FORTY-FIVE

Caitlyn’s ankle ached, and it seemed to her that with each step, she needed to put more and more weight on her walking stick, jabbing it into the floor of the tunnel.

She needed to move faster.

Twice she’d seen a flash of light in the depths of darkness behind her. Both times had happened when she’d reached the end of a long straight stretch, flashes of light so brief she’d hoped they were her imagination.

She knew otherwise, though, and was convinced it could be none other than Mason Lee. He was like the devil, supernatural in his ability to hunt.

She pushed on. The coal miner’s flashlight on her head seemed to be growing dimmer each minute, and that added to her sense of urgency. She had made two turns. Brij had promised her that the third would take her to the waterfall. She didn’t need much extra time to finally lose Mason.

She reached a fork in the tunnels, then searched the monitor for the symbol among the nineteen others. She saw it on the right-hand turn.

As she entered the new tunnel, a cool breeze pushed into her face.

It gave her renewed energy. Somewhere ahead was the bridge. She could hear the muted rush of water. The waterfall Papa had described! All she had to do was cross the bridge and—

It felt like a giant knife plunging into her back. The pain drove her to her knees. Without the walking cane, she would have fallen.

Then, just as quickly and just as mysteriously, it disappeared, leaving her panting.

Four steps later, another bolt of pain speared her, like lightning appearing from nowhere. This time she was unable to keep her balance. She fell, rolling over her injured ankle.

On her stomach, she clenched her teeth to keep from screaming. It felt like the skin of her back was rippling and had come to life, like an alien creature was struggling to escape from her body.

She couldn’t do anything but fight it. It had taken over her body, and she shook as if in a violent seizure.

Something was pulling her apart.

Pulling, pulling, pulling.

A final, intense rip contracted, and Caitlyn beat a fist against the floor, fighting the pain.

Then nothing. The pain was gone, like the aftermath of a thunderstorm.

She pushed to her knees. With her upper body vertical, a warm fluid seeped onto her hips.

Was she bleeding? Was she dying?

Then she became aware of another sensation on her back, and her mind explored it with wonder.

Was it…?

Another flash of light. Not behind closed eyelids, the bursting of white from jaw-clenching pain, but a flashlight, bouncing off the tunnel walls.

Her pursuer was closing in. No time to wonder.

She hobbled forward in a half run.

If she could cross the bridge in time, she’d lose him. Brij had promised the bridge was safety.

Here the cool wind was stronger. Her beam of light showed a web of ropes. The bridge. And at her feet, the floor of the tunnel ended abruptly. A drop-off.

She turned her light downward, but the darkness extended far beyond its beam. She turned it to the sound of water and saw cascading falls, dozens of feet wide. Spray came from a turbine centered in the heavy stream of water.

She sensed a feeling of height and trembled.

It was the same trembling of joy she’d always experienced as a child when Papa took her on mountain climbs, especially on the edge of a cliff. The feeling that all she had to do was step out into the air and she would be home.

Here, however, the feeling was so overwhelming that she threw her walking stick out into the void. Watched it with the beam of her flashlight until it disappeared.

Jump, her instincts commanded. Jump!

She clutched at the rope beside her, as if she were holding herself back against a force trying to suck her into the void. It was the guide rope to the bridge.

Behind her, another flash of light. Her pursuer. This time, the light did not disappear.

Whoever it was had made it into the final stretch of tunnel.

Caitlyn had no choice but to step onto the bridge. With her injured ankle, it was agony. But the rope bridge was constructed with a waist-high guide rope on each side. She held on to the ropes and shuffled forward. Her back was warm and wet, as if a thick fluid seeped across her skin.

Progress was slow. Too slow.

She was only halfway across when her pursuer reached the end of the tunnel.

She tried to make herself shrink as the beam of light seemed to pin her in place.