He was hallucinating. “Cass, the newspaper is gone!” I said.
“My family…” Cass said. “Gone, too. Not dead…gone.”
As I struggled to my feet I remembered the headline, going up in flames. “Cass, that article…the crime-spree couple…?”
“What are you talking about?” Aly demanded.
“Mom…Dad…” Cass’s eyes were wild, desperate. “Never met them…but I found out. Life sentence…gave me up. At birth. Four foster families. Five? I don’t know. Bad…son. So bad. Ran away…”
The words hit hard.
My family isn’t close…I remembered what Cass had said when we’d talked about our families. “Cass, we don’t care who your parents are,” I said. “You’re coming with us.”
“You have families,” Cass insisted. “I have nothing. Go!”
Aly’s eyes were full of tears. “Cass, we’re all the same now. We’re all each other has—”
“Left…” Cass said, his voice a raspy whisper.
“Exactly,” Aly agreed.
“No…go left…” he said. “About…fifteen degrees. Not straight. Not too sharp either…fifteen degrees or so…”
His voice drifted off.
“Cass!” I shouted, shaking him.
Aly felt his neck for a pulse. “He’s alive. Maybe we should turn back…get him help.”
“But Marco—” I said.
“We can’t save Marco,” Aly said. “We may not ever find him now. But if we retrace our steps and return, we can save Cass.”
I set Cass down on the floor. I couldn’t go another inch with him. I was on the verge of collapse myself. His weight was killing my sore left shoulder. Aly looked half dead. “We can’t go back the way we came. We’ll burn alive, Aly.”
“Right, you’re right.” She squinted ahead. “Okay. He said fifteen degrees.”
“You’re at a street corner…” I gasped. “You turn clockwise. Right turn is ninety degrees, backward one-eighty. Left turn two-seventy.”
As I lifted Cass again, I slid the flashlight toward Aly with my foot. “Take this.”
As Aly bent to pick it up, she coughed violently. Dark brown fluid dripped from her mouth.
She flicked on the light and shone it ahead. Its beam shook with the rhythm of her coughing. A bat chittered overhead, zigzagging among the stalactites. The light was nearly gone now, but it revealed a turn ahead. At about fifteen degrees.
“Go left,” Aly said. “And pray.”
Moving with Cass sent a stab of intense pain down my left side, but I held tight. Collapsing would do neither of us any good. “Okay. Ready.”
“Are you sure you can do this?” Aly asked.
I nodded firmly. “For a brother, I can.”
The tunnel seemed to go on forever. Bats squeaked overhead, scolding us. I could barely walk. My shoulder was completely numb.
We used the flashlight only sparingly. I was banging poor Cass into the wall. Finally I stepped into a hole and we both nearly went flying. I screamed. My body was pure agony now, shoulder to foot. “Setting him…down,” I said through gritted teeth. “My ankle feels broken…”
I sank against the wall and set Cass in my lap. He needed a cushion. Holding him in a kind of modified bear hug, I felt my eyes close.
A little sleep couldn’t hurt. Just a minute.
“Jack?” Aly said. “You don’t look good.”
I could see them in my mind now. The king and queen. They were expecting me. But they looked sad.
“I did…the best I could,” I said. A soft, slightly cool breeze caressed my right side, sending me deeper into dreamland. Closer to Uhla’ar and Qalani.
Now the queen’s face was changing. Her regal features softened, reshaping into a smile so familiar that I felt I’d been seeing every day.
“Hi, Mom,” I said. I wanted to let go. I wanted to join her. It had been so long, and I had lost her so quickly. I missed her so much.
“Jack, don’t go to sleep!” Aly was screaming.
I could sense a dim glow under my lids, but I wanted darkness. I was ready for it. “Please turn off…the light…”
CHAPTER THIRTY
GOING, GOING, GONE
“IT’S NOT ON!”
The sharp slap to my cheek stung. My eyes flickered open, and Mom’s smile was replaced by the charred, peeling face of Aly Black. “What?” I moaned.
“The flashlight, Jack,” she said. “It’s not on. The light is coming from somewhere else!”
My eyes blinked open. She was right. The glow was farther ahead in the tunnel. The same direction as the breeze.
Breeze? Through the wall of pain, little bits of reality peeked through the cracks. Breeze meant air. Air meant a connection to the outside world.
“Help me up,” I said, lifting Cass off my lap.
“Uhhhnn…” He was stirring now, reviving.
Aly helped me get him upright. I stood, once again wrapping Cass’s arm around my shoulder.
We staggered toward the faint glow. The tunnel seemed to be widening. My momentary sleep must have done me good. I had a bit of strength.
I could see Aly in silhouette now. Her eyes had swollen badly. “How are you doing?” I asked.
“I look bad, huh?” she said.
I tried to shine the flashlight in her face, but the light had finally died. Still, even in the soft glow I could see that her eyes were nearly shut, her lips cracked and scabbed, her skin covered with angry red blotches. “You look fine,” I lied.
“Jack, look!” She gestured to an ominous narrow floor-to-ceiling archway in the wall to the right.
The breeze was stronger now, warmer. I could hear a low, distant crashing noise. The glow—and the breeze—were clearly coming from beyond the archway.
“What is that?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” I said.
Aly froze. “Jack…” she said, her voice thin and high-pitched. “This rush of air…warmth, light—I think we’re heading back into the fire. We’ve gone in a circle.”
Her eyes were slitted lanterns, her red-patterned face a fright mask. Panic seized me. Cass’s arm nearly slid off my shoulder.
I knew I looked as bad as she did. My own skin was pulling, my own sight lines shrinking. We all needed medical help. We were running on adrenaline and whatever advantage G7W gave us, if any. Cass was nearly dead. To march back into an advancing fire was crazy. Suicidal.
“Let me…try to carry him for a while,” Aly said, kneeling next to Cass. “Switch off…we’ll find another path…”
“Aly, no,” I said. “We’ll get lost—”
“What other choice do we have, Jack?”
Aly’s shout echoed dully against the stone walls. Then it seemed to echo again. From beyond the archway.
A gust of warm air surrounded me. A tiny droplet of moisture formed on my nose.
Moisture.
Aly collapsed, trying to lift Cass. “Help me do this…”
“Aly, that’s not the fire in there,” I exclaimed. “Look at my nose!”
She came closer. “It’s burned, Jack—”
“It’s wet!” I said. “So’s my face. So’s yours. A fire makes the air dry, Aly. It sucks oxygen into itself. It doesn’t send out damp breezes!”
Cass was stirring now, muttering. His heat-swollen eyes blinked. “I feel like…a llorggedeirf.”
I dropped next to him. “What, Cass? I can’t understand you.”
“Fried egg roll,” he said. “Sorry. Note to self: stop speaking backward.”
Aly and I looked at each other. This didn’t seem possible.
She knelt. Tears were making gray rivulets down her cheek. “Welcome back, Cass,” she said softly.
“Easy for you to say,” Cass replied.
I couldn’t believe it. He was struggling to his feet.
“Cass, take it easy!” Aly said, reaching out to him.
He took her hand and put it on his shoulder. “Let me…lean on you…”
As he stood slowly, wobbling, I put his other arm around my shoulder. The tunnel would be just wide enough for the three of us. We turned back toward the dim light, the source of the moisture. At first, Cass’s legs were almost useless. But things changed when we made the turn into the right-hand tunnel. He began taking more of his weight. Easing the pain in my ankle.
We picked up the pace. The light glowed brighter and the gusts picked up intensity. They soothed and tickled, seeming to wash away part of the pain. My shallow breaths grew deeper. Even my eyes seemed to be seeing more.
But the crashing sound was increasing, too—continuous, like a machine.
“We’re almost there,” Cass said. His eyes were open now, a pained smile growing on his face. “You did it.”
He dropped his arm from my shoulder. As I lowered mine, I caught a glimpse of his chest. It had stopped bleeding. The oozy welts down his front were now dry red swooshes. The bubbled skin on his face had receded. “Cass—your chest,” I said. “It’s healing!”
Aly smiled wanly. “You don’t look like Quasimodo anymore,” she said.
I smiled at Aly—and I realized her eyes were returning slowly to normal, too. “And you don’t look like ET.”
Her smile vanished. “I looked like ET?”
“Almost…there…” Cass interrupted.
Aly and I picked up speed. Cass’s legs were stronger, and he was supporting more of his own weight. Ahead of us, the light pulsed with the rhythm of the crashing sounds. Our feet caught on rocks and bumps, but we managed to stay upright.
The tunnel veered ninety degrees to the left. We made the turn and stopped short.
Here, the wall’s stones were long and lined vertically like sinew. They seemed to beckon my eyes upward, to an impossibly high ceiling, like in a cathedral.
The source of the crashing noise was a distant waterfall, surging out of the darkness above. The tunnel was suffused by a soft light that seemed to come from some unseen place.
We started forward, but Cass pushed our arms away. On wobbly legs, he stumbled toward the water. “Cass, careful!” Aly said, reaching toward him.
I took her arm and held firm. “No,” I said. “Let him.”
Cass seemed to be gaining strength. He managed to rip away the remaining shreds of his tattered jeans as he walked, continuing on in a pair of grime-blackened Simpsons shorts, black socks, and Converse sneakers.
“I don’t believe this,” Aly said.
“What, that he was a Simpsons fan?” I remarked.
She jabbed me in the side. It felt good.
“Come on,” she said, moving forward toward Cass.
I followed, taking care not to further injure my ankle. Cass was in the pool now, up to his neck. His head was angled upward, the ghost of a smile animating his face. As Aly waded toward him, the water rising to her waist, I stepped in.
The water was cool, not cold, with a softness that seemed to caress. Oh, did it feel nice. The waves of pain—my ankle, my arm, my shoulder—all briefly flared and then began to ease up. Aly and Cass were standing silently to my right. Aly’s eyes were wide in utter bafflement.
Staying close to the edge of the pool, in water up to my chest, I moved closer to the falling stream. Standing underneath, I looked upward and felt the force on my face and chest, my back and legs. I let the water wash off the guano, the soot, the shreds of Cass’s ripped clothing and mine. And other things, too—the pain and worry, the rot and weakness. The feeling that Death was digging into me, licking its greedy lips.
All going, going…gone.
I closed my eyes and lifted my arms. I felt Aly and Cass on either side of me. They clasped my hands and we stood there, drinking it in, gaining strength. We had no clue why any of this was happening but also the good sense not to ask any questions.
Even with my eyes closed, the light was more intense than before. I opened them. The light source seemed to be coming from behind the waterfall.
I let go of my friends and stepped slowly forward. The full force of the water hit me hard. The throbbing had returned to the back of my head. I waded as fast as I could until I passed completely under it.
The pool extended into a deep grotto. Almost immediately the sound of the rushing water subsided to a muffled roar. I shielded my eyes against a shocking brightness.
The lagoon’s rocky bottom began to slope upward, like the steps of an outdoor pool. Soon I was emerging from the water onto a high rock platform. My eyes were adjusting to the light now, and I saw a stadium-like area flooded with light.
Sunlight.
“Jack, what are you doing?”
I spun around. It was Aly, emerging from the water. Her skin was lined only lightly, her posture strong.
Cass was behind her in a nanosecond. His boxers seemed even more ridiculous clean than dirty, but I barely noticed that.
His chest bore only the traces of scars. His face looked as if it were marked by a long-ago sunburn that had recently peeled.
“Guys…” I said. “You’re…normal.”
“That’s the first time anyone’s called me that in my life,” Aly said.
Cass was gazing with squinted eyes at the area behind me. “Where on earth are we?” he said under his breath.
I turned and moved closer. The spray of the waterfall pattered lightly at my back.
As I entered the circle of light, I nearly stumbled on a thick branch I hadn’t seen jutting into the entrance.
No. Not a branch. A foot.
I jumped aside and looked down.
There was no mistaking the ragged, water-soaked figure against the wall.
“Marco?” I said.
CHAPTER THIRY - ONE
MARCO
WE RAN TOWARD the slumped body. I think we all were scared of what we’d see up close. All around us loomed vertical rock walls, impossibly high, shadowed with sharp crags and ledges. The body of the vromaski lay in a flattened heap against the wall, about fifty feet away. The walls formed a circle at the top, framing a deep blue late-afternoon sky. We had made it into the crater of the volcano. We had beaten the Atlantean maze. But as we knelt by our fallen friend, it didn’t seem like such a wonderful accomplishment.
Marco was facedown on the ground, his body twisted. White fragments were scattered nearby. It took a moment to realize they were his teeth.
“Oh, no, no, no, no, no…” Aly moaned.
Jubilant only a moment ago, Cass was now drawn and pale.
As I knelt next to Marco, my knees shook. Taking his shoulder, I pulled gently, afraid of what I’d see. His arm slid toward me, whacking my knee. I jumped away, nearly knocking over Aly and Cass, who were clutching each other.
Marco flopped onto his back, ashen and motionless. His face was crisscrossed with cuts. His mouth looked sunken, his jaw wrenched to one side. Mist blew over his body like the fingers of a fuzzy ghost. He hadn’t asked for this. He had been taken from his home, his family, just like us. To become a supposed superhero.
They didn’t know what we did. That they’d failed. That he’d been a real hero.
“Jack, there’s like a hundred tooth fragments over there,” Cass said. “And…and…other stuff.”
He turned away, looking like he was about to hurl.
I looked at Aly and then Cass. “Well, we have a mission, don’t we?”
Cass nodded grimly and stood. “Let’s lift him. We have to get him back.”
He lifted Marco’s feet off the ground, and I went around to the other side. As I dug my hands under his shoulders, I recoiled. “He’s…warm,” I said.
“He’s been in the sun,” Aly reminded me, in a measured voice. “Keep it together, Jack.”
I knelt and grabbed his shoulders again. “One…” Aly said. “Two…”
Marco blinked.
We all screamed.
I dropped him and leaped to my feet.
His face fell to the side again. We waited. No one breathed. For a long time, nothing happened. My heart ping-ponged.
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I looked upward to the top of the caldera, where we’d fought the vromaski. It was at least fifteen stories up. In sheer physical terms, Marco was like a one-hundred-eighty-pound weight dropped from a skyscraper. No one could survive that kind of fall.
I glanced at Cass and Aly and could tell they were thinking the same thing.
Okay, it was an automatic movement. Bodies do stuff like that. Man up. That’s what Marco would say.
“Let’s try again…” I said, my voice parched.
As I bent down, Marco moaned.
I fell to my knees in shock. His head twitched. His mouth was moving. I bit my lip, just to be sure I wasn’t dreaming.
“M-M-Marco?” Cass said.
“His fall…maybe it was stopped by t-t-trees…growing out of the caldera walls,” Aly said weakly, as if trying to ground this in some sort of logic. “Roots…bushes…”
“Yeah, and it’s raining salamanders,” I said, shaking my head. “It wasn’t a root, Aly. Look at the vromaski. He’s completely totalled. It was the water. Marco’s wet. He fell close enough to get some of the spray. It kept him alive.” I couldn’t believe the words coming out of my mouth. “Marco is alive!”
Marco’s eyes seemed to roll in their sockets, wild and unfocused. When he tried to speak, his voice was a grotesque squeak.
“Lift him.” Cass stood, his face taut with urgency. “Don’t just stand there, lift him! I’ll take the feet. Jack, you take the arms, Aly take the middle.”
“Cass…?” I said, numb and confused.
“Now! Or I’ll take him myself!” Cass cried out. “We have to get him to the waterfall.”
Numbly I lifted Marco by the shoulders. His head flopped back, a trail of blood oozing from the corner of his mouth. Aly quickly folded his hands across his chest and then crouched underneath him. We lifted his body to shoulder level and walked him back through the passageway, stepping carefully down into the pool.
The crashing water pelted us as we approached. When we were almost underneath, Cass shouted, “Lower him in—now!”
I grabbed tight and slipped out from under Marco. He was unbelievably heavy. Cass and Aly were already submerging his legs as I angled my body to turn around. “Slow down!” I yelled.