AllFreeNovel
Share Us
A piece of the cave ceiling collapsed. It smashed to the ground a few paces away like the bang of a cannon going off.
Lessard, Flowers, and Pacheco all flinched back from it as they arrived and piled at the edge of the rushing stream.
“Probably,” Adam admitted, and then jumped.
The water was cold, fierce, and furious. The current grabbed him like a fist and shot him forward, foaming and churning into the chute that gaped at him like a maw.
Adam was upon it in a moment. The shouts and curses of the other men rang out behind him as they fell or leapt into the water.
He shot into darkness.
The tube of stone was slick. He couldn’t have caught himself against it if he had tried. The water raced him forward and shot him around an arcing turn as the tunnel narrowed.
The current quickened, and a shriek from Pacheco echoed off the stones behind him, mingling with the maniacal roar of Lessard’s laughter.
The light ahead of him changed. The pitch blackness was moderated by a growing dot of slightly less abysmal gloom—and then Adam burst into the open air of a rain-drenched night, flying out of a dragon-mouthed spout in a frothing cascade of storm-fed water.
He crashed into a deeper pool.
Adam surfaced with a gasp. Pond weeds clung to his shoulder. Ellie grabbed hold of him in the water.
Adam grabbed her back, hauling her to his chest as he made a quick and urgent assessment that all of her limbs were still there.
“It’s fine,” she gasped over the rushing roar of the water and the pummeling downpour. “I’m fine!”
She was.
So Adam kissed her.
He tugged her close, molding her to his body as he devoured her lips, tasting the warm heat of her through the cave dirt and pond water. Relief washed through him like a tide… until he realized that they were sinking.
He released her, spluttering, and loosened an arm to help keep them afloat as he tried to figure out where the hell they had landed.
It was Ellie’s reservoir, the green pond that she’d been so excited about when they had arrived at the city—except it wasn’t a pond anymore. It was a rising, frothing whirlpool, fed by the water flying out of the mouth of the feathered serpent. As Adam watched, Lessard shot out of the opening like an ugly, slippery missile. He fell into the water with an epic splash. Charlie followed, with Flowers and Pacheco a breath behind.
Kuyoc was already there. The priest laughed wildly as he splashed at the water and shouted a prayer up to the storm-clouded heavens.
Adam’s face split into a grin.
They had made it. It was crazy as hell, but they’d made it.
A thunderous crack resounded through the darkness.
“Was that thunder?” Adam demanded with a burst of alarm.
Ellie blinked at him. Her face paled slightly.
“I don’t think so,” she admitted.
“Out of the water!” Kuyoc shouted, and then echoed the order in Spanish. “¡Sal, rápido!”
They swam for the wall. The water had already risen enough to bring it into reach. Adam hauled himself onto the ledge and tugged Ellie up after him.
He enjoyed the feeling of holding onto her for a heartbeat before a chorus of shouts rose up from the direction of the plaza, along with a crash of a falling stone—and then more of them, booms like a giant’s firecrackers echoing off the mountainside.
“Mada raass!” Charlie cursed as he whirled back in the direction of the sound.
“High ground!” Kuyoc called over the racket. He waved his arm wildly. “Now!”
