“I’ve got this,” Shay said. “Get your own equipment on.”
“I can help her too,” Ren growled. “Back off.”
“Don’t start,” I said, swallowing hard. “And I don’t need help from either of you. Just get in the water.”
They were both still glaring at each other, so I jabbed them away with my elbows, closed my eyes, and did a back roll into the sea.
Other than the way my blood roared in my ears as I sank beneath the surface, my world had gone quiet. Nearly silent.
Slowly, I adjusted to my surroundings. I wasn’t quite floating, but I wasn’t sinking either. The air in the vest kept me buoyant while I gently kicked my fins. I equalized the pressure in my ears by holding my nose and applying a bit of pressure until they popped and cleared, just as Gabriel had promised. The fins propelled me forward much more quickly than I’d expected. An adrenaline spike sent shivers through my limbs. I twisted in the water, graceful, unencumbered by weight. Maybe wolves were dolphins in another life.
Mason and Nev had also gotten comfortable breathing underwater and were now chasing a sea turtle, circling it the way they would a rabbit. I giggled and bubbles spouted up around me.
Four booms, like miniature explosions, came from above. I looked up to see that Shay, Ren, Adne, and Connor had entered the water. One final boom signaled Gabriel’s arrival. He immediately took off toward the shoreline, moving through the water lithe as a sea lion, with only a quick wave to indicate that we should follow.
Having just gotten comfortable with my new underwater surroundings, I didn’t feel ready to leave the open sea for the confinement of the cave, but I didn’t have a choice.
The tunnel loomed ahead, an absolute darkness in contrast to the aquamarine sea we were leaving behind. As we approached the black maw carved in the shoreline, the surge of excitement I’d felt earlier gave way to gnawing anxiety.
Gabriel surfaced just inside the mouth of the cave and pulled off his mask. I looked past him, trying to judge the distance between the water’s surface and the cave’s ceiling. Four feet, maybe five, but my flashlight’s beam showed that the ceiling sloped down farther into an ever-narrowing tunnel.
“I’ve already placed a guideline in the corridor where we’ll be submerged,” Gabriel said. “If you start to lose your sense of direction, just focus on the line. And remember, don’t overthink it. Just breathe, clear your ears as you descend, and everything will be fine.”
“Is this really the best plan?” Silas asked. For the first time, his arrogance was overridden by fear. “Cave diving requires special certification. Perhaps—”
“I teach that certification,” Gabriel cut him off. “I know what I’m doing. We wouldn’t be doing this if there was any other option.”
He shook his head. My heart had begun to pound as I wondered about the degree of danger we were on the verge of confronting.
“It’s the only way.” Gabriel turned on the light at his wrist. “And we’re wasting time discussing it.”
Silas had begun to tremble, and I didn’t think it was from anger at Gabriel. I felt a little sorry for the Scribe.
He might be an ass, but he doesn’t have to be here. He only came because he believes in what he’s doing.
I swam over to him, keeping my voice low. “I’ll watch out for you.”
His eyes widened, but he managed a nod. I gestured for him to swim in our single-file line just behind Shay and before me. If he needed help, it was my guess that other than Gabriel, Shay and I would be his best shot. Shay seemed to take to any new hobby that caught his fancy—and I was just too stubborn to suck at anything I considered a challenge.
Gabriel led us forward at a slow and steady swim. The farther we moved into the cavern, the narrower the passage became. I tried to keep my breaths slow, but I couldn’t do anything about my amped-up pulse. The tunnel was closing around us, becoming ever tighter. The sunlight, which had pierced the cave’s mouth, now faded, leaving us only with the lights strapped to our wrists to guide us.
Gabriel stopped. He didn’t turn around, but his voice bounced over the surface of the water and the tunnel walls.
“We’re going under now,” he said. “Follow the diver in front of you and the guideline. It will take about five minutes before we hit the gap where you’ll have to take off your vest and tank. I’ll be on the other side; you’ll push them through the opening and I’ll light the way with my flashlight.”
One by one we submerged. Unlike the glittering vastness of the open ocean, diving in the tunnel plunged us into a choking darkness. As we swam forward, the passage became less of a channel and more of a craggy, cave-like enclosure with sharp ridges in its walls and stalactites through which we had to weave our way.
Five minutes. Five minutes. Five minutes.
So little time. But the swim seemed to be taking so much longer. We passed other tunnels, offshoots of the path we followed. The current kept shifting around me, pushing and pulling me away from the line of divers. Blood thrummed in my head. I was starting to feel dizzy. Words floated through my mind, a mesmerizing but deadly chant.
Drown. Crush. Lost.
Silas stopped moving forward and the voices in my head began to shriek.
Lost! Lost! Lost!
Why weren’t we moving? What was wrong?
Blood screamed through my veins. I started to turn around. If I could just swim back—get out of this cave. Find my way out, out, out. It was too tight. Too dark.
Silas began to move again. His slow, easy kicks broke through my panic. After a few feet, he paused again. I remained still, watching him, trying to remember what I should be doing.
Behind me, Ren gently tugged the tip of one of my fins. I craned my neck to stare at him. He tilted his head, giving me a puzzled look, motioning for me to go forward, and I understood.
The gap. We’d reached the gap. Of course we’d stop while waiting for each diver to pass through.
My heart was still slamming inside my chest, but my head had cleared enough to stop me short of a full-on freak-out.
But it didn’t do anything to make the wait less agonizing. As our group moved forward, one by one, I couldn’t stop the fearful images that played in my mind’s eye. Getting stuck. Being crushed. Drowning in this darkness.
I gripped the regulator hose with one hand. Right now, it felt like the only connection I had to the outside world—to the light, and earth, and air where I belonged.
Silas was unbuckling his buoyancy vest, wriggling out of it one arm at a time and pushing it and the tank through an opening that I could barely make out. A gap that looked impossibly narrow. Next, the Scribe kicked his fins and slid into the dark hole, his body blocking the flashlight’s beam as it disappeared in the tunnel’s walls. When the tips of his fins were no longer visible, I thought my heart would stop.
A hand reached through the hole and Gabriel’s face appeared. He was waiting, beckoning to me. My mind screamed at me as I separated myself from my vest and tank and guided them into Gabriel’s hands. He’d been right—any type of thinking would work against me, fueling the fear that could kill me.
I forced my mind to go blank, willing my legs to kick slowly, mechanically. Stretching my body, I propelled myself through the narrow gap like a torpedo shot out of its tube.
I didn’t know that I’d made it to the other side until Gabriel gripped my arm tight, helping me through.
He was shaking his head, forcing me to slow to a stop. He held up my vest as I slipped it on. The crinkling around his eyes told me he was smiling. Shay was beside him, waiting for me and smiling as well.
When my vest and tank were in place and the buckles secured, Shay took my hand and we swam to the surface. I ripped off my mask, gulping air and shuddering. Shay pulled off his mask and spit out his mouthpiece, grinning at me.
“What?” I asked.
“You were supposed to go through the gap slowly, Calla,” he said. “You caught Gabriel so off guard you almost knocked the r
egulator out of his mouth.”
“I just wanted to get it over with,” I said, feeling defensive. That swim ranked high on my list of things I never wanted to do again. When Adne surfaced, I wanted to kiss her. Thank God it’s a one-way trip.
Shay splashed me, still laughing.
Ren surfaced beside us. “Man, it’s good to be able to see again.”
With drowning no longer a threat, I gazed around the cavern. Ren was right. The light was dim, but we didn’t need our flashlights.
“That must be the opening of the cenoté,” Shay said, pointing at the ceiling.
Far, far above us—at least a hundred feet up—was an opening in the cave through which jungle-filtered sunlight spilled into the darkness, flickering only with occasional movement near the opening, a fluttering of birds that nested inside the cavern.
“You guys like swimming that much?” Mason called. He and Nev were sitting a few feet away with Ethan and Sabine. “Dry—okay, not dry, but damp, solid land right here.”
“I knew there was a reason I liked you.” Ren laughed as we swam to the spot where slippery stones of the cenoté floor were lapped by salt water.
I hauled myself out of the water. Only a sense of dignity kept me from sprawling on the stone, pressing my cheek lovingly to the earth. The air was still too heavy, thick with brine and decaying fish, but at least it was real air.
“Everyone okay?” Gabriel asked.
“I’m a little dizzy,” Adne said, squeezing water out of her hair.
“That’s normal,” he replied. “But tell me if it gets any worse.”
“Thanks,” she said drily.
“You all did great,” Gabriel said. “Let’s get what we came for.”
“Where are we headed?” Shay asked.
“An alcove.” Gabriel started walking. “You can see it from here.”
“The light,” Shay murmured.
I followed his gaze. One corner of the cenoté gleamed with the marbled sapphire and emerald tones of the sea that contrasted with the sheer sunlight in the rest of the cave.
Our group began to head after Gabriel, except Silas, who was squinting at the ceiling.
Nev glanced at him. “Yeah, I think our arrival made the birdies unhappy.”
Looking up, I saw what he meant. The flutter of wings above had increased; shadows darted back and forth across the cave’s opening. A tittering sound swelled, echoing in the chamber.
“I don’t think those are birds,” Silas said.
“What?” Nev frowned.
The noise grew louder; sunlight from above winked in and out, at times fully blocked off by the movement above us.
“What is that?” I asked.
Silas whispered something, but I couldn’t quite hear him. The cenoté amplified sound, transforming the fluttering of wings into a rush of wind.
It was too late when I understood he’d said, “Get back in the water. Now!”
FOURTEEN
THE CEILING WAS MOVING, every inch of it.
“Cave-in!” Mason shouted, running for cover.
Gabriel had already leapt from shore, donned his gear, and submerged.
How would getting in the water protect us from falling stone?
Mason hesitated, looking up like the rest of us. The movement above wasn’t a deadly shower of rock; it was swooping, swirling mobs of shadow. For a moment I thought it was wraiths, but wraiths didn’t have wings. And they made no sound.
“Move it!” Ethan shoved me as Sabine dove into the pool. I stumbled backward, falling into the water without my mask on or the first stage of my regulator in my mouth. I came up coughing, struggling to see and to breathe.
Connor and Adne were in the water, like me struggling with their gear.
Gabriel surfaced, ripped his regulator out of his mouth, and shouted, “What the hell are you waiting for!”
Mason, Nev, and Silas were still onshore.
“What’s that?” Nev and Mason both stared at the dark, living cloud—moving slowly toward the water.
“Gabriel’s right—get underwater!” Silas waved at them frantically, even as he fumbled to pull on his own vest and tank. “You can’t stay there!”
His furious movements caught the attention of the swarm above. Suddenly, the cloud of beating wings with its shrill, chirping chorus plunged down. Silas cried out, falling to his knees as it surrounded him.
I could no longer see him, only make out the shape of a body beneath the pulsing mob of tiny furred bodies, leathery wings, and enormous ears that dwarfed their heads.
“Oh God.” Mason grabbed Nev’s hand, dragging him toward the water.
“We have to help him.” I started to swim toward shore, but Gabriel, who was much faster in the water, cut me off.
“He’s already dead.”
“No, he’s not.” I fought Gabriel off only to find both Shay and Ren in my way.
I snarled at them. “What are you doing?”
“Look,” Ren said, jerking his head toward shore.
The cloud had lifted from Silas’s body, which wasn’t moving. The skin I could see was ghastly pale, the rest of it covered with tiny red incisions. Even his wet suit had been cut to ribbons.
“There’s nothing we can do,” Ren said.
“I said I’d watch out for him.” My voice shook. “I said . . .”
“There wasn’t any way for you to know.” Shay glanced at the swarm, which now hovered above us.
I was shivering in the water. It felt as though my bones rattled beneath my skin.
“They’ll dive at us, even out here.” Gabriel watched the swooping mass of fur and wings. “We’ll need to submerge and resurface. That will throw them off.”
I didn’t want to go underwater again. Breathing was already hard enough, and what had happened to Silas had been so sudden, and so horrible.
After we dove down, I heard hundreds of pings on the surface like it had begun to rain. Gabriel led us to the far edge of the cavern. He kept us close, huddled together, arms linked as we waited. At his signal we surfaced.
“Keep your voices low,” he whispered. “And don’t make any loud splashes or sudden movements. The water keeps them at bay, but they’ll still hunt us.”
He gestured to the area from which we’d come. Small winged carcasses floated on the surface. Bats that had tried to get to us, become sodden, and, unable to fly again, eventually drowned.
“Bats?” Mason asked. “Bats can do that?”
“Vampire bats,” Gabriel said.
“But vampire bats don’t kill people,” Nev said. “Right? That’s just a myth.”
“Vampire bats don’t hunt in swarms either.” Gabriel gazed up at the ceiling. “These have been changed. They’re like piranhas.”
“More Keeper tricks,” Shay said.
Connor was gazing at the shore where Silas’s body lay. “Damn it. I knew he shouldn’t have come.”
Guilt tightened my chest again. Why hadn’t I helped him? I could have grabbed him and pulled him in the water.
“What now?” Adne asked.
Ethan looked at the shoreline. “We need to buy Shay time.”
Connor laughed. “You mean draw fire?”
“Exactly.” Ethan smiled grimly.
“Buy me time for what?” Shay asked. “I won’t leave you to fight without me.”
“It’s only temporary, kid,” Connor said. “I don’t find this cave any cozier than you do. I’m itching to say adios to this place. But you need that hilt and you can’t get it without us.”
Shay nodded slowly. “So you’ll distract the bats . . .”
“And you run for that alcove,” Ethan finished. “It’s set far enough in the corner that if the bats are already distracted, they won’t notice you heading there.”
“You need to let us lure the bats,” Sabine said.
“I don’t think so.” Ethan glared at her.
“I’m a big girl.” She bared her teeth. “And wolves are faster than Searchers. We
can jump in and out of the water. And the group of us running around will confuse them.”
“She’s right,” Ren said. “Let the pack handle this.”
“Yes,” I said, knowing I’d snatch a few bats out of the air in the process. There was no way I was going to let that happen to Silas and not get a little payback.
Connor shrugged. “As long as you’ve all had your rabies shots.”
“I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that,” Sabine growled. “But only because Ethan likes you.”
“Jumping in and out of the water, huh?” Mason smiled. “I hope you’re prepared to accept how bad wet fur smells.”
“We’ll manage,” Adne said. I noticed she was shivering too and there were streaks of water on her cheeks that I didn’t think were from the dive. “Can we just do this? I can’t look at Silas lying there anymore.”
Connor nodded. “Okay, Scion, you run back here as soon as you have Eydis so Adne can weave a door and get us out.”
Shay shrugged off his tank, pushing it toward Gabriel. “I’ll be faster without it.”
“Ready?” Ren was looking at me. As alphas we’d lead this strike.
“As ever,” I snarled, drawing on my anger to push away any fear.
I’m sorry, Silas. I’ll try to make it up to you.
One by one our pack submerged, swimming away from Shay and the others. We stayed beneath the surface as long as we could. When the water was too shallow, Ren and I shifted forms in sync, two wolves bursting from the water. The ceiling came to life. Mason was running at my flank, while Nev and Sabine stayed close to Ren. The swarm of bats dove; I could feel the wind stirred up by hundreds of tiny wings brushing across my fur.
Now. I sent the thought to the pack.
We scattered.
A horrible shrieking echoed in the cavern. I leapt up at intervals, snapping at the air. Sometimes my jaws ripped apart a wing or crushed a small body. At others I bit nothing, the swarm having moved on to pursue one of my packmates.
A yelp jerked me around and I saw a dozen or more bats clinging to Nev’s shoulders. His muscles bunched and he jumped off the shoreline, crashing into the water, sending some of the bats careening through the air while others were sucked beneath the surface when Nev shifted forms and fully submerged again.