"You sure?"
"No." He grabbed my hand. "But we can't just stand here."
We moved into the right passage. The walls closed in again, and the torchlight from the chamber faded behind us until we were back to relying solely on the rosary flame. It was noticeably smaller now, the fire reduced to maybe three inches tall.
The passage twisted and turned, each corner looking identical to the last. My sense of direction was completely gone. I had no idea ifwe were moving toward the center or in circles. The chain between our ankles kept catching on loose stones, jerking us to a stop every few yards.
"Lorenzo." Rafael's voice was tight. "I think we're lost."
"We don't know that."
"I do." He stopped walking and pulled out the map again. His hands shook as he held it to the guttering rosary flame. "This passage should have ended by now. We should have hit another junction. Either the map is wrong or we are."
"The map isn't wrong." I took it from him and studied the burned section. The hole had obliterated what looked like the convergence of five different pathways. Without those lines, it was impossible to tell which route was which. "We just can't read it anymore."
Rafael's breathing was getting faster, shallower. "We're going to die down here."
"Hey." I grabbed his face and made him look at me. "We're not dying. We just need to think."
"Think about what? We can't see. We can't read the map. Constantine knows this maze, and we don't." His voice cracked. "We're fucked, Lorenzo."
"We're not." I pressed my forehead against his, steadying my own breathing. "Listen to me. We've gotten out of worse situations than this."
"When?"
"Alaska. The warehouse in Rio." I smirked. "Each other. C’mon, Priest. I’m the deadliest thing in here, and you know it.”
Rafael took a shaky breath. Then another. His shoulders gradually relaxed. "Okay. Okay. You're right."
The rosary flame guttered again, shrinking to barely two inches. We both stared at it.
"How long do we have?" I asked.
"Minutes, maybe." Rafael's voice was steady now, but I could hear the fear underneath. "Once it goes out, we're in complete darkness."
"We move forward," Rafael said quietly. "Keep going straight as much as possible. If we hit a dead end, we backtrack. We don't stop moving."
"And when the light goes out?"
"Then we navigate by touch." He squeezed my hand. "Together."
We started moving again, faster now despite the pain. The chain clinked with each step, too loud in the oppressive silence. My ankle was bleeding where the cuff had rubbed through skin. I could feel the blood soaking into my sock.
The passage split. Left or right. No way to tell which was correct.
"Right," Rafael said. "Stay on the same side. Maybe it'll keep us from doubling back."
We took the right path. The corridor narrowed even further, and I had to duck to avoid hitting my head on a low section of ceiling. The footsteps we'd been hearing had gone quiet. Constantine was somewhere in the darkness, waiting.
The passage opened into another chamber, larger this time. Three exits. Rafael pulled out the map, but it was useless now. The burned section made it impossible to orient ourselves.
"Lorenzo." His voice was barely a whisper. "I'm sorry. I should have held onto it tighter. I should have kept it in my pocket, or—"
"Stop." I grabbed his shoulders and shook him. "It was chaos. We both fell. The map could have landed anywhere. This isn't your fault."
"But I—"
"No." I cut him off. "We're in this together, remember? Whatever happens, we face it together."
