Page 125 of Harnessed in Gold

“It’s collapsing!” Avery cries.

Rime shouts into the tunnel, “Climb, you son of a bitch.”

Dirt cascades into the hole. An implosion.

“Leo!” I scream. But no sound comes out of my mouth.

Rime lets out a grunt, his arms suddenly going taut. “Got him!”

I jump into action, grabbing Rime’s chest from behind and leaning back with all my weight. Someone else does the same to me.

“Pull!” Rime orders.

Aaron joins him at his side, reaching down to grasp the dirt-caked wrists emerging from the crumbling earth and retreating roots.

Rime’s muscles shake and bulge as Leo’s arms and head break the threshold of the hole. “Everybody grab him!”

He hooks his arms under Leo’s while Aaron clasps him around the chest. As they pull, the rest of us grab hold of whatever part of Leo we can. With a grip on his waistband, I heave with the others until Rime and Aaron are dragging him, stomach-down, across the ground.

Heart at a standstill, I watch as they roll him onto his back. It’s not until a cloud of dust stings my eyes that I notice he’s gasping and coughing. Dirt covers every inch of his face and hair, minerals and mica sparkling in the moonlight. He swipes at his face with a filthy hand and pushes up on his elbows.

Rime sags and lets out a ragged exhale. “He’s fine.”

In one swift move, Leo sits up and pulls me into his arms. I hold him tight, afraid to let go. Afraid he’s still somehow stuck in thathole, dirt pouring down his throat and the collapsing walls crushing his bones.

“I’m okay,” he assures me.

I lean back and grab his filthy face, taking in his bright eyes and the slight smile playing at the corners of his mouth. Next thing I know, I’m kissing him, heedless of the grit that scrapes my lips and scours my tongue.

Someone nudges my shoulder. “We’ve gotta move!”

The sirens are getting louder by the second. Police cars. Leo and I rush to our feet and join the others, frantically scanning the area for a place to hide. We’re only a few yards from the library wall with the wrought-iron windows, but there’s no way we can squeeze behind the laurel bushes.

“Come on.” Aaron summons us to follow him into the dark. Fortunately, there’s no one else wandering around this corner of campus, not this late on a Thursday night. We power-walk across the quad and crouch in the shadows between the lampposts and Blakely Hall. We’re not exactly hidden, but at least we’re not by the library anymore, looking out of place, filthy, and guilty.

“Aaron,” Avery whispers. “Please tell me you didn’t lose the journal.”

“Still in my pants.”

Sirens scream and red and blue lights flash along the perimeter road. From a safe distance, we watch and wait as the cop cars race down the library service driveway and stop dangerously close to the freight elevator entrance.

I ask anyone who will answer, “Are they alive?”

It’s Rime who replies, “You mean Brier’s crew?”

“Yeah.”

“They were alive when we left.”

Weirdly, this fills me with relief. Could we actually get through this mission without anyone having to die?

“And the roots in the hall have probably retracted,” Leo adds.

Like they did when he ran out of energy in the tunnel.

“Betts, you and Olivia can’t stay in your dormitory,” Topaz warns. “They’ve obviously been following you, so there’s a good chance they know where you live.”

My stomach sinks.