Because my will to survive was a powerful thing. Alexis James hadn't been able to overcome me. Neither had Tobias Dawson. I wasn't going to let some damp, slippery kudzu vines stop me now.
So I hung there and inched my way up, like a spider climbing up its own web.
Finally, my right hand stretched up into the clear air. I placed it on the edge of the opening, testing the ground.
Solid stone, more than steady enough to support me. I scuttled upward and managed to hook my right elbow up and out of the hole. Then the other one. I drew in a breath and strained upward. My head cleared the tangle of vines covering the opening, and the early morning sunlight slanted across my face, blinding me. I closed my eyes and enjoyed its warmth, meager though it was.
And with a final burst of strength, I pulled myself up and out into the dawn.
Chapter Thirty-Two
I crabbed away from the hole on my hands and knees. I made it twenty feet before the last of my strength gave out, and I did a header into the ground. For a long time, I just lay there on the forest floor breathing in the earthy scent of the leaves that formed a rough, crackling blanket beneath me. There was noise twittering above my head. More bats?
No, I realized after a moment. Birds. The birds were singing. Which meant I'd definitely, finally, escaped from my underground labyrinth.
A smile stretched across my battered face. I let go, and the world faded to black.
Some time later, I woke up in the same position I'd been in when I'd collapsed. One cheek planted on the ground. Arms and legs splayed out at awkward angles, heavy and numb. I tried to get to my knees and immediately groaned as pain filled every single part of my body.
Fuck. It hurt to be alive.
Somehow I managed to roll over onto my back as tingles of pain shot through my limbs. A maple tree spread its branches over my head, offering a bit of shade. The sun was higher in the sky now. Looked like it was around noon. Once my arms and legs quit burning with pain, I raised my head up and studied my surroundings. I lay in the middle of a thicket of woods. Maples, pines, poplars, and more flanked me like soldiers. Rhododendron bushes and patches of briars snaked through the trees like strings of green and brown Christmas lights.
I sighed. Although I wanted to do nothing more than lie here and sleep for the next three days, I knew I had to move. I didn't know where the hell I was, which meant the others had no chance of finding me. They probably thought I was dead already, trapped beneath the earth with Tobias Dawson and his two giants.
I grinned. I'd enjoy coming back from the grave just to see the look on Finn's face.
It took me awhile, but I propped myself up on my elbows, then sat up. It took me even longer to get up to my knees, then my feet. I looked around the clearing where I'd emerged from the earth and found a piece of fallen wood. Using it as a sort of walking stick, I hobbled forward.
Pain pulsed through my body with every step. I'd cut my feet badly on the rocks inside the mountain, and the briars, brambles, and twigs that littered the ground didn't help. But I stumbled forward.
I didn't know how long I walked, an hour, maybe two, but eventually I came to a small stream. Maybe it was the one that had run over the cavern. I didn't know, and I didn't really care. I lowered myself down onto one of the rocks and dipped my feet into the water. Cold as ice, but it felt like heaven on my swollen feet and ankles. I gulped down several mouthfuls of the water and washed off my hands and face as best I could. I was careful to let one part of my body dry before I moved on to the next. I didn't want to get hypothermia from the shock of the cold water.
But cool wetness helped revive me - and made me realize just how much fucking pain I was in. Every single part of me hurt, but the real problem areas were my broken jaw, aching skull, and scraped, bruised, bloody hands, knees, and feet. Jo-Jo Deveraux was going to have her work cut out for her when she started healing me.
The thought made me smile, which turned into a grimace as the muscles in my jaw screamed in pain.
Once I felt strong and dry enough, I used my walking stick to push myself up and plodded on. I'd been walking about thirty minutes when I stumbled across what looked like two ruts in the middle of the forest. I frowned. Did somebody have a house up here? That could be good or bad. Good, if they were gone and had a phone. Bad, if they were home and got a clear look at me.
But I stepped into the smooth track and headed left, climbing upward to whatever might lie at the top of this rise. I got all the way up to the clearing before I realized where I was - on the access road that overlooked Tobias Dawson's coal mine. I could still see the tire tracks in the mud from where Donovan Caine and I had driven up here the night we'd broken into the dwarf 's office. Hell, I was probably standing in about the same spot I'd been in when I'd stripped for the detective.
Irony. What a fucking bitch.
I shook my head and trudged on toward the edge of the ridge. Noise drifted up to me from the basin below.
Men yelling at each other, along with the grind of heavy machinery. I hobbled closer to the edge of the ridge and stared down. I wasn't particularly surprised by the scurry of activity. Men and women, mostly firefighters, cops, and other rescue officials, stalked back and forth on the rocky floor below me. Some of them had driven their vehicles into the basin, and the red and blue lights spun around and around. The sirens had long ago been turned off, though. The people hung together in small clusters talking among themselves, but mostly what they did was stare at the mine before them.
Or what was left of it.
The right wall of the basin, which had once been just as tall and strong as the others, had crumbled in on itself, like a cheap piece of tinfoil. The entrance to the coal mine and the second, smaller shaft that led to the diamonds had been completely obliterated. Dirt had spilled hundreds of feet outside the original opening, burying the metal tracks that had led inside the mine. The whole side of the basin looked a sandcastle somebody had kicked over.
Me. I'd been the one who'd done the kicking. I'd used my magic to escape Tobias Dawson, and I'd crumbled half the mountain in the process. I'd always thought Jo-Jo Deveraux had been blowing smoke up my ass when she claimed I had more Stone magic than anyone she'd ever seen. That she'd just been pretending when she said I was even more powerful than she was. But as I stared at the shattered mountain, I really, truly, started to believe her.
The thought made my stomach clench.
"Damn," I whispered.
For a moment, another image flashed before my eyes.