Wicked Challenge (Darkwater Reformatory Book 2) by Marty Mayberry

Author:Marty Mayberry [Mayberry, Marty]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-07-15T05:00:00+00:00

Eighteen

Tria

Reaching out, I grabbed Brodin’s and Jacey’s hands. They did the same with Akimi, forming a circle with us linked together.

We fell through a cavern and plunged into the blackest water I’d ever seen, hitting feet-first.

As the water rushed over my head, I held onto my friends and flailed my legs. We had to get to the surface! Despite kicking, the water dragged us down.

I opened my eyes and they met Brodin’s. Frantic, he nudged his head and tried to pull free. I knew I should let go and use my arms to get to the surface, but something told me we needed to maintain contact. I shook my head and tightened my grip.

We sank down farther, though I couldn’t see a bottom. How far down did this body of water go?

A current grabbed us and dragged us underneath a jutting, rocky shelf, pulling us deeper and deeper. Darkness descended like a funeral pall, and I couldn’t tell which way was up or where to flee to escape.

My lungs were bursting, desperate to suck in the fresh air, but only death lay in that direction, for me and my friends.

Bubbles erupted from my clenched lips, but they hung in the water like thistledown. Shouldn’t they float up?

Not in a magical world created by an evil master.

I tugged my friends closer. What would we do? Perhaps drown together, but that couldn’t be the test.

As my brain spun from lack of oxygen, my feet hit something solid. I inched up along a rocky surface, hoping to find something, anything that would give me a clue as to what we should do, but the shelf disappeared and my sneakers dragged across loose soil.

Wait. Soil?

Yanking my friends in that direction, I kicked hard, pulling them behind me. My feet found purchase, and when my head broke the surface, I gasped and sputtered and breathed. Nothing had ever tasted sweeter than the stale air I sucked in.

My friends floundered up out of the water beside me, gasping and splashing. Water glided down our faces, and our clothing dripped, but we’d made it through this part of the test alive.

“Where the hell are we?” Brodin asked, looking around.

I shrugged because, really, we’d never know and if we made it through this part of the test alive, it hardly mattered.

Behind lay the dark, watery hole we’d come through. And ahead…

“It’s a cave,” I said. It arched up to the ceiling as if we’d found ourselves inside a gray stone ball. We stood on a pink, sandy shore.

“Guess we go in that direction,” I said, nudging my chin toward where the shore sloped upward to a dry, level ledge surface.

Holding hands, we sloshed through the water and up, where we turned and flopped down together.

“Think we can let go of each other yet?” Jacey asked.

With a shrug, I released her hand. I held onto Brodin, however, and he did the same.

A light sound, like a swish or a subtle scrape, echoed around us. I gaped back over my shoulder, toward where the sound had come from.

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