It was hard. So f**king hard. Even harder than reaching for my Ice magic had been to stop Tobias Dawson that final time in the cavern. But inch by inch, foot by foot, I hauled myself up the thick vines. Whenever I found a foothold in the stone, I jammed my bruised, bloody, cold toes into it and rested. The vines under my body smelled faintly of dew. I was about halfway up the wall when I felt a cold breeze whistle down into the hollow room.
The caress of air against my bruised, throbbing cheek made me want to cry.
But I shook off my emotion. Now was not the time to give in to my feelings. I could always slip and fall. And I'd be damned if I was going to die of a broken neck. Not now, when the sweet scent of sunshine was just a few feet away.
I drew in a breath and started climbing again. The walls narrowed to form a sort of circular point where the opening was. I was going to have to let go of the kudzu vines, reach for the edge of the hole, and hope the earth didn't crumble under my weight.
I found a good toehold and rested a moment, gathering my strength once more. For the final time. When I felt strong enough, I bent my knees, kicked up, and reached for the lip of the opening. My hands scrabbled for purchase. At the last second, my fingers clamped around another kudzu vine, this one anchored somewhere above the surface.
I hung there in midair, supported only by my clenching fingertips. At this point, I was weeping openly from the pain in my hands, arms, shoulders. But somehow I hung on.
I slid one hand up the vine. Then the other. Hauling myself upward. Snarls and half screams spewed out of my lips, like I was possessed by some evil spirit. Maybe I was.
Because my will to survive was a powerful thing. Alexis James hadn't been able to overcome me. Neither had Tobias Dawson. I wasn't going to let some damp, slippery kudzu vines stop me now.
So I hung there and inched my way up, like a spider climbing up its own web.
Finally, my right hand stretched up into the clear air. I placed it on the edge of the opening, testing the ground.
Solid stone, more than steady enough to support me. I scuttled upward and managed to hook my right elbow up and out of the hole. Then the other one. I drew in a breath and strained upward. My head cleared the tangle of vines covering the opening, and the early morning sunlight slanted across my face, blinding me. I closed my eyes and enjoyed its warmth, meager though it was.
And with a final burst of strength, I pulled myself up and out into the dawn.
Chapter Thirty-Two
I crabbed away from the hole on my hands and knees. I made it twenty feet before the last of my strength gave out, and I did a header into the ground. For a long time, I just lay there on the forest floor breathing in the earthy scent of the leaves that formed a rough, crackling blanket beneath me. There was noise twittering above my head. More bats?
No, I realized after a moment. Birds. The birds were singing. Which meant I'd definitely, finally, escaped from my underground labyrinth.
A smile stretched across my battered face. I let go, and the world faded to black.
Some time later, I woke up in the same position I'd been in when I'd collapsed. One cheek planted on the ground. Arms and legs splayed out at awkward angles, heavy and numb. I tried to get to my knees and immediately groaned as pain filled every single part of my body.
Fuck. It hurt to be alive.
Somehow I managed to roll over onto my back as tingles of pain shot through my limbs. A maple tree spread its branches over my head, offering a bit of shade. The sun was higher in the sky now. Looked like it was around noon. Once my arms and legs quit burning with pain, I raised my head up and studied my surroundings. I lay in the middle of a thicket of woods. Maples, pines, poplars, and more flanked me like soldiers. Rhododendron bushes and patches of briars snaked through the trees like strings of green and brown Christmas lights.
I sighed. Although I wanted to do nothing more than lie here and sleep for the next three days, I knew I had to move. I didn't know where the hell I was, which meant the others had no chance of finding me. They probably thought I was dead already, trapped beneath the earth with Tobias Dawson and his two giants.
I grinned. I'd enjoy coming back from the grave just to see the look on Finn's face.
It took me awhile, but I propped myself up on my elbows, then sat up. It took me even longer to get up to my knees, then my feet. I looked around the clearing where I'd emerged from the earth and found a piece of fallen wood. Using it as a sort of walking stick, I hobbled forward.
Pain pulsed through my body with every step. I'd cut my feet badly on the rocks inside the mountain, and the briars, brambles, and twigs that littered the ground didn't help. But I stumbled forward.
I didn't know how long I walked, an hour, maybe two, but eventually I came to a small stream. Maybe it was the one that had run over the cavern. I didn't know, and I didn't really care. I lowered myself down onto one of the rocks and dipped my feet into the water. Cold as ice, but it felt like heaven on my swollen feet and ankles. I gulped down several mouthfuls of the water and washed off my hands and face as best I could. I was careful to let one part of my body dry before I moved on to the next. I didn't want to get hypothermia from the shock of the cold water.
But cool wetness helped revive me - and made me realize just how much f**king pain I was in. Every single part of me hurt, but the real problem areas were my broken jaw, aching skull, and scraped, bruised, bloody hands, knees, and feet. Jo-Jo Deveraux was going to have her work cut out for her when she started healing me.
The thought made me smile, which turned into a grimace as the muscles in my jaw screamed in pain.
Once I felt strong and dry enough, I used my walking stick to push myself up and plodded on. I'd been walking about thirty minutes when I stumbled across what looked like two ruts in the middle of the forest. I frowned. Did somebody have a house up here? That could be good or bad. Good, if they were gone and had a phone. Bad, if they were home and got a clear look at me.
But I stepped into the smooth track and headed left, climbing upward to whatever might lie at the top of this rise. I got all the way up to the clearing before I realized where I was - on the access road that overlooked Tobias Dawson's coal mine. I could still see the tire tracks in the mud from where Donovan Caine and I had driven up here the night we'd broken into the dwarf 's office. Hell, I was probably standing in about the same spot I'd been in when I'd stripped for the detective.
Irony. What a f**king bitch.
I shook my head and trudged on toward the edge of the ridge. Noise drifted up to me from the basin below.
Men yelling at each other, along with the grind of heavy machinery. I hobbled closer to the edge of the ridge and stared down. I wasn't particularly surprised by the scurry of activity. Men and women, mostly firefighters, cops, and other rescue officials, stalked back and forth on the rocky floor below me. Some of them had driven their vehicles into the basin, and the red and blue lights spun around and around. The sirens had long ago been turned off, though. The people hung together in small clusters talking among themselves, but mostly what they did was stare at the mine before them.