Page 70 of A Tempest of Intrigue (Tempest of Shadows #4)

CHAPTER SEVENTY

Ellery

Something tapped my face with an urgency that somehow pierced through the pain in my skull. I tried opening my eyes to see what it was, but instead of starry white lights, black filled my vision, and my lashes felt weighted by something.

A gentle brush against my eyes eased the weight and made it easier to see. It took too long for me to realize someone had cleaned debris from my eyes.

I blinked again, but the blackness remained. “Wh… Wh…?”

It was nearly impossible to form words as something clogged my mouth and nose. I choked, and a wracking cough shook my body.

My lungs burned, and it felt like something clogged them as my body worked to expel whatever was trapped inside. The thick, cloying substance filled my mouth before spraying from me in chunks that choked me.

It tasted like… mud. Yes, it had the mineral tang of earth and the consistency of dirt as I continued to hack it up.

My chest ached, and my head felt like someone had smashed it with a rock, but the coughing eased. While the taste remained, after a few more minutes of being able to breathe a little easier, I was certain I’d gotten most of it out of me.

When I lifted my head, pain exploded through it; I shuddered, which did nothing to ease my suffering. Though I tried to stay still to ease the agony pulsing through me, I couldn’t stop the quaking in my body.

My arms quivered so much I almost collapsed onto the ground, but I managed to drag myself away from the stuff I’d coughed up before sinking to the cool earth. The aroma of dirt and rocks filled my nose as my fingers dug up chunks of soil.

Groaning, I rolled onto my back and winced. I rested a hand on my forehead as I tried to figure out why everything hurt so badly and what happened.

Someone was here with me; maybe they knew. “What happened?”

Silence followed my question, but a small hand slid into mine. The prominent bones in the back of the hand flexed against mine when they squeezed it.

I lay for a few minutes waiting for them to respond, or maybe it was only a few seconds. I had no concept of time in the haze of suffering ensnaring me.

Lifting my hand, I felt the back of my skull. My fingers sank into an indent there; it was healing, but that had to be the source of this nasty headache and confusion. My hand fell limply back to my side. Whatever happened, we were vulnerable, and I had to move, but every time I tried to lift my head, bright lights popped across my eyes and a wave of nausea assaulted me. Moving was impossible, but staying still would equal death.

I didn’t know how long I lay there, completely vulnerable to whatever did this to me, but gradually, the pounding in my head eased and I could open my eyes without feeling like I was going to pass out. My head still throbbed, and my legs felt like they were on fire, but when I rolled to the side, I managed to sit up without nearly passing out again.

A small hand settled in the middle of my back as whoever was with me moved so close their chest brushed my arm. “What happened?” I asked again.

Once more, no one responded as one hand remained in mine while the other rubbed my back.

“Mouse?” I whispered.

It was too black to see him, but the movement of his body told me he was nodding. A thousand questions ran through my mind, but since I couldn’t see the boy and he didn’t speak, they were all useless.

Taking another deep breath, I wiped the back of my arm across my mouth and strained to see through the darkness, but it was pointless. The blackness surrounding us was absolute, but there didn’t seem to be any immediate threat, as we were still alive.

Beneath my free hand, the electrical pulse of the earth danced through the ground. Connecting with those pulses, I pulled them forth to create small bolts of lightning that danced between my fingers.

I lifted my hand to illuminate Mouse’s dirt-streaked, prominent cheekbones, tousled black hair, and brown eyes. The wiry boy was paler than normal as he leaned forward to peer at me.

“What happened?” I asked again.

Mouse pointed over my head, and I followed his gaze to the ceiling. I frowned as I tried to understand the tangled mess above us.

What are those things?

Tree roots?

That was what they looked like, but how had we ended up beneath the earth and those roots?

A memory niggled at the back of my mind, but I couldn’t quite put a finger on it. Lowering my head, I rubbed my forehead as I tried to recall what happened.

The memory was there, beyond the fog of pain, but the harder I tried to pull it forth, the more it receded. Instead of trying to force it, I lifted my hand to reveal more of where we were.

The tree roots dangled above and protruded from the rocky, earthen wall surrounding us. They acted completely innocuous, but something about them caused uneasiness in my gut.

A gentle flow of air tickled my cheeks. It wasn’t a breeze, but more a current coming from deeper within the passage, which meant there was air coming from somewhere, and hopefully some way out of this underground cavern.

When I looked above us again, an impending sense of doom settled on my shoulders. Mouse stared at the walls like he was waiting for them to attack, so it wasn’t just my imagination; there was something wrong with the trees.

Think, Ellery. Think!

But I still couldn’t pull the memory from the fog. Even though thinking was still proving difficult, my instincts told me we had to move, and I always trusted my instincts.

Placing my hand on the ground, I pushed myself up and rose. Mouse jumped up beside me, and when I swayed, he released my hand to grasp my arm and steady me.

After a few seconds, I took a deep breath and straightened my shoulders. My legs still throbbed, but my head was getting better.

“I’m okay,” I assured him.

Mouse hesitated before releasing me. Now that we weren’t touching, I let lightning come to life on my free hand and swell up toward my elbows.

The flare of light illuminated more of the cavern. It didn’t take me long to realize we weren’t in a cave; it was a tunnel beneath the forest.

The ceiling was thirty feet overhead, and the walls were at least twenty feet apart. If I stretched out my arms, I wouldn’t come close to touching the sides.

While I didn’t like being underground and surrounded by these trees, at least the space was easy to maneuver… for now. I didn’t want to think about these tunnels getting smaller or what lay in the shadows, because that was how we had to go.

We certainly couldn’t stay here.