Chapter 305

Time had no meaning to me, without a watch, but I certainly felt like I was stuck in that dirt pit for hours. I had tried several times to pull myself out, but each time ended in near-immediate failure.

The walls were crumbling dirt. There was nothing to hold onto. Even my new werewolf strength couldn’t help me if I couldn’t find a handhold or foothold.

So I could do nothing but wait. And wait. And wait.

I worried about Veronica. Shouldn’t she have been back by now? What if she fell into another hole and we were both trapped here?

Bridget did say she would come back for me after she found the treasure. She wasn’t lying, right? She wouldn’t leave me here to rot?

The longer I stood there looking up as the sky grew darker, the more I began to doubt.

Wait. That sky was getting awfully dark. We had left at dawn. It couldn’t have been night already, unless I really was starting to lose my mind. When had I last seen the sun? I tried to remember, but its position had been difficult to orient through the tree corner.

But then I understood – because the sky opened up and rain started to pour down on me.

The dirt around me turned into mud. I was glad for my boots, but they were starting to sink down, sticking into the goop under my feet.

Any hope I had at finding any handholds in the walls of the pit disappeared as the sandy dirt became even slicker. Large chunks of the walls plopped down onto the ground.

The rain was chill, pelting hard onto all of my exposed skin. I’d worn my most conservative swimsuit, but it was still a swimsuit and therefore offered no protection from the elements whatsoever.

I shivered hard, the rain creeping down into my bones.

Then I noticed the water was beginning to pool at the bottom of the hole.

No way was I going to die here. Certainly not by drowning.

I had to make a final play. I didn’t know what I could do here, exactly, but I wasn’t going down without a fight.

Elva was waiting for me to come back to her. I would fight to make sure my little girl didn’t have to grow up without me.

I clawed at the walls, searching for purchase. The muddy dirt broke apart in large chunks, coating my hands in brown, with dirt collecting under my fingernails.

I wouldn’t give up. I kept clawing.

And then, finally, I gripped something solid. It was a tree root, uncovered by the dirt clumps falling away. I grabbed it with both hands and began to slowly pull myself out.

It was difficult work. My feet, with no footholds, were basically useless. I had to climb entirely with my upper body strength.

I begged Miracle for strength, and she gave what we could. Together, we began to make progress.

But the tree roots were slippery with the rain, and it seemed that the harder I held onto them, the worse of a grip I had.

My stomach dropped as I started to slip. No! I wouldn’t give up.

I cried out, desperate. “Please!”

My word was swallowed by the roar of the rain falling on the massive leaves of the jungle.

In the distance, a wolf howled.

I knew that howl.

A rescue was coming. I just had to hold on. I gripped with both hands, yanked as hard as I could.

“Nicholas!” I cried. I might have been crying. I couldn’t tell with the rain coming down.

My hands slipped on the tree roots, and I began to slide down. I gasped.

But then a pair of strong, steady hands gripped me under my arms.

“Nick!” I was definitely crying now, so relieved to see his face. Despite my aching limbs and my shivering, I knew I was safe now. Nicholas had found me and he wasn’t going to let me die here.

Nicholas lifted me up from the hole and then yanked me into the safety of his arms. With my new weight, his feet slipped in the mud and we both stumbled backwards.

Nicholas landed on his butt in the mud. But with me cradled against him, I landed safely in his arms.

He wore shorts, boots, and a rain jacket. The hood was done, his hair was a wet mess, sticking out in every direction.

He had never looked so handsome to me.

He golden gaze searched me over. “Are you alright?”

I couldn’t reply. At least, not how I wanted to. “V-Veronica?”

“Safe.” Nicholas’s gaze lifted to my face. “I’m more worried about you.”

The world was shaking… no. I was trembling. “C-cold.” The warmth of his embrace was almost too much. It felt like I was hugging a burning furnace. “Tired.”

“I believe it. But you’ve done well.”

Well? All I did was manage to fall in a hole and stay there. Well would have been pulling myself out and not needing a rescue.

But I was too exhausted to argue. All I wanted in the whole world was a hot bath and a soft bed.

Unfortunately, as Nicholas rose, then pulled me up into the safe cradle of his arms, I noticed we were not heading back toward the beach. Nicholas surely knew the way, so I didn’t understand what he was doing.

He glanced down and saw my quizzical look.

“The storm moved in suddenly. It’s a fierce one. Most of the ships have left the vicinity. I have a boat for us, but it would capsize in these waves. We’d never make it back home.”

So we were trapped on the island, just like I had been trapped in the hole.

“We’ll have to stay here tonight,” Nicholas said. I strained to hear him over the torrent of water and the howl of wind that rustled through the trees.

I didn’t want to stay here. I wanted a bath and a bed. But, the positives were that I wasn’t in a hole anymore, and I wasn’t alone.

Nicholas, it seemed, had risked personal injury to come and find me. He was here with me. Even now, holding me, he was bending his shoulders forward to protect me from the worst of the pelting rain.

He was such a good man, and he seemed confident that we would survive this. I could trust him. It was so easy to.

If anyone could get us through the storm, it was Nicholas.

I curled in towards his chest, and pressed my ear right over his heart. It was pounding quickly, but strongly. He was in full survival mode.

He began walking, eyes glancing this way and that, taking in all of his surroundings. He didn’t complain, didn’t even utter one word, as he trekked ever forward.

The storm raged overhead. The winds were getting worse.

Shivering, I curled in tighter to Nicholas. He more fully wrapped his arms around me.

“Hold on just a little longer, Piper. Give me a bit more time to find us some shelter from this storm.”

I didn’t know what kind of shelter there was to be found on a jungle island, but I found my answer soon enough.

Nicholas followed a trail of rocks until it surged high enough to form an outcrop. And there, at the base, was a small cave.

“It’s not a palace,” Nicholas said, “But it’s safe and dry.”

Anything that would shield us from this torrential downpour looked like a five-star hotel to me. I clung to Nicholas tighter as he walked us there.