Less than an hour.How long had they been talking?Fighting?
And Ryan—the only person who knew where the explosives were, how to disarm them—was dead.
Noah tried to stand, to turn to Meg, to tell her they had to move now.Had to find those explosives or get out or something.But his leg wouldn’t hold him and buckled like wet cardboard again.His side was screaming, blood running hot down his hip.The cave tilted sideways, its walls spinning.
Or maybe he was falling.
He couldn’t tell anymore.Couldn’t distinguish up from down, couldn’t focus his eyes.
“Noah!”
Meg’s voice was close now.Her hands were on his shoulders, trying to hold him up.Small hands.Strong.They tried to keep him from hitting the ground.
He wanted to tell her to run.Wanted to tell her that none of this was her fault, that Ryan was wrong, that she’d done everything she could for Lydia.That she was the best doctor he knew.That he loved her.
“Explosives…One hour…or less…Get out…” He needed to say more but his tongue was thick in his mouth.And his vision was narrowing to a pinpoint with its edges going gray.Tunnel vision.The sign of shock, of blood loss.
The last thing he saw before the darkness took him was Meg’s face, pale and terrified, with her blue eyes wide.Her hands pressed against his side where the blood wouldn’t stop.Wouldn’t slow.Just kept coming.
He’d failed her.
He’d promised they’d get out of here, promised they’d figure this out.And instead, he was leaving her alone in a cave rigged to explode, with an unconscious boy and two bodies and no way to call for help.
And there was no way out.The shaft was too steep.The entrance was blocked.The explosives were everywhere.Who knew how Ryan got in or how he planned to get out?But with him dead, they would never find it in time.
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
Or maybe it had.
Because the darkness was swallowing him whole and pulling him down.And he couldn’t fight it anymore.
Couldn’t hold on.
Couldn’t—
“Meg.”
Liam’s voice cut through the roaring in her ears—a sound like standing under a waterfall.
“What happened?”
She looked up, and the sight of him—solid, real, alive—nearly broke her.The edges of him wavered and went in and out of focus.“How did you…?”She kept her hand over the wound, her fingers slick with Noah’s blood.Warm.Too warm.
It wasn’t helping.
Blood kept seeping between her fingers, hot and relentless.She pressed harder.Her hand cramped from the pressure.
“We came down the shaft and followed Noah’s trail of fabric.We heard the shot.Who is that?”Liam motioned to the body slumped against the cave wall.
“Ryan Bradley.Lydia’s father.He had a gun.He blamed me for Lydia.Noah tried to stop him and they fought and—” The words tumbled out too fast.Her hands still pressed against Noah’s side and felt each weak pulse of blood that meant his heart was still beating.Still trying.
“The gun went off.And he had a knife.Ryan’s dead.Noah’s…” She couldn’t say it.
Couldn’t even think it.Couldn’t form the worddyingbecause saying it out loud might make it true.
“There are explosives.”
Her breathing was coming faster—short gasps that didn’t bring enough air.Maybe there wasn’t enough oxygen in the cave.Maybe the rock walls were sucking it all away.
