Chapter 32
“Here,”Daisy shouted, stabbing her staff into a crystal-lined pit in the concrete floor as the ground began to rumble. “Connect themhere.”
Val did the same with her staff, then yanked Sam’s in the same direction when she didn’t respond fastenough.
Samalmost fell backward from the earth energy surging through the wood as it touched the other two. Terrified, she grabbed the staff’s grip with both hands and hung on, praying to whatever gods might be watching that she wasn’t harnessing adragon.
A shattering boom shook the bunker. She bit back a shriek as pieces of rotten concrete tumbled from the walls, creating a fog of dust. Glancingfearfully at the ceiling, she didn’t see cracks, but the crystals blazed a brighter blue. That’s when she noticed their staff crystals glowed weirdly. The effect of concretedust?
Energy continued surging through the wood, and her stick bucked like a wildhorse.
The ground rumbled. What sounded like an avalanche roared in the distance. But it was the power rushing through her handsthat frightened hermost.
Her aunt and Daisy hummed a high-pitched note that was almost as scary as the thunder outside. But the energy they evoked was positive—she could swear it was as if she were part of a giant magnet pushing back a negativecharge.
The rumble rolled closer, lifting the ground they stood on.Earthquake?
Walker could only watchin horror as the detonator falling from Gump’s pocket set off explosives beneath Bald Rock. The impact blasted the enormous outcropping into individual boulders, shooting them into the air. The debris slammed back to ground on the already dangerously loose hillside. Rocks and dirt began toslide.
In an instant, an avalanche cascaded straight toward the farm andSam.
She was down there, he knew it, he could feel her terror resonating with his, and it was all he could do not to follow the landslidedown.
Take out the enemy first. Think, Walker, don’treact.
Fighting the bile boiling up his gullet, Walker gripped the rocks of the cliff wall while the ground beneath his feet shook. The wide path he stood on didn’t crumble. The same couldn’tbe said of the precarious ledge where Gumpperched.
Even as Walker reached for him, the ledge cracked. Before his eyes, the sociopath lost his balance—and tumbled into the snakes’ nest as it slid downward with half themountain.
Gump’s screams followed him down—a violent end to a violentman.
But Walker had no compassion for evil. His heart and mind roiled in terror for Sam—beautifulgolden, laughing Sam, frowning, snarky, intelligent Sam, naked loving understanding Sam—down there, amid the rubble and debris surging relentlessly toward the shrub-covered foundation he assumed had to be the original farmhouse. Where the hell could she be hiding? There wasnothingto hide behind or stop the tide ofdestruction.
His heart plunged with the rocks. Paralyzed in shock and helplessness,he watched Gump’s green jacket disappear in a cloud of dust and stone. Once again, he had no control over the shit life threw at him. He hadn’t even prized a confession from the bastard, although the detonator and explosives confirmed the man wasn’t worth the rocks he’d stoodon.
But Sam didn’t deserve to die because Walker hadn’t been able to stop a lunatic—again. He had to find a waydown, findSam...
The eerie hum continued in a crescendo, echoing off the bluff face, even as the slide lost momentum on the level ground of the farm. Skidding downward on the loose shale in his quest to find Sam, Walker watched in disbelief as the powerful tide of granite and debris tumbled to a gradualhalt.
It formed a barrier of rocks and dirt outside what appeared to be aline of Daisy’s peculiarguardians. A few smaller stones rolled through an unfinished area of the circle—just as if the tiny stone statues had halted alandslide.
Harvey climbed up to stand beside Walker in silent appreciation of the utter destruction. In the distance, sirensscreamed.
“Holy shit,” Walker muttered, searching for any sign of movement below. “The sheriff won’t believethis.”
“If Gump’s head wasn’t crushed, he’ll die of snakebite,” Harvey said prosaically. “We could pretend we didn’t see him, if thathelps.”
That jarred Walker from his shock. “If he’s alive, I want a confession. But if Sam’s down there, I’m going after herfirst.”
“She’s there all right. Her energy is almost as powerful as Mariah’s,” Harvey warned. “She’s not going anywhere.This earth is hers. You’d do better to look toyourself.”
Walker didn’t bother sending him an incredulous glance. Choosing the safest trajectory over the loose stones, he clambered down to the farm. The avalanche had provided a safer angle than the steepbluff.
By the time he reached the bottom, ATVs were roaring up the rutted drive from town. Lucys trekked up from the vortex oroff the bluff from various directions where they’d been concealed. It was as if all the spirits on the mountain had materialized and were finding their way to the farm. If he didn’t know better, he’d think the Lucys had been hiding in caves with theirancestors.
Praying that Harvey was right and that Sam was safe, Walker hurried downward, hailing the sheriff and Monty on the first ATV inhis path. Another deputy and Kurt rode the second. Officialdom and Lucys gathering on the same plain. The sun might implodenext.
When he got close enough to be heard, Walker gestured up the rock slide to where the sleeve of an emerald coat could just be seen. “Alan Gump is up there. He had a detonator in his pocket. Watch for thevipers.”
