Chapter 12

A heavy weight pushed down on Bailey. He fought his way up through darkness. He had to get free. He needed to get Fiona out of here. Together, they would find Anna and get away from this disintegrating hole in the earth.

His eyes flew open as he thought of his sister. Dirt fell in his eyes. He breathed it in, choked and coughed. His lungs felt like they could explode. He was buried, buried alive.

He pushed against rocks and dirt, clawing his way through the filthy rubble. How had he gotten here?

First, he had seen Anna. Then someone had decked him from behind. He must have passed out, and when he started to come around, the whole damn cave had fallen in.

He had to get out of here. He had to breathe.

Rocks began to fall away with more ease. He became aware of intense pain in his right leg. He couldn’t move it. Still fighting to get the upper part of his body free, he rode the growing pain as he had ridden the waves off Malibu as a daredevil teen, knowing at any minute he could be crushed.

The pain curled over him just as Fiona’s face came into view. She was working feverishly, pulling dirt and rocks away, and shouting in a strange language.

He pulled his head up out of the dirt and sucked in a gasp of air.

“Thank the Goddess.” Fiona’s hand clasped his, and a charge moved through him.

Her skin was glowing in the faint light seeping into the cave. She seemed to have the strength of ten women as she pulled him up from the rubble. His right leg, however, remained pinned, and he fell back, gasping for air, spitting out the dirt he had inhaled.

“My leg is caught. I think it’s broken.”

He lifted his head and in the faint light, could see that a large boulder held him down.

Fiona moved to the side of the large rock, leaned on it, and agony radiated through Bailey. His vision swam, and he began to shake. It was shock, maybe. Sweat ran down his face, and his teeth chattered.

“I’ll be careful.” Fiona lifted her arms, the way she had during her strange ceremony outside the cave. Her words were unfamiliar except for a few he could pick out. “Grandmother. Brenna. Eva Grace. Mother—”

The names washed over Bailey. He looked up at her, the light in her face, and the waves of energy that pulsed off her body. She was like a warrior goddess. Slender but filled with strength.

She rolled the rock away from his leg. As if it were a beach ball, he thought with a woozy detachment.

How could she do that?

How had she split the side of the ridge in two?

How had she summoned Anna?

His world was tilting on its axis and all because of this petite witch.

Witch?

He groaned, and Fiona said, “Are you okay?”

“I’m great,” Bailey muttered. “Just great.” Relieved to feel the pain in his leg ebb a little, he watched through narrowed eyes as Fiona staggered, fell to her knees, then dragged herself to his side.

“I don’t fucking understand you.” He wrenched the words out. “Who are you? What are you?”

“Your salvation?” Her grin flashed in her grimy face. She pawed through a backpack and pulled out a bottle of water and a candy bar. She offered the first to him and unwrapped the second.

He pushed himself up on one elbow, gulped down some water, and spit it out before drinking it while she inhaled a candy bar.

“What’s in the candy?” he asked, remembering the chocolates she had been eating last night before the ghost encounter at the shop. “Pixie dust?”

She rolled her eyes and swallowed, then pushed herself up. “Let’s hope it’s enough to get us out of here.” She nodded toward the large pile of rocks that blocked the entrance. The only opening left was a crack several feet over their heads where the summer sun leaked in. “That looks like a lot of work.”

“Maybe you could use the same tactics you used to get in here,” he said evenly.

“You saw that?”

“Better special effects than any movie I’ve seen.”

“No special effects,” Fiona said as she picked up some of the bigger fragments and threw them behind her. “Magic. Simple enough once I knew I was in the right spot.”

He gave a rough laugh. “There’s nothing simple about any of this.”

Fiona looked at him squarely. “We’ll talk about it later. Right now, we have a crisis on our hands. I don’t know if you saw much that happened when the cave-in started—”

“I was unconscious.”

“Something evil caused all of this, and I’m not interested in hanging around, waiting to see if it comes back.”

“So you’re saying we need to get out of here sooner rather than later.” Bailey sat up. “Let’s see if I can stand.”

Fiona moved behind him and put her hands under his arms, once more surprising him with her strength as she helped him stand. He could feel his right ankle swelling, and he couldn’t put any weight on it. She helped him hobble to a large, flat rock. He grunted in frustration as he sat down. “I don’t know how much help I’m going to be in digging us out.”

She rolled some of the rocks out of the way. Bailey felt his impatience grow. He didn’t like sitting here, doing nothing. But when he started to move, his head spun. He broke out in a cold sweat, and anger rose inside him.

“Why did you bring Anna here?” he demanded.

Fiona turned. “What?”

“My sister was here in the cave when I followed you in, before someone knocked me out. If you are the real deal, a medium or a psychic or whatever you are, why did you bring her to this place? What’s she got to do with you?”

Fiona shook her head. “I did not summon your sister. Even if I did, she wouldn’t come unless she wanted to, and I didn’t feel her here.”

“You said you saw her last night.”

“But I didn’t bring her here.” Her voice rose. “While I went into the tunnel, there were sounds from the front of the cave. Obviously, that was you, following me. But there was no spirit other than my aunt, my spirit guide.”

“Your what?”

She made an impatient gesture. “That’s not important. What’s important is that I didn’t feel the presence of any spirits except my aunt until we went into the back cavern.” A frown creased her forward.

“I saw her,” Bailey snapped. “For the first time since she died, Anna was there in front of me. Do you know how many times I’ve felt her, but never connected? Why do you think I hate all those fakes who said they’d communicated with her and didn’t? Because I could feel her, damn it, always just out of reach.”

“Bailey, I’m sorry, but—”

“All day long, I’ve been thinking about her. Today is her birthday, and she felt so close, like so many times before. You built on that somehow, didn’t you?”

“No, I didn’t.” Fiona glanced around them, shivering. “But I know who might have. We’ve got to get out of here.”

“Who would try to make me think my sister was here? And why?”

She opened her mouth, then stopped as sounds from outside trickled in the opening above them.

Alarmed, Bailey pushed unsteadily to his feet. “What’s that?”

The high lilt of female voices brought relief to Fiona’s strained features. “They’ve come.”

“Who?”

“My family. They’re going to rescue us. Come, on.” She ducked under his arm and helped him limp back from the entrance.

“We’re here,” she called out. “Right here.”

Bailey was dizzy. The blow to his head, the injury to his ankle, and the turmoil inside him were just too much. He thought he heard chanting. The earth rumbled. Rocks fell away from the entrance and sunlight poured in.

The air around him became alive and a surge of power chased over his skin.

A group of women stood in the entrance to the cave. Like a tribe.

The one in the lead, with the long gray braid, scowled. His unease spiked. Where had he seen her before?

There was no time to ask before they surrounded him.