Chapter 2

Cora's POV

The passage is cold and thick with damp, and every breath feels tight in my chest.

A few flashlight beams swing around in the dark, catching dark green moss on the brick walls. Moisture seeps down through the cracks, and the ground underfoot is wet and slick.

The group shuffles forward in a loose, uneven line. Blair walks up front, touching everything she passes, way too excited to be careful.

"Dale, check out the carving on this, isn't this worth something? I feel like I'm actually going to make bank off this. Once I get this stuff out, let's see who still calls Blair Whitmore some airhead who just spends her family's money." Her voice bounces off the walls, way too loud for the space.

Dale jumps right in. "Of course it is. You've got a good eye. This is rare stuff, you could sell any piece of it for real money. Just stick with me, you'll be fine."

I'm boxed in at the back of the group, one guy on each side of me. The deeper we go, the tighter my nerves get.

Something's off. The ground feels off.

A normal tomb floor should feel packed solid, heavy under your feet. But what I'm feeling is different, a faint give, like there's nothing solid underneath, like it's hovering over empty space.

I keep my mouth shut, breathe light, and listen.

Under all the noise of everyone's footsteps, there's another sound buried in there. A steady clicking, like something grinding and catching underground.

Bronze gears.

The mechanisms in this tomb never stopped working.

Our weight is waking them up, piece by piece.

My heart jumps into my throat. My palms go damp.

"Stop," I blurt out. "Stop, don't go any further."

My voice comes out too sharp for the tight space, and it startles even me. Everyone freezes. Blair spins around up front, and her flashlight beam hits me straight in the face, blinding.

"Cora, what is wrong with you? Why are you screaming like something died?"

I put a hand up to block the light, that clicking sound still running through my head. "The ground's hollow underneath us. There are gears turning down there, it's a chain mechanism. We're standing on pressure plates right now. If the weight goes past some threshold, this whole tunnel either caves in or something shoots out at us. We need to go back the way we came, right along the wall."

"That's bullshit." Blair steps right up to me, her eyes furious. "You think you're some kind of expert now? Dale hasn't said a word about any of this. What's your deal?"

Dale, who clearly hadn't heard anything, jumps in to save face, his voice sharp with anger. "That's ridiculous. I've been doing this a long time, I know what a mechanism looks like. This is solid stone, there's nothing hollow about it. You're just making stuff up so people pay attention to you."

"Seriously, Cora, can you just stop." The girl next to Blair rolls her eyes. "You've been extra this whole trip. What, you can't stand Blair getting the credit?"

The three of them close in, their faces pressing down on me in the dim light. I clench my fists, still not backing down. "I'm not making anything up. Just listen, there really is a sound, right under our feet."

Before I can finish, Blair slaps me hard across the face, the sound cracking through the tunnel.

I never saw it coming. My cheek burns instantly, and the hit knocks me back into the wall, my back throbbing from the impact.

Tears rush to my eyes. I force them back, refusing to let them fall.

"Guess that's what it takes to get you to shut up." Blair shakes out her hand, pointing at me like I'm something she scraped off her shoe. "Who do you even think you are, jinxing me over and over? I could die in here today and I still wouldn't need you telling me what to do."

She turns, scanning the group. A few people are secretly holding up their phones, and her face darkens even more.

"Turn your phones off. Now. Nobody records anything. I found this tomb, and nothing leaves here without my say-so. Anyone who tries recording behind my back, don't think I won't find out."

Under her glare, the others switch their phones off one by one, none of them daring to even look at me.

"Cora, where's your phone?" She grabs my bag and dumps it out, everything spilling onto the ground. She digs out my phone, forces it off right in front of me, then slams it down and stomps on it. The screen shatters.

"Now stay in the back and keep quiet. One more word out of you and I'll leave you here in the dark by yourself." She throws the words at me, then turns and struts off without looking back.

I lean against the wall. My face hurts, my back hurts, but what really gets to me is how unfair it all feels.

I heard it so clearly. I was trying to save their lives, and every word out of my mouth just turned into a joke to them.

Nobody believes me. Not a single one of them.

I slowly straighten up, take a breath, and push the heat behind my eyes back down.

Forget it.

I'm done talking. Talking just gets me hit.

All I can do now is look out for myself and find a way to get out of here alive.