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I ran my fingertips over the blisters, and he winced. Clearly it was causing him more pain than he was admitting. I focused, calling on the grace within me to soothe the damaged skin. A gentle glow emanated from my fingertips, and the skin cleared under my touch, returning to the rich dark brown it was supposed to be. I felt him relax as the pain left his body.
His eyes flicked up to mine. “You’re a healer?”
I nodded. “Don’t spread it around,” I said, turning to set my fins next to the rest of my equipment. When I turned back, he was still looking at me.
“I'd heard angels were only allowed to heal humans,” he said, something strange in his tone.
I looked away. “I mean, you look human to me right now.” I didn’t want to admit that I’d broken the rules at the thought of him being in pain.
Alastor reached out, his finger gently turning my chin, so I looked back up at him. His eyes held a glint of something deeper as he watched me, a warmth in his gaze that made my breath catch.
"You're full of surprises, Sariel," he said, his voice low and resonant in the quiet cavern.
I shrugged, looking away again from that intense gaze that hinted he knew more than I wanted him to about the way I felt with his touch on my face. “It’s nothing, really. Shall we get on? We don’t want to run out of time.”
To my relief, he nodded and stepped back. “Ok, let’s go. Same order as before.”
The crevice loomed before us like a jagged maw, eager to swallow us whole. Alastor entered first, his broadshoulders scraping against the unforgiving rock. I followed, the claustrophobic squeeze less pronounced for me, my lithe frame slipping through more easily. Theo followed, but we hadn’t been inside more than a few minutes when Alastor called back from up ahead.
"Only about twenty metres long, I reckon. Good job we didn’t bring Lily - she really would have hated this part.”
Theo chuckled. “Damn straight.”
“Why is Lily claustrophobic?” I asked, as we moved steadily down between the rock faces.
“Something happened to her, a long time ago. It was really traumatic, and although she’s tried to get over it, some things hurt too deeply. I won’t say any more though. It’s her story to tell, if she wants to.”
“Understood,” I said quietly, and I did. Some things needed to be deeply buried, and even then, they could still creak out and make you weak at the worst of times. I felt for her.
“Well, that was short and sweet,” remarked Alastor as the crevice widened, and we stepped out into the open space beyond. This cave was much narrower than the previous one, but it seemed to stretch far back into the shadows, making its length hard to guess. Salt crystal formations jutted from the ground like frozen geysers, their jagged tips glinting in the light of Alastor's torch. Pools of water dotted the floor, reflecting the eerie luminescence.
As we moved forward, the cavern narrowed again and the pools became larger, until the whole floor was underwater, and we were wading through shallow water that lapped at our ankles. With each step, the water rose, creeping up our calves. The walls had closed in, and the water was now black in the light of the torch. As we moved deeper, the water rose to our waists and the roof of the cave sloped down, so we were shuffling forward in a half-bent position that was rather uncomfortable.
“Boss, this getting any better ahead?” called Theo.
“Kind of,” came the answer.
I saw what he meant as I moved forward. The roof didn’t rise, but the floor sloped down until the water was chest level.
It also widened out, meaning I could move up next to him.
“Alastor, watching the time,” reminded Theo from behind me.
“Yeah, I know. There’s another big ledge up ahead, much like the last one. Looks bigger though,” Alastor called. “We’ll get to that to see what’s there, and then turn back…”
I was too busy looking at the ledge, maybe a hundred feet in front of us, that I didn’t realise Alastor had stopped.
“Boss?”
At Theo's tone, I stopped and turned around. Alastor stood stock still in the water. I squinted against the light of his torch.
“Alastor?” I started to move back towards him.
“Sariel, stop.”
At his tone, I froze.
“What is it?” I asked.
