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“Neither?” Brooks breathed.
Above us, a newly hatched demon runner hung upside down like a bat, stretched its neck, and turned its head 180 degrees until its fiery red eyes found us.
“They don’t want me here,” Brooks whispered.
It opened its mouth to scream, to wake the others. The demon runner in front of us inched closer, groping through the dark. “Stranger,” it
said in a rusty voice.
“No matter what, Brooks, don’t let go of me!”
Her eyes widened and she pulled away from my grasp.
The demon runner let out an ear-piercing cry that seemed to shake the walls.
I grabbed Brooks’s hand and we jumped feetfirst into the dark pool.
13
As I’d predicted, the water was arctic cold, like a million shards of ice stabbing my skin. I held Brooks’s hand tightly as I pulled her down and down. Was there a bottom? I wondered.
I was feeling pretty grateful that my mom had made me take swimming lessons at the city pool when I was little. I liked swimming. In the water I didn’t have a limp. And I was glad my eyes could see through cloudy water, too. A hundred points for team supernatural. Beneath us were several other passages that branched off in all directions. I had to choose the right one or we’d end up as skeletons at the bottom of this pool. I peered through the dark until I saw a shimmering light down the corridor to the right. Swimming furiously, I led Brooks into a narrow tunnel. I floated on my back, feeling with one hand for an airhole in the razor-sharp rock ceiling. Just when my lungs were about to collapse, we came upon an opening about four feet in diameter.
I stuck my head out and sucked in air. Beneath me, Brooks was still thrashing around in the water. I hauled her up, turning her over slowly until she could take a huge gulp of oxygen.
“We’re… going… to… die… in… here!” she cried between gasps.
“I saw a light,” I choked out. “Up ahead. We need to try and reach it.”
“I… I can’t do it, Zane.”
“Yes, you can!”
“It’s coming. The demon runner,” she said, panting. “It’s right behind us, and it wants me. It knows why I’m here.”
There wasn’t time for more talking. “Take the biggest breath you can, and on three we’re going to dive under. One, two…”
Suddenly, Brooks was yanked under the water and out of my grasp. The demon runner!
I dove down, groping in the murk until I found Brooks’s hands and ripped her free. With adrenaline coursing through my veins, I cut through the water with amazing speed I didn’t know I had. I hauled Brooks into another narrow passage, toward the trail of light.
Ten more yards. Could we hold our breath that long?
Almost there. Hang on, Brooks.
Hurry! Brooks’s voice rang out. But not in my ears… I heard it in my mind! And it wasn’t my imagination. She screamed, He’s coming back!
I thought the demon runners wanted me to free Ah-Puch! I said in my head, hoping she heard me.
They do, she said. It’s me they want to stop.
Just hold on! Ten more seconds.
My lungs were ready to burst.
Finally the tunnel ended, opening into a large pool where we could emerge. With one hard tug, I broke the surface, gulping in air. I pulled Brooks up behind me and rolled her onto her back so her face was out of the water. Her eyes were closed and her mouth was open.
“Brooks!” I hefted myself up onto the rocky ledge and hauled her behind me. It was difficult to keep my footing on the slippery surface, and I fell on my butt.
