There were four distinct sounds of breath in the darkness that followed: Seven’s steady breathing, Luca’s shaky inhale, Pocket’s tiny little gasp, and something else, inhaling and exhaling with such slow, deliberate precision that every hair on Seven’s body stood up in protest.

  Her hands now shaking, Seven tried to tap the dice on her lantern with a gloved finger. She dared not move anything else. Even Pocket seemed to sense the tension in the room and remained silent, his glow going fainter. The lantern stayed dark, and at the corner of the room, movement rippled slowly, something she felt in the shift of the dark tunnel air more than saw.

  It was impossible not to feel exposed standing there with her back to Luca’s. Luca was clearly no fighter, and indeed, he’d barely done anything but whine after the cave-in. But Seven was no better; whatever power she’d had just hours ago was gone, and her sack of shards hung limp and dull from her waist, clearly used up to tend to her injuries or protect her from the fall in some way. There was no power left in them, and the ore on the wall didn’t react to her touch at all.

  And without that, she was as good as useless.

  No, she thought suddenly. I still have something I can use. Ore still flickered faintly in her vision, these pockets a product of her spelunker dice. She could use those—assuming they could run fast enough to outwit whatever prowled the room nearby. Assuming they could avoid the walls with her sight at all. Still, it was the only option left.

  “Luca,” she whispered, barely letting the words escape her mouth. “We’re going to run.”

  “We don’t even know from what.”

  “Do you want to find out?”

  “…no.”

  “Then let’s go. Hold onto my bag. On three. One.”

  The steps paused, rumbling the ground far too close for Seven’s comfort.

  “Two.”

  The air shifted, the cloying tang of old copper wafting on the stale tunnel air.

  “Three.”

  The creature lunged, but Seven was already gone, charging towards the exit so fast that she felt the tug of Luca lagging behind. Pocket crawled inside her shirt, now wailing in earnest, but Seven didn’t stop. Couldn’t stop. Her legs burned and her lungs complained, but the violent shake of the footsteps behind her and the vicious roar were enough to convince her body to keep moving.

  Stone rained from overhead as she slammed into a wall, then found her way through the tunnel, following the trail of ore overhead. There were no lights besides Pocket’s faint glow, and that did little to illuminate the tunnel at all. But as she ran, the ore responded to her presence, blossoming into life as she darted through tunnels, hearing the crash and roar of the thing behind her as it demolished the exits she chose.

  She didn’t dare look behind her as they sprinted for the exit. Didn’t dare stop to confirm whatever it was that followed her.

  They plunged into a side passage lined with more ore, the stones blooming into life all at once to reveal a tunnel that ended in a room with three exits. She skidded to a halt, her breath coming thick and fast, and Luca slammed into her back.

  “Is there any particular reason we’re not moving?” he snapped, trying to shove her into the room. Seven moved, but her eyes weren’t on the exit—they were on the bits of machinery scattered throughout the room, the boxes, filled with ore, and strangely, the same bracelet she wore on her wrist, and stacks of authorization cards with LMC’s logo stamped across them.

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  “I was trying to remember which way to go,” she said, knowing they were short on time. Still those steps pounded closer, and the thing let out an agonized roar as it crashed into another nearby wall. She didn’t want to be around to find out what, exactly, had been chasing them. But at least now she knew why LMC had abandoned their operation.

  “Well, figure it out,” Luca said, “or I’m picking one at random.”

  “The far left,” Seven said, jogging forward. She hadn’t been certain, but the passage sloped upward—certainly a good sign—and the air was less stale here. There had to be ventilation to the upper sectors. Besides that, there was a sort of melody she swore she heard when looking at it. Hopefully that thing stops following, she thought. She wasn’t sure what she’d do if it did decide to follow her further. It would certainly bring her career at LMC to an early close.

  “Someone was definitely down here,” Luca commented, his breath short. He ran past the supplies, feet twisting in the rocks, but Seven paused, eyeing the piles of dice, the authorization cards, the bracelets. The ceiling rattled overhead.

  “They left in a hurry,” Pocket said. “I wonder why. Maybe something scared them off.”

  “Thanks, Pocket,” Seven said. “Very reassuring.”

  “I’m here to provide color commentary, not comfort.”

  Luca paused near the exit, clearly conflicted about staying there given the noise that the beast was making nearby as it tried to claw its way through the tunnel they’d just left in the darkness. “Are you coming, or what?”

  “I am,” Seven said. She snatched several ID cards and a few bracelets to boot, then stuffed them into her bag and sprinted towards the exit just as the thing broke through another layer of rock. She swore she saw teeth and claws in the darkness, devouring the rock, but she barely had time to glance in that direction before she was sprinting up the passage with Luca.

  “Oh good,” Pocket said from her shoulder. “Stealing company property. Always good to add grand larceny to our growing list of violations.”

  “Theft is in the eye of the beholder,” Seven managed to choke out. She squeezed through a tiny crack behind Luca and plunged back into blinding brightness—that of the lit, authorized tunnels above.

  For a moment, she sat there in the dirt, panting, Luca crouched nearby, looking ready to run again. The stone vibrated beneath their feet, and Seven felt that breath again—as if the creature was staring through the crack in the wall. It waited one breath. Two breaths. She could smell the copper on its hot, moist breath, and while Seven had never particularly considered herself a cowardly woman, it was all she could do to remain sitting there, hoping that the crack in the wall was enough.

  Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the ground shuddered again, then went silent.

  Seven collapsed into the dirt, staring up at the ceiling, still gasping for breath, each one a sharp pain in her side. She’d spent plenty of her life running. Plenty of it hiding, trying to escape her parents or their minders—or the consequences that always followed her bad decisions.

  And yet, this was the first time she’d truly faced death. The first time she’d gambled everything. Not just chips. Not just wealth. Not even her reputation, but her very life.

  She supposed she should be panicked or ashamed—she’d risked everyone’s life just to avoid giving Bert a bag of shards that were now useless. But lying there, her lungs burning, her body aching, her mind buzzing, she couldn’t help but feel something else.

  Joy.

  She laughed. Laughed like she hadn’t in years. Laughed at the sheer glee of the ultimate gamble, the ultimate game.

  Luca’s head appeared in her vision, looking at her like she’d lost her mind. And well, maybe he had a point. “We never speak of this,” he said firmly.

  “Right,” she said, still giggling. It was a lie, of course. She’d tell Emmet everything—and beg him to return with her. But Luca could pound sand if he thought he’d earned her silence.

  “The smile is really convincing,” Pocket said, examining her. “I can feel the sincerity from here.”

  “Listen,” Luca said, still examining her from above. “I’m not the best with people, but I’m also not sure I understand why a woman who was just crushed, buried, and nearly torn limb from limb by an unidentified tunnel creature feels the need to smile.”

  “Because this changes everything,” she said, still grinning. Whatever LMC was hiding, whatever they’d begun down there in the uncharted sectors, it was big. Big enough to matter. Big enough to clear her name, even.

  She just had to survive long enough to expose it.

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