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Something stung against his bicep. Adam ignored it, continuing to swim until he came up against the smooth expanse of a wall. He held Ellie there as she flailed at his face until his own lungs started to burn.

He pushed up gently against the rocky base of the pool, following the slick shape of the wall as he broke the surface.

It was shallower here at the edges of the well. With his boots planted on the ground, the water lapped at Adam’s chest.

He tugged Ellie closer as she hauled in a breath, covered her lips with his hand, and set his mouth to her ear.

“Quiet,” he breathed.

She nodded. He could feel the way her heart was pounding.

He let his hand fall away but didn’t let her go—not yet. Ellie wouldn’t like being restrained, but she tolerated it for now—for which Adam was deeply, silently grateful. He wasn’t ready to release her… not when the threat still loomed above them.

“Give me the bone.” Jacobs’ voice echoed down coldly from above.

“One more time,” Adam whispered.

Ellie nodded, her face a paler oval against the gloom.

Light flared to life above them. It was far brighter than the lantern had been, like a thousand candles blazing with sudden and impossible intensity.

Ellie’s eyes widened with shock, but at Adam’s tug, she sank, dropping down to hover just below the surface.

Through the wavering distortion of the water, Adam saw the light grow brighter—and knew that Jacobs was holding the firebird arcanum over the mouth of the cenote.

Even through the water, the glare radiated fiercely. Adam could see the wondering question in Ellie’s gaze as she whipped her head around to look at him.

The light dimmed, flickered, and then went out. The cenote dropped back into a darkness that felt absolute by comparison.

Adam drew his head back out of the water, careful to stay silent. Ellie did the same beside him.

As his eyes slowly readjusted to the gloom, Jacobs’ voice carried down from above.

“If they are still alive, they will not be able to climb out,” he declared flatly. “Let them drown or starve. Either way, they’re no trouble to us any longer.”

His footsteps crunched against the stones as he moved away.

The others followed. Only one silhouette moved closer—it was Mendez, hesitating at the edge of the well. At a barked order, he hurried after the others, leaving Adam and Ellie alone in the dark.

?

Thirty-Six

Ellie waited forher eyes to adjust to the darkness. The hot fury under her skin was a sharp contrast to the cool water in which she stood.

She didn’t need to see to know that Jacobs was right. During that moment of bizarre illumination, she had managed to get a brief glimpse of the walls of the hole into which Adam had dragged her. It had been enough to show her that they weren’t climbable.

It was entirely reasonable for Jacobs to leave her and Adam there, even if he wasn’t sure that they had been shot. He didn’t have to be.

They had jumped into a perfect trap.

But that wasn’t what pushed a fierce anger up inside of her. Ellie knew that the reason for her quick-burning fury was trivial in the face of their current situation—but she couldn’t let it go.

Her eyes had recovered enough to make out Adam’s general shape in the darkness, from the line of his shoulders above the water to the hair plastered to his skull.

He started to speak. His tone was uncharacteristically solemn.

“Princess, I—”