Damn it all to hell and back, here we go again.
There was no time for thinking, no time for anything but running.
“Move.” I shouted as I bolted toward Milly, grabbed Pamela’s hand, and headed for the stairs, the water already up over my ankles and deepening with each breath I took. Our only saving grace was the narrow tunnels keeping the water from flooding us out within seconds. A glance back showed me Milly was gone. Probably jumped the veil, leaving us to our own devices. Nice, really nice.
Liam and Alex were right with us, quickly passing us to lead the way. Pamela stumbled halfway up the stairs, and I pulled her to her feet as the footing below us began to crumble, a wave of water slopping up and over us both as we sank. Hands yanked us up and out of the water.
“No dawdling now,” Faris said calmly, as he pulled Pamela out and Liam pulled me from the ink black, angry water. Faris helping us was the least of my concerns, though. My vision was obscured by water and the flickering lights as they were doused, one by one. Again, I grabbed Pamela’s hand, but this time I jerked her away from Faris. Whatever his game was, we didn’t have time for it. He laughed, shaking his head as if I’d delivered a punch line to a particularly funny anecdote. I would never understand vampires, not if I lived to be a hundred. Which, by the way things were going, was not looking like a particularly good possibility.
A groan shuddered through the underground palace, and the walls around us leaned closer, water spurting through cracks that widened before my eyes. Oh we were in trouble. We had to move faster or we weren’t going to make it to our exit across the veil.
I shoved Pamela toward Liam. “Take her.”
He scooped her up into his arms and booted open the door.
He paused before crossing the veil, glanced over his shoulder at me. I shoved him forward as the lights went out, leaving us in a dim shadow, the only light coming to us from through the doorway. “I’m right behind you.”
Only I wasn’t. Liam stepped through, Pamela clinging to his neck, her eyes dull with fatigue and fear. That was my last glimpse of them. I took a step to follow them, Alex right with me. The sound of the roof cracking overhead didn’t give me enough warning. Plaster and chunks of cement fell and with it, and the water over our heads sluiced in with a thunderous rush.
Faris snaked his arms around my waist and jerked me back as the roof fell, and the black water flooded the room and filled my mouth with the taste of death and rotten things. A clawed set of hands gripped my legs as Alex grabbed me, and all I could think was that at least Pamela and Liam had made it.
And at least I wouldn’t die on my own.
Rylee was wrong. She wasn’t right behind him. The water flooded through the door from the veil into the castle, and swept him off his feet. Pamela tumbled out of his arms, hitting the rock ground hard.
Liam spun on the floor and lunged toward the open door. “Pamela, help me!”
Only she didn’t do what he thought she would. He wanted to go back, to yank Rylee out of the water.
Pamela, a groan escaping her, lifted her hand and the water stilled long enough for him to see that there was nothing in the dark water.
Rylee was gone. He stood there, staring into the room where she’d been only a brief moment before, his hands gripping the door jams.
“Liam, I can’t hold it much longer. Hurry,” Pamela whispered, the broken tones of her voice catching him off guard.
She wasn’t there; Rylee wasn’t there. No denying it, either she had made it out, or she’d been swept away from him. His heart twisted into a knot as he said, “Shut the door.”
“But you don’t have her.” Pamela limped to his side, and slid her small hand into his. “Liam? Is she dead?”
He reached across with his free hand and forced the door shut, the lock clicking into place. The door shuddered, and then began to fade.
“What’s happening?” Pamela reached out and put her hands on the door as it disappeared beneath her fingers.
He wasn’t sure, but he could guess. “A fail safe. A protection against things coming here and destroying the castle through the doorways.”
His mind was a complete and utter blank as he struggled to comprehend what the hell had just happened. Rylee was gone, Alex was gone, and he and Pamela had no way to find her.
Pamela threw her arms around his waist and let out a gulping sob. “She can’t be dead, she can’t be. She saved me, Liam, why couldn’t I save her?”
With a reluctance he couldn’t deny, he lowered his arms to carefully hug the sobbing witch. “We don’t know that she’s dead.”
She clung to him, her body shaking. “She’s the … only family … I have.”