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Fear crept deeper as her lungs began to ache. How much farther did they have to go? What if they had missed the air pocket Adam had described?
They could run out of breath in this dark, cold silence.
Ellie shoved the terror back. She was a scholar. Scholars were rational. She would not succumb to hysteria.
The tunnel could go on forever. She could drown in this dark, forgotten space…
Warm hands caught her and pulled her up. Ellie surfaced with a gasp and dragged in a desperate gulp of air.
Only Adam’s hold on her kept Ellie from striking her head against the low ceiling of the little pocket in which they floated.
“That was the longest stretch,” he said.
His voice came from close by. The sensation was disorienting, as the world around her was pitch black. Ellie could only feel his hands gripping her arms.
She reached out through the darkness. Her hand found his face and slid to his stubbled cheek. She felt him smile, and the mad pulse of her heart settled a bit.
“You okay?” he asked.
Ellie nodded, and then realized that he wouldn’t be able to see it.
“Yes,” she replied aloud.
“Deep breath,” Adam ordered. “One… two…”
He slipped from her touch as he dropped back into the water. His hand tugged her forward.
Ellie filled her lungs with air and plunged after him.
She pushed herself down the dark, narrow passage, fighting against the water—and then the walls of the tunnel fell away.
Adam’s hand grasped her shirt and hauled her up once more. Ellie surfaced with another gasp. The noise echoed hollowly, revealing the space around them to be high and vast.
“We’re here?” she asked.
Her voice sounded strange as it floated around her in the total darkness.
“Yup,” Adam replied from nearby. “Whatever ‘here’ is.”
His hand still gripped her shirt as though he was afraid she would disappear if he wasn’t touching her. He led her forward in the water until her toes brushed up against solid ground.
The slope shallowed until she stood thigh-deep in the pool. She could already tell that it was substantially broader than the cenote had been.
“Do you still have your match tin?” Ellie asked.
“Uh huh,” Adam replied through the darkness.
“Perhaps now would be a good time to orient ourselves,” she suggested.
She was relieved to hear that her voice sounded steady.
Adam released his hold on her. Ellie heard him patting at his body. There was a scratch and a flare of light.
The orange glow danced over his bare skin, his bandaged arm, and the two pairs of boots still slung around his shoulder. The lines of his face were tight with concern as he gazed past her shoulder.
Beyond him, Ellie caught a glimpse of a low, broad cavern dripping with limestone fingers. Water extended around them, flat and still.
The fire reached Adam’s fingers. He dropped the match with a curse.
