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“Teo?” She stood. The beat of the earth rumbled against her feet. She swayed, but she stayed upright, gaze straining, breath shallow, as she waited for the flash. She’d run away from him, but now all she wanted was to see him again.
The world went bright white, and there he was, still a good hundred yards away. The air rushed from her lungs as relief swamped her, right before the whole world settled back to black.
Teo had been calling her name. It hadn’t been the wind at all.
Of course that didn’t explain the ba-bump beneath her heels. She wasn’t sure anything could.
Unless there was a sorcerer down there.
Gina began to walk in Teo’s direction, but as she did the ba-bump smoothed into one long, rolling rumble. She threw her arms out for balance; the sky lit up, and everything that had once been solid disappeared.
* * *
Every time the lightning flared, Matt lifted his head. The tree was always there—where was it going to go?—but Gina … Gina was another story.
The first flash, he’d seen her, running hell-bent for that spooky old tree.
During the second, she no longer ran but stood still as a photograph, the sky gone white, both the massive tree and the tiny human etched in black.
The third time the sky erupted in silver shards, what he saw made him stumble, nearly fall.
She was gone.
Which was impossible. This was a plain. The only thing sticking out of it were that tree and her. There was nowhere to go except—
His breath caught and he shouted, Hey!” And: “Gina!” Then he listened. But between the wind and the rain and the thunder, all he could hear was the ever-increasing rhythm of his heart, the thud so loud it echoed in his feet. He feared an imminent heart attack. Nevertheless, he began to run.
The next flash revealed Gina again. He didn’t realize he’d been holding his breath—no wonder his heart was pounding in his brain—until it exploded from his mouth at the sight of her.
But his relief was short-lived, because suddenly the thunder of his heart was the thunder of the earth as it opened and swallowed Gina alive.
* * *
The ground gave way—first solid and then simply gone. Gina hit bottom, but instead of the dry dirt all around caving in, spilling onto her, some mud oozed down the walls, a bit plopping on her skin.
“Gina!”
Her gaze swiveled around the dark interior, trying to pinpoint the source of her name. Then another big clunk of mud fell from above, this time right on her head. She glanced up just in time for lightning to reveal Teo’s anxious face peering over the edge of the hole in the ground. “You okay?”
Gina took stock. Odd, but she felt better physically than she had when she’d been tossed from the horse. Mentally was another thing entirely.
Mentally, she was screaming. Her parents were down here.
Her attention returned to the eternal blackness that surrounded her.
Somewhere.
And … What if her parents were the least of her worries?
“Can you stand?” Teo’s voice drew her gaze upward. She needed to focus on him, not—
“Yeah.” She stood. “I’m okay.”
“Why did you run?” he asked, then lowered his voice. “Why did you run here?”
She wasn’t going to admit to the wind calling her name. Teo would haul her out and deposit her in the nearest nuthouse. Not that she didn’t belong there, but if she was going, she was going on her own.
“Gina?” he murmured again.
