Page 439 of Hidden Depths

“You’re too late, Storm!”

A gunshot followed.

Then Thomas staggered.

Blood spread across his side.

Mom screamed.

Nathan caught him before he fell.

Thomas gripped Nathan’s shirt.

“Go.”

Nathan pressed both hands over the wound.

“I’m not leaving you.”

Thomas’s face twisted with pain.

“James didn’t.”

Another shot struck the wall.

Ward pulled me behind the stone staircase.

Ben shielded Calle.

Ross laughed from the darkness.

“Come find out what your grandfather buried!”

The timer dropped beneath nine minutes.

Thomas was bleeding.

Ross was escaping.

And the secret that had killed my father waited beneath Blackwater.

64

Ward

“No darkness is deep enough to hide the truth when five lights shine toward it.”

— James Sinclair

Thomas’s blood ran between Nathan’s fingers.

Elanore dropped beside them.

“Let me see.”

“It went through his side,” Nathan said. “I don’t think it hit anything vital.”

Thomas grimaced.