(Dyn)

  The rain tio pour down on them. Lightning and thunder now worked in tandem, indig the storm was directly above.

  “How long has she been down there?” Dyn asked.

  Hay’len wiped the dispy with a soaked sleeve so they could read the eter. “Almost five minutes.”

  That gave Eury aen mio explore the cavern before she had to e up. Their only lead to what was happenih them was the . Dyn’s sole focus was on how it moved. For the past five minutes, since she’d gone down into the darkness, there was a stant tension on the . A daween Eury and Wedge as they worked in tao keep it taut.

  Befoing down into the cavern, Eury had agreed on a signal. A sudden and sharp tug on her end and Wedge would bring her back up.

  Dyn watched a ripple in the and then it grew sck. Wedge stopped feeding it links and waited. Eury might have just paused to i something. The big guy had made it clear; she was only to observe and shouldn’t be toug anything down there.

  Dyn ted the seds in his head sihe stopped moving.

  ‘Owo, three, … een, twenty—It’s been too long since she’s moved,’ he thought. He stopped staring at the , turo Wedge, and said, “Something’s wrong.”

  Wedge, still waiting on Eury’s signal, seemed surprised when he spoke up.

  Dyn motiooward the . “Pull her up.”

  Hay’len gnced up from the eter. “But she’s still got nine and a half minutes.” They shot him a fused expression, not uanding his deviation from the pn.

  “I don’t care what the clock says. Get her up now.” He was about to reach for the and do it himself when Wedge acted.

  The big guy yanked, one arm’s length at a time, in rapid succession. It had already stripped the bark off the tree during Eury’s dest. Now it was an actual saw; wood chips and pulp spat out the back of the as it chewed into the tree, filling the air with the st of burning wood and the grinding whine of metal against timber.

  After a dozen pulls, the muddied made its way around the tree and reached Wedge. But even that didn’t slow him down; it just flung mud, dirt, and wood chips everywhere.

  That’s when Dyn noticed the problem. Wedge had pulled too fast, and the damage was dohe cut its way deep into the ground beside the tunnel. Now, the angle was wrong, and Eury would get lodged between the ground and the until it ripped her in half.

  “Stop!”

  The halted, jumping up and down from the tension. Dirt and mud fell from the links as the rain looseheir hold. “What is wrong?” Wedge asked.

  W’itared at the unmoving . “What are we waiting for?” They looked to Wedge and Dyn for an answer her of them had.

  “The .” Dyn poi the caverrance. “It’s… wrong.” His hand hovered uainly as he struggled to transte what his instincts were telling him.

  “What about the ?” Wedge asked.

  “She’s going to get stuck.” Dyn ignored any further questions a himself cook.

  Wedge had to stay put as the anchor for the line. her of the twins uood the problem. The o be lifted from the mud and repositioned over the hole. He’d have to be the oo do it, and the worst-case sario was he’d get reset again. Then he’d warn Wedge to pull Eury up slower ime.

  He dashed out from the tree line and into the field of flowers. This time, he’d disperse his weight over a rger area. Just like in baseball, he leaned back, slidi-first, and expected to hydropne his way across the field to the tunnel. But the fl pnts were too thid stopped him almost immediately.

  Cursing himself for dropping too early, he rolled sideways until he was in position. The smell only grew worse as he approached the opened cavern—a fetid wound trying to ihe world above with its stench.

  He took the in both hands and tried to lift, but nothing moved. He had no leverage while lying on the ground, and even though Eury had been the lightest of them all, he was also the weakest.

  He rolled away twid slid his shotguween the and the ground. Without enough surface area to distribute the weight, it quickly sank into the mud. It wouldn’t budge as he tried to push it closer to the hole. He’d need a better way to distribute the weight from the .

  Covered in mud, Dyn g the , his legs, and then to Wedge. A new and terrible idea had just finished cooking.

  He squeezed himself uhe . First, he slipped his feet underh it, then he dragged it up along his shins, over his knees, and, finally, onto his thighs. It was a tight fit, and he really struggled with the st part, but his legs had always beero part of his body.

  By flexing his quads, he could lift and scoot his way back to the entrahe noed tightly across his thighs and down into the darkness beside him, its weight pressing unfortably into his muscles.

  Terrifying visuals repyed in his mind of the chewing through the tree earlier. He shut his eyes in anticipation of the pain. It was time to put Charles’ pants to the ultimate test. Dyn braced himself.

  “Pull,” he said, his voice steady despite the pounding in his chest.

  Wedge gnced down at the in his hands before looking back at Dyn with . “Are you sure?”

  Dyn had to release his held breath to shout, “Just do it!”

  Wedge reached along the and pulled cautiously. Link by link, the dragged across Dyn’s thigh muscles. The good news was that he wasn’t hungry anymore. The bad news was—

  “Aaaaaah!” Dyn screamed, tearing out the flowers as he gripped them tightly. Rippling pain shot through his thighs, sending his eyes wide. The halted.

  “You ’t stop,” he pleaded. Tears mingled with the drops of rain, rolling down his cheeks together. Another Charlie hripped him as his muscles spasmed from the heavy rippling links, f out another cry. Wedge stopped again.

  This time, Dyn took a deep breath, turning to face Wedge. The big guy relutly met his gaze, his stony eyes pleading for another way.

  With three seething breaths, Dyn shouted, “Pull… the goddamn… !” His voice cracked uhe strain, fists g as he braced himself.

  Wedge aowledged him with a nod. Uo watch, he closed his eyes ao work.

  The blinding white paiurned, but this time, did not relent. Eury’s weight kept the positioned over the same spot as Wedge raked him—link after link, again and again.

  Dyn howled into the sky, tearing up handfuls of vegetation and mud as he grasped at anything to help el the pain away. He wept in the microseds between pulls. The closer Eury got to the top, the more force his legs had to bear.

  Was it minutes, seds, or hours? Pain had distorted his senses, and he wasn’t sure how long it had been when he finally saw the dirty e cape. He noticed Wedge had stopped pulling, probably because there was a lot of resistanow.

  “She’s at the top,” Dyn called out, his voice hoarse from screaming. The rain had eased, but the wind still whipped through the open field.

  “ you get to her?” Wedge asked.

  Dyn tried to move, but the pinned him in pce—he wasn’t going anywhere. He couldn’t even leao reach for her. No, this would have to be dohe hard way.

  He looked up at Wedge and shook his head, dreading what came . “Yoing to o pull hard, a lot harder than before,” he said in a lned voice.

  Wedge adjusted his grip on the . “ you ha?”

  ‘Absolutely not.’ But Eury wasn’t moving, and he didn’t have a better option.

  “Don’t stop until she’s out.” Dyn shut his eyes tight and held his breath, brag for it.

  Wedge rolled his wrist, ing the around his forearm for more leverage. He applied more and more of his strength, feeling for the minimal force required to get Eury out. The had bitten inches into the thick tree’s trunk, already aable death sentence for the timber.

  The pressure on Dyn’s legs slowly crept up. Foolishly, he thought he could bear the pain and suffer through. It only took the seariion of a snapped femur to knock him unscious.

  Dyn heard his hree times before he woke up. Each time, the voice got closer.

  “Dyn,” Hay’len said. They held him by his shoulders, gently shaking him.

  He woke up a out a cry from his failed attempt to sit up. her leg was in any dition to move—he’d broken at least one of them. He y there crippled, turning his head to notice they’d pulled him in with Eury, ying them both side by side, caked in thick yers of mud.

  “He’s awake,” Hay’len said to Wedge, who eaking to a rock, updating Tome & Key.

  “She’s not breathing…” W’itney said softly, their words quivering as they spoke. Their hands trembled, clutg tightly at Eury’s.

  His head ached on all sides, and he could feel his heartbeat through his pounding skull. The pain made it difficult to think. Attempting to speak was even worse.

  “How…” Dyn rasped, his throat still raw from screaming. He swallowed and tried again. “How much time?”

  “You got Eury out of the pit. She’s right here o you.” Hay’len gnced down at his legs briefly, uo hide the worry on their face.

  “I… I ’t find a pulse,” W’itney said, their voice rising with panic, eyes dartiween Dyn and Eury.

  “She is not breathing,” Wedge said, speaking to the rock. Dyn heard his heavy wet steps walk away to tio update Tome & Key on their situation.

  Hay’len hadn’t heard or uood his previous question. He reached up with an arm and took hold of their crabbing their attention.

  Dyn straio remain in his new position, his arms trembling as he forced them to keep him steady. He made sure they made eye tact before asking through gritted teeth, “How much time did she have left?”

  Hay’len, surprised by Dyn’s suddeion, remembered they had the eter and took it out to get him his answer. “Uh,” they gnced down at the device, “just about seven minutes.”

  “She’s… dead.” W’itney whispered, slowly releasing Eury’s hand.

  ‘Dead? She ’t be,’ Dyn thought. He didn’t cripple himself just for them to give up ohey were just wasting time. The urgency helped him cut through the pain, allowing him to think.

  “Give her a potion,” he said, grimag as he reached into his pocket, his pruned fingers fumbling through the mud-soaked fabric to find one of his healing potions.

  W’itney sniffled, wiping a tear from their cheek. “Potions don’t work without a heartbeat,” they said, defeat heavy in their voice.

  “One of you o do pressions while the other breathes for her,” Dyn said. But her of the siblings moved to help.

  Dyn’s frustration mounted. “Goddamnit,” he muttered, g his fists as he forced himself to think of a solution.

  Tome & Key was oher side of the jungle, Wedge was out of sight, and the twins were in shock. He didn’t have time to find another solution—he was going to have to drink a potion and do it himself.

  Surprisingly, he found the vial, unbroken, in his pocket. He popped the top off, brought it to his lips, and poured. Swallowing on his back wasn’t easy. Not all the liquid made it down the proper pipe. Uo fight the overwhelming urge to cough, he kly what to do.

  Dyn pinched his nose and covered his mouth as his body vulsed with sharp spasms, fighting to clear his lungs. He struggled with himself to give the potion time to do its job. Hay’len sat back, furrowing their brow as they watched Dyn suffocate himself.

  He gasped, willing himself to roll onto his knees, and ighe pain as the potion worked to restore his body. His thoughts focused on CPR instrus he’d seen on a YouTube video once.

  ‘Interlock my fingers, thirty pressions, two inches deep, give two breaths, a until help arrives,’ he mentally repeated, pg his hands on top of each other.

  Dyn stared down at Eury’s unmoving chest, preparing himself to perform CPR for the first time in his life. He heard Wedge’s footsteps approag and, without looking up, he asked, “How far away are they?”

  “I am sorry Dyn. I only know they will be here as soon as they .” Wedge watched him with curiosity, uo do anything more for his fallen initiate.

  Eury was already on her back. Dyn flexed his fingers, his interlocked hands h just over her chest.

  ‘I do this,’ he thought, not daring to share his nervousness with the others. Logically, he khat doing nothing would be the worst thing that could happen. He just o vihe rest of his brain.

  “What… are you doing?” Hay’len asked. They shared a mixture of fusion and disbelief with W’ito them, it probably looked like he was about to grope their dead friend.

  He tuhem out, shut off his brain, leaned into her, and started ting the pressions out loud as he performed them.

  “Owo, … twenty-nine, and thirty.” He wasn’t sure this would work, hoping elf physiology was close enough to humans.

  Dyn scooted up toward her head, straighte, and tilted her back. He pinched her nose and then gave her two rescue breaths.

  W’itney asked, “Why’s he kissing her?” Hay’len shrugged as both were helpless to look away.

  Bad forth, Dyn covered both positions, alternatiweehirty to two ratio. It was a lot of work, and the effort had caught up to him. On the fourth round of pressions, he was exhausted and leaned in too far, feeling a sudden snap as one of her ribs popped.

  “Damnit.” He pulled back after hearing the crack. But all he could do was to tih pressions, wing every time her ribs clicked under his hands.

  Wedge kneeled beside Dyn. “She is gone,” he finally said, gently resting a blocky hand on Dyn’s shoulder.

  Too tired tue, Dyn had to reserve his remaining strength to help Eury. He shrugged off the big guy’s toud tio ignore his group, along with his fgging body, as he started the fifth round of pressions. He paused for a moment to steal a breath before scooting back up to breathe for her again.

  Eury’s body twitched under him, but he was too tired to notice. He took another deep breath and pced his mouth over hers again. That’s when Eury’s eyes snapped open, wide with fusion and arm.

  “It worked…” W’itney whispered in disbelief.

  Eury was fused, hypoxid intimately tangled with Dyn. Her chest heaved as she gasped for air, blinking rapidly while her mind caught up with her body.

  Wedge winced as Eury decked Dyn in the face, sending him sprawling bato the mud. She rolled to her side and coughed, her lungs remembering how to breathe on their own again.