18
The next few seconds were both a rush and in slow motion. In shock, I couldn’t move. Kane grabbed my arm and pulled me back before I was swallowed by the pit, which kept growing, kept eating the earth and everyone in its way.
We were deep into the trees when we finally stopped. Holding our breath, we waited for it, for the earth to tremble beneath our feet and advance toward us.
But it didn’t. The crater had stopped, its edge a few yards from us.
Kane pulled me to him. “Are you okay?”
No, I wasn’t okay. Leander and Lash were gone, Theron had been bitten by a revenant, and Cora had been swallowed alive.
Pain and agony filled my chest, making it hard to breathe, to think. All I wanted was to curl into a ball and cry. And give up.
Rye’s screams cut through the fog in my mind, but on
