Page 141 of Tears for a Broken Sky
We came to another branching set of tunnels. One wider than the rest, but it was the narrowest one that had a flicker of grey in it. Light.
“Fuck” Caelen hissed.
I charged for the smaller opening—barely wide enough to crawl through. The stone scraped my shoulders as I shoved myself in.
“If we get stuck, we’re fucked,” Caelen snapped behind me. “Move faster.”
“This isn’t exactly godsdamn easy!” I snarled, dragging myself over slick stone.
Behind us, the creature shrieked—high and thunderous, like metal raking through bone. The tunnel vibrated with the sound. Closer now. Too close.
But ahead—light.
I shoved forward, scrabbling past the last jut of stone until my hand broke through into open air. Wind. Cold. Freedom.
“I’ve got an opening!” I shouted, voice hoarse. “Move!”
Caelen cursed under his breath, scraping behind me. His boot hit my side. “Try not to die before I get through.”
He followed fast, panting, face pale and tight as he squeezed through the last of the tunnel. Just as he cleared the gap, the Morrkrin’s roar split the darkness behind us.
We rolled out onto damp moss, gasping. Alive.
Caelen flopped onto his back, chest heaving, eyes wide with disbelief. For a moment, neither of us moved.
Then he turned his head toward me. “I hate caves,” he muttered.
A raw, wild laugh tore out of me. Relief flooded my chest so fast it hurt. I lay there for a second longer, gripping fistfuls of grass like it might anchor me.
Above us, the trees reached high—dense, gnarled, and shadowed. But through them, the sky broke in pale streaks of blue.
We’d made it.
But the relief didn’t last.
My gaze swept the clearing. No blood. No body. No sign of Slade.
“He’s not here,” I said quietly.
Caelen sat up, scowling. “Then where the hell did he go?”
I looked back at the narrow tunnel we’d crawled through—then at the fork we hadn’t taken. A darker passage. Slade wouldn’t have waited. Not if he could move.
“He took the right tunnel,” I said.
Caelen cursed under his breath.
We were close. But not close enough.
Chapter 35
Elira
The boat had stopped.
I didn’t know where we were—only that we were docking.
The wood groaned beneath us. Chains clanked above. Voices shouted in the distance.
