“Exhausted and my ears are ringing.” Her voice came out as barely more than a whisper. The effort of calling to him, of maintaining contact with so many spirits at once, had drained her completely. “Melissa?”
“I’m sorry for firing my gun so close to you.”
“It’s okay.”
Melissa’s safe. We found her before they could get her out of the tunnels.”
“They found her?”
Brooks nodded. “But she’s safe. She told me what you did. Careless, but we can talk about that later. Come on.”
Relief made her knees weak. Brooks’s grip tightened, supporting her weight.
Around them, the spirits were fading. With the Aldriches captured, with justice finally within reach, their urgent desperation was easing. Vivienne felt them withdrawing, their presence becoming gentler, less demanding.
Lily’s spirit lingered longest. Through the thinning veil, Vivienne felt gratitude, relief, and something like peace. Twenty-five years of waiting, twenty-five years of calling out for someone who could hear, were finally ending.
Thank you,the spirit whispered.Tell my mother I love her. Tell her I can rest now.
“I will,” Vivienne promised.
The temperature began to rise. The frost on the walls melted, running down to join the rising water. The manifestation was complete. The dead had borne witness, and now they could finally let go.
Sullivan was coordinating the evacuation through his radio, arranging for backup and medical support. The water continuedto rise, making the tunnels increasingly dangerous. They needed to move.
“Can you walk?” Brooks asked.
“With help.”
He shifted his grip, supporting more of her weight. Together they started back toward the northeast passage, toward the route that would lead them to the surface. Behind them, deputies managed the prisoners, guiding them through water that now reached their chests.
The journey to the cave seemed longer than Vivienne remembered. Every step required concentration she barely had left. But Brooks was there, steady and solid, his presence anchoring her when exhaustion threatened to pull her under.
“Where’s Winston?” she asked, the question suddenly occurring to her.
“Don’t know. We haven’t encountered him. He must have taken a different route out.”
Vivienne felt a flicker of unease, but she was too drained to pursue it. Winston Aldrich was dangerous, calculating, and now desperate. But right now, all she could focus on was putting one foot in front of the other.
When they finally emerged into the cave, rain still poured through the opening but it felt like freedom. Melissa sat wrapped in a thermal blanket, talking to a paramedic. She looked up as they entered, her expression brightening with recognition.
“You made it.”
“We both did.” Vivienne managed a smile. “Thanks to you. The compass led Brooks right to where he needed to be.”
“And the journal,” Melissa said, holding up the leather-bound book. “Martha Morgan’s going to get answers after twenty-five years.”
Vivienne nodded, too tired to speak. Brooks was guiding her to sit, wrapping another thermal blanket around her shoulders.Someone handed her water and she drank mechanically, her body following instructions while her mind floated somewhere distant.
The spirits were quiet now. The urgent pressure that had driven her through these passages was gone, replaced by a different kind of exhaustion—the bone-deep weariness that came from pushing too far, giving too much.
But they’d done it. Melissa was alive. Gerald and Jeremy were captured. Lily’s evidence would finally see the light of day. Justice, delayed for twenty-five years, was within reach.
Brooks sat beside her, close enough that their shoulders touched. Neither spoke. Words seemed unnecessary after everything they’d been through, after the moment when his mind had heard hers across impossible distance.
“You called me,” he said finally. “I don’t know how that’s possible. But I heard you.”
“And you came.”
