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Lark knotted Finn’s bandage tight, wincing when he did “We go through thethe pockets for her things

“That’s not the way,” the wo forward “We know these o out the front entrance, you run the risk of more Teeth,” Lark said To us, she explained, “My way takes us to the other side of thesouth? This will save you days of cli?

“Finn could neverthe prisoners

Even I got weirded out when the rodents cli to the back of her coat with their tiny paws, baby-possuht that was adorable

At that, the locals started heading out, but the wo to resupply, then o deeper into theway” She followed the others

I turned to Matthew, reaching up to brush hair from his forehead “What do you think, sweetheart?”

His brows drew together, his eyes glinting His pupils looked dilated from shock “There’s one, there’s two, there’s three”

“I don’t understand Do you mean three directions?” I asked, but he just blinked at me

As Selena looped one of Finn’s arms across her shoulders, he said, “Let’s do this—Lark’ll lead the way”

Selena glared at him “Why not follow the locals?”

“I know this place,” Lark insisted “I’ us days”

I turned to Jack If we trusted her now and she didn’t betray us, we’d be locking down our alliance Without a strong alliance, ere dead anyway

In French, he grudgingly said, “Separating from those people is probably for the best”

For better or worse, we followed Lark

19

At the start of an offshoot shaft, Jack had tried to hand Lark his torch, but she’d said, “Night vision, dude” Then she’d set off farther into theto her back

If she was distraught over the deaths of her wolves or herthe Strength Card’s single-ht behind her, Selena helping Finn along behind us

Lark see In short succession, she’dround, water sprinkled down fro Jack’s torch hiss As usual, ere soaked, freezing I reainst Jack for support

I worried about his head, Finn’s leg, and Matthew’s haunted gaze The boy was squeezing ht break Yet I didn’t say a word to stop hiht

“Get your flashlight ready,” Jack grated to Selena His torch indling It wouldn’t be long now before it guttered out altogether And Finn was ht be able to see in the dark, but none of us could And down here, dark would be pitch black

“Finn, you doing okay?” I called overhurts like hell, but I’ll live By the way, I hate that dick! Guthrie puts the cult in difficult, huh?”

Selena said, “Past tense”

“Yeah, waking up in his cell was like getting a glass of cold piss in the face Thanks for offing him, Eves”

“Uh, sure”

We’d justbeneath my feet “Did you feel that?”

Jack shook his head But to Lark, he de him out as much as it was me We were both born and raised in Louisiana—there weren’t exactly a lot of ht as well be atop the Alps Or on thenow,” she answered Was one of the rats on her back peeking atto hit a low spot, then we’ll start ascending We’ll see light soon after”

When another quake treust of breath “I felt it”

Just then the entire shaft rocked We had to sidestep to keep our balance Pebbles, sand, and water rained over us

Once Jack’s torch hissed its death, he and Selena scra off a pool of water ahead

We’d come upon the low spot One proble fast, sloshing like rapids

“This is new,” Lark said in a casual tone “We’ll have to cross it How deep do you figure it is?”

Jack handed ave e Without hesitation, he waded out into the water, knee-high, then waist-high; he abruptly sank beneath the surface Just when I was about to run for him, he bobbed up and swahts, his normally-tanned face looked pale, his limbs stiff as he strode out How cold was it in there?

“It drops off And it’s deep We’d have to swi my hand “WATER!”