Page 25 of Stealing Mercury (Arena Dogs #1)

“He’s below here,” said Lo. “Do we risk collapsing this area over him?” Lo’s dark eyes telegraphed his trust and willingness to follow.

Nothing in the arena had prepared them for this. “It didn’t collapse when I dug there before, but we can move to the side a bit. We have no choice but to dig.”

Carefully, they scooped the dirt away, hoping the weight of the dirt being moved wouldn’t cause the very collapse they hoped to avoid. Mercury could hear Carn now. His breath was ragged and strained.

They dug and dug. The dirt had been loosened and moved easily, but there was a lot of it and every time the dirt shifted, more would tumble in to fill up the hole. They worked in silence as the sun overhead marched steadily down the sky.

He couldn’t be sure how long they’d been digging when they heard Carn moan. His breath turned into a pant of panic.

“We’re here, Carn. We’re going to get you out.” Mercury spoke loudly but avoided shouting. The area around them had become less and less stable as they’d shifted the dirt around.

Carn calmed below, but he didn’t answer. They dug faster... until they heard a shower of earth fall free below them. The surface where they lay didn’t shift, but they heard Carn sputter and spit.

Mercury tried for calm as he called out to his buried brother. “Are you okay?”

“Yes.” The strained word drifted up alone at first. “The dirt above fell. Can you work faster?”

“If we do, more dirt might fall. Can you move to the side?”

“No.” Again the one word set heavily in the air for a moment. “Leave me.”

Mercury had no intention of leaving him, so he ignored Carn’s command and continued to work.

“I won’t be able to walk,” Carn shouted up. “I’m safe where I am. Let me stay here and heal.” A cough interrupted his speech.

Mercury wanted to tell him to save his breath, but he knew Carn was no longer thinking clearly.

“Go and shut down the noise,” Carn continued. “I know you can both hear it now. When I’m stronger, I’ll climb out.”

Mercury gritted his teeth against the slow boil of frustration. “This is taking too long.”

Lo tilted his head, ears flicking. “He sounds weaker.”

“Fuck.”

“He could be bleeding out.” Lo’s raspy whisper faded into nothing.

“Hey, guys?” Samantha’s voice drifted down again as it had several times as they dug. The concern in her voice had changed to something more urgent. “Do you think you’re going to break through anytime soon?”

“We have more digging to do.”

“I was afraid you were going to say that. Watch out below, I’m coming down.”

“No!” Mercury added his growl to his voice, but it was too late. She was already over the side and moving down the rope. A small part of the edge collapsed in and tumbled down around them. Not enough to harm, but enough to make it clear the area could collapse further at any moment.

Mercury belly-crawled over to the rope and steadied it as she crawled down ending in his arms.

“You shouldn’t have come.”

“I didn’t have a choice.” He wanted to argue, but her fingers on his lips stayed his lecture. “There’s a storm coming. I’ve been watching the rain moving our way for the last hour.”

“Rain?” He looked up to see the trees shaking.

“Yes. The water will come pouring down here in an hour or so. We’re running out of time.” Her knuckles were white where she gripped the rope, but he didn’t think it was a fear of falling that had her so tense.

“You can’t be down here.” He was grateful for her warning, but he wanted her safely back up the rope. “This area could collapse.”

“I know,” she said. “Right on top of Carn.”

“If we dig faster, we could create the same result.”

“I heard Lo say there was a passage down here.”

Why wouldn’t she go back up? She knew the need for speed. “The passage is too small.”

“Let me try.”

“No.” The response came automatically, but her offer meant he could no longer dismiss the possibility he’d been unwilling to contemplate.

She took one hand off the rope and reached for him. “He could be bleeding or trapped. If I can get down there, I could stabilize him. Maybe move him to a safer part of the cavern. Then you could dig faster. We don’t have time to argue.”

Mercury cupped her face. “My brave courra . If anything happens to you—”

“I’ll be careful,” she interrupted.

Careful. He doubted it. It seemed she was always jumping into trouble. If she’d been careful, they’d still be headed to the hunt planet. “Spread your weight across the ground and wait until I free the rope.”

Samantha’s brows lifted. “The rope?”

“You’re not going down there without some way for me to pull you back.”

Mercury made sure she was in a stable spot, then scrambled up the side of the rift.

Working quickly, he untied the rope and tossed it down to Lo, who’d moved into position near Samantha.

He knew she was still uneasy with his troubled brother, but she fought to accept him.

If anything happened to her... He had no idea how to finish the thought.

She was human or close enough to have lived her life as one.

She should mean nothing to him, but she had quickly come to mean everything.

***

Samantha waited impatiently as Lo tied the rope around her waist. “Where’s the opening?”

“Just below.”

As he released her, he crawled down and over, then reached out a hand to guide her. She hesitated only a moment. She no longer worried he might intentionally hurt her, but it was hard not to fear those claws.

When she took his hand, he guided her to a narrow hole that hadn’t been visible from above. He moved closer, pressing against her and increasing her heart rate.

“Don’t be afraid. This area is more stable because of the rock.”

She wasn’t sure it was fear that made her heart pound. Every time he got near, her insides tightened and every place he touched her burned.

He tugged at her pack, and she shrugged out of it. The opening was narrow and dark and too tight for her to wear it, but she clung to one strap.

“If he’s hurt, I’ll need the supplies,” she explained.

He released it with a nod. “Push it in front of you.”

His hands returned to her waist. She pushed the pack into the darkness, then reached in and gripped the cool rock. The rough surface scratched her palms as she pulled herself forward. Strong hands slipped from her hips down her legs as she worked her way forward.

Her shoulders fit easily into the crevasse, but it was hard to maneuver.

She had to wiggle like a worm until the passage turned sharply down.

She froze and listened as her pack clattered downward.

It sounded like it was at least a few meters, but it did hit bottom fairly quickly.

She reached down and spread her hands out.

It seemed wide enough, but the drop continued past where she could reach.

She considered backing out and turning to drop feet first, but she’d already wasted too much time and she had no idea what would be ahead after the drop.

“You’ll have to let go now.”

Lo had one hand around her ankle. The weight of it lifted away and then the slack in the rope at her waist disappeared.

She moved forward slowly, the rope keeping her from dropping too fast. The space opened out and she couldn’t reach anything, but she was able to get one hand wrapped around the rope.

As her feet left the confines of the passage, she twisted but the rope kept her steady.

Her feet ended up beneath her and she lowered several meters before they touched what she hoped was the ground.

As the rope went slack leaving her weight on her feet, something crunched beneath her boots.

She cringed, visions of an army of insects crawling through her head.

Squatting down, she carefully spread her hands, searching for the pack.

She sighed with relief when the cloth materialized out of the darkness beneath her fingers.

She pulled the light out and switched it on, casting a narrow beam against a rock wall a meter away.

Dirt swirled in the narrow beam like nightmoths drawn to the light, but she didn’t see or hear the crawling critters she’d feared.

She pulled the bottom of her shirt up to her mouth as a makeshift mask.

Whatever had kept the earth above from collapsing the cavern had allowed enough of the dirt in to make the air thick with the stuff.

She shifted her weight to stand and froze at the unsettling shifting underfoot.

Slowly, she aimed the light down on the floor.

It bounced back at her, revealing the dirty white of bone.

Everywhere.

The bones of a hand lay crushed beneath her boot.

Her pack sat in the yawning gap at the center of a crumbling ribcage.

“Breathe, little female.” Lo’s voice drifted down from above, seeming much too far away, but she took his advice and forced air through her reluctant lungs.

Muffled voices and scrambling movements above gave her the moment she needed to recover her wits. She carefully shifted away bone fragments until her boots were steady on the solid floor, then slung the pack over her shoulder and stood.

“Samantha? Talk to me, courra .” The rough growl couldn’t hide the worry in Mercury’s voice.

“I’m okay.” She answered softly, knowing Lo would hear, and feeling less brave than when she’d volunteered to dive head first into a dark pit.

She swept the light across the cavern, turning in a slow circle and hoping whatever was responsible for the bones had long since departed.

“Can you see Carn?” Mercury paused. “Your dark clouds are overhead now.”

Samantha understood the gentle reminder of the need to hurry, but the dark was disorienting, so all she could do was to make a methodical sweep. “Not yet.”

Where she stood, the cavern spanned three meters across. Bone dotted the floor—some recognizable as having belonged to a single skeleton, but others had been scattered making it hard to tell the number of dead.