Page 93 of Scarlet Wars
Tracks in the snow dragged us forward. Boot prints sunk deep where the ground was softest, branches splintered and bowed as though the forest itself had been forced to make way. The trail wasn’t random, it funneled in one direction, a straight line of flight.
Every step pressed into the snow screamed of panic, of people running for cover.
At the base of a slope, the tracks bled into a mound of earth.
Prints clustered at the entrance, circling, scuffing the dirt as if too many feet had fought to vanish into the same place. A crude barricade of soil and rotting planks hunched over the gap, a disguise so clumsy it only proved there was something worth hiding.
Caden’s gaze swept the tracks, then the makeshift cover. “You see this?”
I nodded, no doubt in my mind they went in here.
With a flick of his hand, the wood splintered inward with a hollow crack. Dust belched into the air, hanging in the silence like a warning before drifting down into the waiting dark. A hollow gaped beyond, veiled in darkness. At the back, the dirtwall wasn’t solid; it opened into a narrow passage, uneven and clawed wider by human hands.
Not a crawlspace, not quite a cave, something in between, cramped and foreboding.
Caden’s eyes glinted in the gloom. “Shall we?”
A nervous flutter erupted in my stomach, as I stared into the black maw yawning before us. It wasn’t just dark, it was consuming, endless, like stepping into something that wanted to swallow me whole.
No weakness, Emma.
I forced a curt nod and followed Caden in.
TWENTY-THREE
EMMA
The path closed around us immediately, shadows pressing tight on either side. The deeper we went, the narrower it became, forcing us lower, our backs bent as though the tunnel itself demanded we crawl.
My heartbeat thundered against my ribs, frantic, each pulse too loud, too fast, like it wanted to claw its way out of me.
Why?
I wasn’t afraid of the dark. I never had been. So why the hell was my body acting like I was walking into my own execution?
My steps faltered, slowing without permission, like my legs had decided to betray me.
“Are you coming?” Caden’s question cut through the narrow space, and I could hear the undercurrent, the warning note.
I jerked my head too quickly. “Yeah. Sorry. I’m here,” I rasped, words tumbling out too fast.
Caden kept moving forward, steadily, like he trusted I would fall in line. I tried. I told my body to step, to follow. Instead, my legslocked.
My muscles froze, as if the cave had reached inside and flipped the off-switch.
“Emma?” His voice again, sharper this time. The syllables wrapped around me in a way you cling to when the world is slipping sideways.
Focus on it. Focus on him.
I dragged in a breath, shifted my weight, and forced one foot forward. But the instant I did, my whole body convulsed. My knees trembled. My chest cinched tight, squeezing until oxygen couldn’t get through.
“Fuck,” I choked as panic surged white-hot and merciless, flooding my veins like fire. My vision wavered, black creeping in at the edges.
“Thompson.” Caden’s voice was closer now, edged with command. “What’s happening?”
I couldn’t answer. Every inhale scraped my throat raw, each gasp cutting like broken glass.
Why the hell couldn’t I breathe?
