me when he herded me around the pool? How close was Kyle now?
I felt the hairs on my arms and legs standing on end. There was some kind of pressure in the air, as
though I could feel his silent movements. The door. I half turned, easing back in the direction I’d come,
away from where I’d heard the breath.
He couldn’t wait forever. The little he’d said told me he was in a hurry. Someone could come at any
time. Odds were on his side, though. There were fewer who would be inclined to stop him than there
were who might think this was for the best. And of those inclined to stop him, even fewer who’d have
much of a chance of doing that. Only Jeb and his gun would make a difference. Jared was at least as
strong as Kyle, but Kyle was more motivated. Jared would probably not fight him now.
Another noise. Was that a footstep by the door? Or just my imagination? How long had this silent
standoff lasted? I couldn’t guess how many seconds or minutes had passed.
Get ready.Melanie knew that the stalling would soon be at an end. She wanted me to clench the rock
tighter.
But I would give flight a chance first. I would not be an effective fighter, even if I could bring myself to
try. Kyle was probably twice my weight, and he had a much longer reach.
I raised the hand with the pebbles and aimed them toward the back passage to the latrine. Maybe I
could make him think that I was going to hide and hope for rescue. I threw the handful of small stones
and shied away from the noise when they clattered against the rock wall.
The breath at the door again, the sound of a light footfall headed toward my decoy. I edged as quietly
What if there are two?
I don’t know.
I was almost to the exit. If I could just make the tunnel, I thought I could outrun him. I was lighter and
fast.…
I heard a footstep, very clearly this time, disrupting the stream in the back of the room. I crept faster.
A gigantic splash shattered the tense standoff. Water pelted my skin, making me gasp. It spattered
against the wall in a wave of wet sound.
He’s coming through the pool! Run!
I hesitated just a second too long. Big fingers clutched at my calf, my ankle. I yanked against the pull,
lurching forward. I stumbled, and the momentum that threw me down to the floor made his fingers slip.
He caught my sneaker. I kicked it off, leaving it in his hand.
I was down, but he was down, too. It gave me enough time to scramble forward, ripping my knees
against the rough stone.
Kyle grunted, and his hand clutched at my naked heel. There was nothing to catch hold of; I slid free
again. I wrenched myself forward, pulling to my feet with my head still down, every second in danger of
falling again because my body was moving almost parallel to the floor. I kept my balance through sheer
force of will.
There was no one else. No one to catch me at the exit to the outer room. I sprinted forward, hope and
adrenaline surging in my veins. I burst into the river room at full speed, my only thought to reach the
tunnel. I could hear Kyle’s heavy breath close behind but not close enough. With each step, I pushed
harder against the ground, throwing myself ahead of him.
Pain lanced through my leg, crumpling it.
Over the babble of the river, I heard two heavy stones hit the ground and roll—the one I’d been
clutching and the one he’d thrown to cripple me. My leg twisted under me, spinning me backward to the
ground, and in the same second he was on top of me.
His weight knocked my head against the rock in a ringing blow and pinned me flat against the floor. No
leverage.
Scream!
The air blew out of me in a siren of sound that surprised us all. My wordless shriek was more than I’d
hoped for—surely someone would hear it. Please let that someone be Jeb. Please let him have the gun.
“Uhng!” Kyle protested. His hand was big enough to cover most of my face. His palm mashed against
my mouth, cutting off my scream.
He rolled then, and the motion so took me by surprise that I had no time to try to find an advantage in it.
His hand locked on the back of my neck, forcing my face into the shallow stream of cooler water that
wound its way into the bathing pool. It was too late to hold my breath. I’d already inhaled a mouthful of
water.
My body panicked when the water hit my lungs. Its flailing was stronger than he’d expected. My limbs
all jerked and thrashed in different directions, and his grip on my neck slipped. He tried to get a better
hold, and some instinct made me pull myself into him rather than away, as he was expecting. I only pulled
half a foot closer to him, but that got my chin out of the stream, and enough of my mouth to choke some
of the water back out and drag in a breath.
He fought to push me back into the stream, but I wriggled and wedged myself under him so that his own
weight was working against his goal. I was still reacting to the water in my lungs, coughing and spasming
out of control.
“Enough!” Kyle growled.
He pulled himself off me, and I tried to drag myself away.
“Oh, no, youdon’t! ” he spit through his teeth.
It was over, and I knew it.
There was something wrong with my injured leg. It felt numb, and I couldn’t make it do what I wanted. I
could only push myself along the floor with my arms and my good leg. I was coughing too hard to do
even that well. Too hard to scream again.
Kyle grabbed my wrist and yanked me up from the floor. The weight of my body made my leg buckle,
and I slumped into him.
He got both my wrists in one hand and wrapped the other arm around my waist. He pulled me off the
floor and into his side, like an awkward bag of flour. I twisted, and my good leg kicked against the empty
air.
“Let’s get this over with.”
He jumped over the smaller stream with a bound and carried me toward the closest sinkhole. The steam
from the hot spring washed my face.
He was going to throw me into the dark, hot hole and let the boiling water pull me into the ground as it
burned me.
“No, no!” I shouted, my voice too hoarse and low to carry.
I writhed frantically. My knee knocked against one of the ropy rock columns, and I hooked my foot
around it, trying to yank myself out of his grip. He jerked me free with an impatient grunt.
At least that loosened his hold enough that I could make one more move. It had worked before, so I
tried it again. Instead of trying to free myself, I twisted in and wrapped my legs around his waist, locking
“Getoff me, you —” He fought to knock me loose, and I jerked one of my wrists free. I wrapped that
arm around his neck and grabbed his thick hair. If I was going into the black river, so was he.
Kyle hissed and stopped prying at my leg long enough to punch my side.
I gasped in pain but got my other hand into his hair.
He wrapped both arms around me, as if we were embracing rather than locked in a killing struggle. Then
he grabbed my waist from both sides and heaved with all his strength against my hold.
His hair started to come out in my hands, but he just grunted and pulled harder.
I could hear the steaming water rushing close by, right below me, it seemed. The steam billowed up in a
thick cloud, and for a minute I couldn’t see anything but Kyle’s face, twisted with rage into something
beastlike and merciless.
I felt my bad leg giving. I tried to pull myself closer to him, but his brute strength was winning against my
desperation. He would have me free in a moment, and I would fall into the hissing steam and disappear.
Jared! Jamie!The thought, the agony, belonged to both Melanie and me. They would never know what
had happened to me. Ian. Jeb. Doc. Walter. No goodbyes.
Kyle abruptly jumped into the air and came down with a thud. The jarring impact had the effect he
wanted: my legs came loose.
But before he could take advantage, there was another result.
The cracking sound was deafening. I thought the whole cave was coming down. The floor shuddered
beneath us.
Kyle gasped and jumped back, taking me—hands still locked in his hair—with him. The rock under his
feet, with more cracking and groaning, began to crumble away.
Our combined weight had broken the brittle lip of the hole. As Kyle stumbled away, the crumbling
followed his heavy steps. It was faster than he was.
A piece of the floor disappeared from under his heel, and he went down with a thud. My weight pushed
him back hard, and his head smacked sharply against a stone pillar. His arms fell away from me, limp.
The cracking of the floor settled into a sustained groan. I could feel it shiver beneath Kyle’s body.
I was on his chest. Our legs dangled above empty space, the steam condensing into a million drops on
our skin.
“Kyle?”
There was no answer.
I was afraid to move.
Whimpering in fear, too terrified to think for myself, I did as Melanie ordered. I freed my fingers from
Kyle’s hair and climbed gingerly over his unconscious form, using the pillar as an anchor to pull myself
forward. It felt steady enough, but the floor still moaned under us.
I pulled myself past the pillar and onto the ground beyond it. This ground stayed firm under my hands
and knees, but I scrambled farther away, toward the safety of the exit tunnel.
There was another crack, and I glanced back. One of Kyle’s legs drooped farther down as a rock fell
from beneath it. I heard the splash this time as the chunk of stone met the river below. The ground
shuddered under his weight.
He’s going to fall,I realized.
Good,Melanie snarled.
But… !
If he falls, he can’t kill us, Wanda. If he doesn’t fall, he will.
I can’t just…
Yes, you can. Walk away. Don’t you want to live?
I did. I wanted to live.
Kyle could disappear. And if he did, there was a chance that no one would ever hurt me again. At least
not among the people here. There was still the Seeker to consider, but maybe she would give up
someday, and then I could stay here indefinitely with the humans I loved.…
My leg throbbed, pain replacing some of the numbness. Warm fluid trickled down my lips. I tasted the
moisture without thinking and realized it was my blood.
Walk away, Wanderer.Iwant to live. I want a choice, too.
I could feel the tremors from where I stood. Another piece of floor splashed into the river. Kyle’s weight
shifted, and he slid an inch toward the hole.
Let him go.
Melanie knew better than I what she was talking about. This was her world. Her rules.
I stared at the face of the man who was about to die—the man who wanted me dead. With him
unconscious, Kyle’s face was no longer that of an angry animal. It was relaxed, almost peaceful.
The resemblance to his brother was very apparent.
No!Melanie protested.
I heaved so hard I nearly pulled my arms from their sockets, but he didn’t move. I heard a sound like the
trickle of sand through an hourglass as the floor continued to dissolve into tiny pieces.
I yanked again, but the only result was that the trickle sped up. Shifting his weight was breaking the floor
faster.
Just as I thought that, a large chunk of rock plummeted into the river, and Kyle’s precarious balance was
overthrown. He began to fall.
“No!”I screamed, the siren bursting from my throat again. I flattened myself against the column and
managed to pin him to the other side, locking my hands around his wide chest. My arms ached.
“Help me!” I shrieked. “Somebody! Help!”
CHAPTER 33
Doubted
Another splash. Kyle’s weight tortured my arms.
“Wanda? Wanda!”
“Help me! Kyle! The floor! Help!”
I had my face pressed against the stone, my eyes toward the cave entrance. The light was bright
overhead as the day dawned. I held my breath. My arms screamed.
“Wanda! Where are you?”
Ian leaped through the door, the rifle in his hands, held low and ready. His face was the angry mask his
brother had worn.
“Watch out!” I screamed at him. “The floor is breaking up! I can’t hold him much longer!”
It took him two long seconds to process the scene that was so different from the one he’d been
expecting—Kyle, trying to kill me. The scene that had been, just seconds ago.
Then he threw the gun to the cave floor and started toward me with a long stride.
“Get down—disperse your weight!”
He dropped to all fours and scuttled to me, his eyes burning in the light of dawn.
“Don’t let go,” he cautioned.
I groaned in pain.
“One, two, three,” he grunted.
He pulled Kyle up against the rock, much more securely than I’d had him. The movement smashed my
face into the pillar. The bad side, though—it couldn’t get much more scarred at this point.
“I’m going to pull him to this side. Can you squeeze out?”
“I’ll try.”
I loosened my hold on Kyle, feeling my shoulders ache in relief, making sure Ian had him. Then I
wriggled out from between Ian and the rock, careful not to put myself on a dangerous section of the
floor. I crawled backward a few feet toward the door, ready to make a grab for Ian if he started slipping.
Ian hauled his inert brother around one side of the pillar, dragging him in jerks, a foot at a time. More of
the floor crumbled, but the foundation of the pillar remained intact. A new shelf formed about two feet
out from the column of rock.
Ian crawled backward the way I had, dragging his brother along in short surges of muscle and will.
Within a minute, we were all three in the mouth of the corridor, Ian and I breathing in gasps.
“What… the hell… happened?”
“Our weight… was too… much. Floor caved in.”
“What were you doing… by the edge? With Kyle?”
I put my head down and concentrated on breathing.
Well, tell him.
What will happen then?
You know what will happen. Kyle broke the rules. Jeb will shoot him, or they’ll kick him out.
Maybe Ian will beat the snot out of him first. That would be fun to watch.
Melanie didn’t really mean it—I didn’t think so, anyway. She was just still mad at me for risking our lives
to save our would-be murderer.
Exactly,I told her.And if they kick Kyle out for me… or kill him… I shuddered.Well, can’t you see
how little sense that would make? He’s one of you.
We’ve got a life here, Wanda. You’re jeopardizing that.
It’s my life, too. And I’m… well, I’m me.
Melanie groaned in disgust.
