“Fresh air. It was there and then gone.”
“Weird. Where did it come from?”
“I don’t know.”
Gobble giggled from his perch on my shoulder, but I ignored him. He’d been doing that off and on. I couldn’t worry about what was amusing him. I wanted to tell him to go away, but if I got desperate enough, I’d give him whatever bargain he was after.
We turned a corner, and I slammed into Lucas. He’d stopped walking. “What’s wrong?” I asked as I stepped around him. As soon as I had a better view, the problem was clear. There were no more lit crystals. The walls in the next cavern were all dirt and stone. Nothing glowed.
My heart sped as I noticed four tunnels leading off from where we’d stopped. If we kept going and didn’t pick the right one, we’d be in big trouble. There was no telling where they led and we didn’t have the supplies or the time to be stuck down here for days.
Not to mention that the thought of being lost in these mines made it feel like the walls were closing in on me.
“Can you see anything?” Lucas asked.
“No. I…” I searched for any hint of an aura ahead of us, but couldn’t see anything. I chewed my lip as I tried to decide which route to take, but I none of them felt right. “We had to have missed something. We should backtrack.”
I wasn’t sure where we’d gone wrong, but something had changed. Why would it lead us into a dark chamber with four equally possible routes?
It didn’t matter. I spun around and started walking back.
As we walked back toward the lit crystals, they started flickering. Then, one by one, they went out.
“Are you seeing this?” I asked as I forced my already aching legs to walking faster.
“Yeah.”
The lights started glittering faster and faster. If we lost the path… It was too complicated to remember. Too dark. We’d be lost.
“Run.” I took off, following the flickering lights, trying to stay ahead of them, but the faster I ran, the faster they died. As they started to outpace me, I finally skidded to a stop, gasping for breath. “We’re lost.”
“We’re not lost.” Lucas had gotten farther than I had, but he quickly moved back to me.
I scowled at him as he turned on his flashlight. “Do you know where we are?”
“Not exactly, no. But I can scent our way back to the entrance. So, we’re not lost.”
The breath I’d been holding left my lungs. Living the rest of my life wandering these tunnels until I died of dehydration sounded like a special kind of hell.
Gobble giggled again. This time I was paying attention.
“What do you know?” I angled my head to the side so I could get a good look at him.
“Witches and wolves all distracted by lights and not paying attention.” He rolled his big blue eyes. “I’ll only tell if you pay back the favor. Not helping for free.”
But he’d already said enough. We’d missed something. The exit?
I grasped Lucas’ sleeve. “We’re idiots.”
Lucas narrowed his gaze. “We are?”
“Yeah.” I laughed. “We really are. Where did you smell that fresh air?”
Lucas chuckled. “We are idiots. That’s where the exit is.”
“Exactly. Can you get us back there?”
Lucas nodded. “Sure can. Stay a few steps behind me so I can scent it.”