Page 152 of Lifebound

The rest of the ceiling was collapsing for real.

I saw with my own eyes how a large piece of the ceiling simply fell on top of the dead fae, squashing his body underneath, and that wasn’t the end of it. Once more, the ground shook like it was being pulled to the sides, and pieces of the ceiling deeper down the tunnel were falling faster by the second.

“It’s not going to stop,” Rune said, and he sounded surprised. He sounded terrified.

When our eyes met, he was just as shocked as I felt.

“Wildcat, we need to run.” He grabbed my hand, pulled me back hard. “Run!”

I didn’t think, didn’t hesitate at all. I just turned around and I ran right back to where we came from as more small rocks fell on my head.

The awful sound of the ground splitting apart held my heart hostage. It was impossible to run without slipping, and Rune was trying to hold me by the hand, but he was falling to his knees every few seconds, too.

I had never prayed harder in my life. The idea of this entire tunnel collapsing on top of me and burying me alive was equally as terrifying as being at the hands of those incubi at the Enclave. I barely breathed, and when Rune pulled me forward for the last time, he looked behind.

I did, too.

The ground was indeed splitting into two, and the ceiling continued to crash against it, pieces of dirt and rock falling in the space that was opening below it.

I’m going to be swallowed by a fucking tunnel.

The terror gave me a new burst of energy. It enabled me to move my legs faster, and suddenly there was light, bright light in front of us. No time to think or even try to go in a different direction because the tunnel was collapsing everywhere we could see, but not in that small round room where the glowing plants were.

That’s where we went, Rune and I, hoping to survive. Hand in hand, we ran into the tunnel covered in moss and glowy plants, barely breathing, and we crawled on all fours higher up, trying to find a way out over our heads or to the sides. The moss was more slippery than any I’d seen before. Even so, we kept going for a couple minutes, and then the tunnel turned sharply to the right.

I thought we were saved. I thought we’d no longer have to crawl, that we could simplywalkout of here alive.

Rune must have thought the same thing, and that’s why we didn’t look down for a second when we stood up. That’s why we didn’t see the hole in the rocks wrapped up in moss—as if it grew there on purpose, to hide it from our view—barely two feet into this new tunnel.

By the time we realized that there was no more ground underneath us, it was too late. We tried to hold on, and Rune even tried to throw me back up with all his strength.

He couldn’t.

We fell.

forty

My eyes struggledto open when I came to. I must have been knocked out before I hit the ground because all I remembered from the last time I was awake was falling.

Now, wherever we were, light surrounded us, and for a moment there I thought it wassunlight.For a moment, I thought we were outside and the tunnel wasn’t going to collapse on our heads, and my family would never have to wonder where I ended up, whether I was dead or alive while my body rotted underground in some unknown location in Verenthia.

I was wrong.

It wasn’t sunlight that was out there behind my lids. It was plants that glowed, and fish that glowed, and crystal that glowed all around me.

“Nilah, wake up!”

Rune’s voice pierced through the air and filled my ears, and I sat up in time to see him getting dragged over the rocky surface where I’d woken up by…

Water.

I blinked a few times. Tendrils made out of water were wrapped around both his legs, and they were dragging him toward the nearest pool barely three feet away.

My instincts reacted. I moved forward, landing on the ground on my stomach, and I gripped his outstretched hand.

I had no idea what the hell was happening, but I wasnotgoing to let fuckingwaterkill Rune now.

But when I gripped his hands, I wasn’t strong enough to pull him free, or even hold him in place. Instead, the water pulled both of us.

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