Not so Imaginary // On Hold // GxB Paranormal Romance

Part Twenty-Two | Into the Dark

T W E N T Y - T W O 

From out of the darkness, the familiar glow of Ren's scythe cut through the air.

In a blur, he'd grabbed me and pulled me against his body as we fell, tumbling against the uneven cavern wall until at last we came to a stop at the bottom.

Somewhere far above, I could hear the vague echoes of shouting but couldn't make out the words.

"Ren," I said, but my breath came out strangled as I forced myself up against my palms. He lay beside me in the darkness, unmoving. I felt for his hand, repeating louder this time, "Ren!"

To say everything hurt would have been a bit of an understatement. My right hand hurt especially like hell--all raw and burning like it was bleeding--but in the moment, only one thing mattered.

"Ren, talk to me!"

Finally, I found his pulse. But when I leaned close to see if he was breathing, he snapped up, pushing me onto my back with wrists pinned in his hands as he knelt on top of me.

"You're--thank God. You're okay," he said, then realizing, "Are you okay?"

I tried to say I was, but my "Yeah," came out rather shaky under him. "Same to you--Are you alright?"

Ren let out a small laugh, seeming to finally realize how he was holding me. He slowly released my wrists and slid off me to the side.

"You kidding," he said, "I'm practically indestructible."

I wasn't so sure about that, but didn't feel like this was the right time to remind him of all his near misses.

"Well then, guess I owe you some thanks for breaking my fall." My head was still spinning as I sat up, rubbing the bruises on my back and legs. "How the heck did you find us, anyhow?"

He did seem to have a knack for that.

But he only said, "Lucky guess. Just had to follow the sound of things exploding." And added rather dryly, "Of course, the Crystal doesn't seem to have fared as well as us, by the looks of it."

Sure enough, when I gazed up at where we'd fallen from, everything was still dark.

Oddly, everything had also gone quiet. That is, until a weird clicking and scraping noise started up from along the cavern wall, growing louder as it neared.

Ren stood in front of me with his scythe out, the glow enveloping us like a beacon. Whatever was coming would have a clear path right to us.

"Hey," called a concerned voice--Charlie! "You okay down here?"

I really wanted to give him a hard time about how he'd done such a fine job 'rescuing' me and all, but figured maybe this wasn't the time to mess around.

"We're good," I said as Charlie reached the glow of the scythe and unhooked from some sort of rappelling rig, jumping the last few feet to the ground. Ren tensed as Charlie neared, so I stepped between them as I added, "Thanks to Ren. Otherwise, no. I'd be dead right now."

I hadn't meant to sound so angry, but I guess I was. I mean, now who-knows-what had happened to the crystal thanks to them. And yeah. If Ren hadn't saved me--

"I see your weapon's light hasn't gone out," Charlie said, sounding bitter, "Still can't believe this crap. Guess the parts of the Crystal that were embedded weren't affected. Just the pieces we needed."

"Hey," Ren reminded him, "You're the one who stole it. We needed it, too, you know."

At that, Charlie went silent. I felt a bit bad for him when he let out a defeated exhale and said, "Come on. Let's not hang around down here. I'll take you back up."

But the pulley rig could only carry two at a time. And as much as Ren complained Charlie should be the one to stay and wait since this was all his fault in the first place, since Charlie was the only one who knew how to use it, it was decided he'd take me up then come back for Ren.

"Just try not to nearly kill her this time, will you," Ren said as Charlie checked the straps that held me to him.

At least it had only been nearly.

I watched Ren stare up at us with arms folded until we were out of sight and the light from his scythe was nothing more than a glowing blur in the distance.

I didn't like it--leaving him down there, and couldn't breathe right until he and Charlie were back up on the walkway unclipping themselves from the climbing rig.

"Let's never do that again," Ren said as he stepped free.

Sophia and Lucy were nowhere around, and only with the glow of Ren's scythe could I finally see. Until then, I'd held as still as possible while I waited. I didn't want to accidentally slip off the walk and really die this time. Even the little lights that had illuminated the way had gone dark.

"Where are your sisters?" I asked when Charlie had finished wrapping up the gear over his shoulder.

He said, "They went back to look for some portable lights. But anything powered by the Crystal we had in the core is out, so it's going to be slim pickings."

"What do you think happened to the pieces?"

Charlie sighed, "Dunno," and it hurt me to see him so disenheartened.

It was like they had simply disappeared.

Meanwhile, the burning feeling in my hand had intensified into a nasty itch. It wasn't until we reached the main hallway and a guard met us with an emergency flashlight that I saw why.

In my palm, a glinting fragment had embedded itself under the skin.

I stared down at it--the crystal shard from the power cell.

"You don't look so good," said Charlie, and I found myself hiding my hand behind my back.

"I'm fine," I said, trying to sound casual, "Really."

- - -

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