Page 18

“There’s a vent here!” the scar-faced Potential called.

The sand had stopped again. He banged on the wall at the back of one of the higher shelves.

After a few hits, a small panel on the wall fell inwards, and he shoved it to the ground before climbing inside and calling back at us. “Hope I don’t see you later, fuckers.”

“Still a dickhead,” Kayden said to Ace as the rest of us waited to see what happened, listening to the sound of him crawling along.

“Should we follow?” I asked in a low voice, my eyes drifting above, where I could hear him somewhere in the ceiling.

“Wait.” Ace raised a hand as the dude’s movement went silent.

I held my breath, my ears straining to hear any sound from above.

“Think he got out?” Noah asked, looking up.

Then a scream cracked through the silence, sending chills right through me. The dude pleaded to something unseen, followed by the sounds of a struggle ensuing as he no doubt attempted to flee whatever was attacking him. A clanging and loud, metallic grinding filled the air before a final loud thud.

Silence.

“And another one down,” Ace smirked.

“Shit,” Kayden hissed. “Looks like we’re not heading that way.”

“Agreed.” I nodded quickly. “I’m all for a thrill but that’s a hard pass for me.”

The grinding started again, the walls shaking this time as if to knock us off.

My hands were sweaty as the sand fell around me.

I shut my eyes, holding on tight and trying to prevent any sand granules from scratching at my eyeballs.

They weren’t going to take down this human.

There was no way they were going to bury me like treasure.

They may take my butt crack, but they would never take my freedom.

We would find a way out. There had to be more to this conundrum we found ourselves in.

Think, Zaney, think.

Sand falling quickly, a leap of faith… Wait. Waiiiiitttt.

“What’s the number one rule for quicksand?” I shouted as an idea blossomed in my mind. I was a fucking genius.

“Don’t fall in,” Kayden shouted back.

“But if you do?”

“This isn’t quicksand, Zane. It’s just sand,” Noah said.

“Just answer the question!” I shouted.

“Don’t move,” Noah called. “Movement sucks you in further.”

“Exactly!” I exclaimed, then laughed like a madman and jumped into the sand.

At first, it was immovable, but as I wriggled, I felt myself sink deeper into its embrace.

“Zane! You’re gonna get yourself killed!” Ace shouted, reaching out a hand for me to grab.

Aww. What a sweet dude Ace was, all worried about me.

“I have a hunch! And I’ve always been a bit of a thrill seeker,” I replied with a wide grin, ignoring his hand. “This is going to work, trust me. You just gotta take a leap of faith!”

The sand gave way, and it engulfed me like a whale scooping krill into its humongous mouth. There was nothing but sand around me, pressing in and squishing me tightly.

Okay, maybe I was wrong. Maybe this was the end of me.

I was going to be buried alive.

I may have been getting crushed, but I was sinking deeper than an anchor, too.

I had to ignore the part of me that screamed ‘this was a bad idea’.

Nope, I locked that part of me into a treasure chest to plunder later.

The grinding noise was still going on above, and Noah, Ace, and Kayden were shouting my name, too.

If I died, it would break their hearts, the poor dudes.

I was actually surprised that I could hear them. I would have thought the sand in my ears would block all sound, but apparently it didn’t. Weird, but I wasn’t complaining.

Their shouts were freaking me out a bit, so I decided to ignore all the noise and chill, letting my body move naturally.

I let my imagination take over, sending my mind to another place.

Instead of sand, I was swimming through the ocean, Pip and Delilah by my side as we explored through tunnels and over coral reefs.

I swear I could feel myself moving through the ocean, catching currents and surfing the waves with my besties.

I was riding a huge wave, the gnarly thing towering over me when my board flipped, and I fell into the sea.

Except that when I hit the water, I kept falling and falling, deeper and deeper until my butt hit a hard rock.

“Ouch!” I exclaimed, opening my eyes and rubbing one of my tender cheeks. “That hur— Ha! It worked!”

Jumping to my feet, I grinned excitedly and looked up to where the sand was suspended above me.

Whatever floor had been there was now replaced with a magical shield that held the sand up.

I cupped my hands around my mouth and shouted to the dudes above.

“You gotta get in the sand and do your best interpretation of a seaworm!”

Muffled shouts found their way to me, and I took that as them listening to what I said, or at least understanding to some degree. Excitement filled me as I wriggled, my body like a wave as I continued to shout for them to follow anyway. “Become the sea worm.”

A dark shape appeared above me, the sand shifting to allow Ace to pass through the shield. He fell to the ground, cursing like a sailor when he landed.

“Ace!” I grinned, helping him to his feet. “You trusted me! I knew we were besties. Actions speak louder than words and you have shouted our bromance to the world!”

“I wouldn’t go that far,” he grumbled, rubbing his head.

Look at him, trying to hide his emotions because they were too big for him. I was gonna teach him how to embrace all his feelings one day and wear down his walls like a wave against a cliff.

I looked up to the sand, only to find a panel of flooring had now returned to cover a portion of the shield. Oh, no. “The floor is coming back.”

“Shit,” Ace hissed, then shouted to those above. “Get your asses down here now!”

“Not everyone is gonna get through!” I added quickly. Thuds and muffled shouts sounded from above and I glanced at Ace to see him raise a brow at me. “Should have kept my mouth shut.”

“Ya think?”

Fighting continued above, followed by another shape appearing in the sand.

The Potential who had been hiding on a shelf fell through, landing hard on her shoulder.

She cried out, her arm visibly dislocated.

Another section of the floor appeared, the escape route growing smaller.

I offered a hand to her, and she gave me a tight-lipped smile as I helped her to her feet.

We were in a competition, but I wasn’t a complete jerk.

Noah came through next, much to my relief. I launched myself at him, wrapping my arms around him, and hugged the dude close. “I’m as happy as a clam to see you.”

“Kayden shoved me in,” he said, patting me on the back and then shrugging me off him. “He should be next.”

He wasn’t.

Another Potential came through, followed by three others, and I was starting to freak out a little. The floor had almost fully reappeared; only one person could fit through now. I wrung my hands, desperately looking for Kayden to be the one.

“He’ll come,” Noah assured me, leaning up against a wall, a hand on his bad leg.

“Yeah, no fucker is getting past him unless he allows it,” Ace said, eyeing the Potentials who had just come through the sand.

The worst kind of thoughts crept into my mind. “What if he doesn’t? What if he gets stuck up there and I never get to say goodbye?”

“He’ll be next,” Noah replied with a grimace. “Trust me.”

Time passed slowly and I was starting to think no one was coming when the sand started shifting around. A couple of grunts had my heart skip and then Kayden dropped, gracefully landing on his feet like a cat, right as the floor above sealed shut.

“I knew you’d make it.” I smiled, hugging his bulky form. It was like cuddling a rock, all hard and rigid, but I didn’t care. The big guy was part of my pod.

“Sure, you did,” Noah scoffed, earning a chuckle from Ace.

A gargled scream drowned out our happy reunion, and then an eerie silence fell over us all. The lights went out, followed by specks along the floor lighting up, like guides along a theatre aisle.

“Guess we follow the lights,” Kayden said, striding past me and heading down the low-lit hallway.

Our small group of Potentials followed, and I did my best not to think about another dark passage from the second trial. I was starting to get a complex about being in the dark.

At the end of the passage, lights flickered on above, illuminating three elevators. Kayden jabbed a finger at the ‘up’ button and we stood watching as the floor numbers counted down above the metal doors.

“Which one?” Ace asked, looking between the elevators. He had Noah’s arm propped over his shoulders, holding the dude up. Ace was seriously such a sweetie when he wanted to be.

“No idea,” Noah replied. “But I think we should split from the other Potentials.”

“Agreed.” Kayden nodded, glaring at the remaining Potentials. His gaze caused one of them to stumble backwards into the wall.

Chimes filled the air as the doors of the elevators opened to reveal mirrored internal walls.

“Which—”

“This one,” I announced, striding into the middle elevator. “Something about it tickles my gills.”

“I hope that’s a good thing,” Kayden said with a raised brow at Noah.

“Silly sea slug.” I laughed, waving a hand at them all to join me. “Of course it is. All aboard! Hurry up, this ship is about to set sail!”

“Fuck it,” Ace replied, following with Noah. The trust between us, the two Dolphin Detectives, was palpable.

Kayden hopped in soon after and my heart was ready to burst like an overblown puffer fish. I loved these guys.

“Wipe that look off your face and close the doors,” Ace snapped, which was basically an admission of love because not long ago he would have hit me or something. Progress. We’d be hugging any day now.

Noah pushed one of the many buttons on the wall and the door slid shut, locking out the other Potentials, not that they were overly keen to join us with Kayden standing at the threshold massaging his fist.

An upbeat instrumental piece played over the elevator speakers, and I moved my hips to the rhythm. “This is it, dudes, this has to be the end of the trial.”

“You might jinx it,” Kayden said, leaning his back up against the wall, his broad arms folded over his just as wide chest.

“Whatever it is,” Noah began, looking between us all. “We’ll tackle it together.”

Okay, now he was screaming for a hug, I just knew it. I darted towards him, but Kayden flung out an arm in my path, just as a ding sounded. The elevator stopped, and the door slid open to another hallway.

A voice surrounded us, cool and calm. “Level Three, Veritas.”