Page 97 of Empire of Dark
She was doing it. Making the earth tremble under my feet.
Which only meant one thing. Lava was coming up. She was bringing up lava from deep underground.
I sprinted forward, screaming at the girls on the corner. “Get the hell out of here.”
In the next instant I tackled Venetia, bringing her to the ground and we rolled onto the pedestrian-only cobblestone street.
By the time we stopped rolling, the girls at the corner had scattered, just barely in time, before the earth cracked open.
In an explosion of fire and erupting lava, the whole street shifted under us and split in two.
The cobblestones crumbled under us, dropping away and we slid downward into a freefall, the street collapsing.
I managed to keep Venetia clutched in my right arm when we crashed into the stone floor of the substructure below the street.Steam and smoke and embers burned into my nostrils, and I realized how close we had landed to the flow of lava.
But I couldn’t see anything. Not yet. Not with Venetia on top of me and rocks and cement and dust holding us down and clouding the air.
I shifted my right hand up to find Venetia’s face. Dirt, grime, rubbing across her skin, and wetness—tears.
“Venny—are you okay?”
Silence. Her body limp on top of me.
I shook her and wiped more debris from her face. “Venny, talk to me. Are you okay? Say something.”
Her body convulsed and she suddenly coughed, rolling over and flopping off of me.
I twisted around, trying to get my knees under me and gain my bearings as the heat and smoke took over the dust and I could see even less than I could a moment ago. I hoped to high heaven the lava was flowing away from us and not toward us. My feet and hands slipped on rocks, nothing solid under me.
“Venny—talk to me—are you okay?”
A whimper, and then her voice came out tiny. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I stopped it. I’m so sorry.”
I found her arm through the blindly dense air, grasping onto her. “It’s okay—all is fine—we’re fine. Have you stopped the flow?”
“I—I don’t know. Sometimes it starts and then I can’t stop it once it’s flowing. I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.”
Motherfucking hell.
Give lava a fissure—a bloody pathway out of the earth and it was going to do what it was going to do. There was no controlling it. Even for a girl that could control it.
“I’m so sorry, Ada. I didn’t mean to do it. Please don’t leave me. Please.”
I reined in on my anger. She didn’t need it at the moment. What she needed was for me to get her out of here.
Crashing, more explosions above us. I cringed as structures crumbled and the air and earth shook around us.
I dug my toes into the solid ground I’d found, hoping it wouldn’t shift again.
If only I knew where here was—where we had landed—and how to get out of here. Under the street but that told me nothing.
Not letting go of Venetia’s arm, I found her face through the smoke with my left hand. “It’s okay, Venny. I’m not about to leave you. I swear it. We just need to get out of here. Are you hurt at all?”
“No—no. I don’t think so.”
“Good. How does this work—you and the lava? Can you feel it, where is it flowing? Is it coming at us?”
She went silent for a long second, then coughed, hacking for long seconds. “No. It’s close, but it’s not coming at us—it’s flowing along there.” She stopped, coughing again. The thick smoke was already getting to her.