What am I looking for?”

I don’t stop my search. “A button, or a handle, or maybe even a loose rock. Anything that could trigger whatever mechanism opens this door.”

“How do you know there is one?” he asks, even as he begins dragging his hands along the wall.

It’s Cora who answers this time. “Th-they wouldn’t have set this up with no way to get out. People lived here, there has to be a failsafe.” Archer nods in agreement, and they both start looking. I can hear Jax hammering at the wall that closed us in halfway up the stairs.

Water is pouring in faster than before. It’s up to my thighs. Panic sets in, my lungs growing tighter with every new inch of water, as if my body thinks it’s already drowning. Bear suddenly abandons his search, wadding to Cora who is now submerged to her waist. He picks her up, holding her on his shoulder. She has to scrunch over to avoid the ceiling, but at least she’s as high as she can be. Jax gives up on the stairs and takes Bear’s place next to me, frantically looking for our salvation.

“Fuck!” I yell when I can’t find anything. The water’s quickly rising above my shoulders.

“Roman! Get over here!” Cora pleads. She and Bear are on the stairs near the back wall in an attempt to get to the highest ground they can. Locking my gaze with hers, I study her gorgeous features for a moment before shaking my head. She gasps as I take a deep breath of air, diving under the surface.

A hand grabs my ankle and yanks me back up. I sputter as I glare at Jax. There isn’t much room left for air, our heads touching the ceiling. The torches sputter out one at a time as the water reaches higher and higher up the stairwell, leaving no light but that from the phosphorescent liquid that could be our doom.

“Let. Me. Go.” I growl, and the treasure hunter releases my leg.

Wasting no time, I take another deep breath and dive below.

There’s no way I’m going to stand idly by and watch anyone—much less my goddamn mate—drown. Gripping the wall, I pull myself lower and survey my options with blurry vision. Suddenly a spot of white light appears on the wall in front of me. A quick glance shows Jax behind me, shining a small flashlight through the water.

He sweeps the light across the wall and the ground nearby, and something glints. I grab his arm, pointing toward the spot I thought I saw the anomaly. He aims the light again. There! Tucked in the shadows, whatever it is glints again. Our best shot.

Burning the last of my oxygen, I propel my body through the water and reach for the item. It’s behind arock that blends in so well, we never would have noticed it without the light from the flashlight bouncing off it.

Sliding my hand behind the rock, my fingers meet cool metal. I wrap my hand around it and depress it toward the wall in a hail mary, even though I have no idea what it will do. Something shifts in my peripheral.

The wall blocking us from continuing is sliding down into the floor, vortexes forming as the water drains.

When there’s enough room between the wall and ceiling, I squeeze my body tight, dragging myself through the opening, crashing to the stone floor on the other side and heaving fresh air into my burning lungs.

Water is still spilling into this room as the wall lowers, but it isn’t filling it. Jax tumbles after me, his flashlight swinging wide in the near-darkness. My heart buzzes as I wait for what feels like too long, straining my eyes and ears for any sign of Cora. Where is she? I’m about to climb the wall to get back to her, when someone rides the wave through the now large opening, landing on top of me.Cora.

She coughs, gasping in ragged gulps of air as I clutch her to my chest. Fuck, I’ve never felt so relieved. “Shhh, hummingbird, I’ve got you.”

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