She saw no sign of Graham or Dougal anywhere. They could be hiding, or they could have gone back through the ley line to the cave.
Misty darted under the darkness, but it was too intense after the first few feet out of the sunshine for her to see anything. “Graham,” she whispered.
No answer. He was gone, Dougal with him.
“Corporal, find her,” the commander snapped.
Roots. Misty looked up. The Shifters who’d dug out this cellar had carefully left the earth around the house whole above it. The basement ran a long way underground, well past the house for which it was intended. The planted trees as well as the native brush were intact above it.
Desert shrubs might look fragile and could even appear dried out and dead, but in truth they were tough and hardy. They had to burrow deep into the earth in search of groundwater and rain runoff in order to survive, and their root systems were extensive and strong. The plants could live for years in dormancy, looking dead from above. Then, after a good rain, the plant would become green and vibrant, beautiful and blooming. It would drop its seeds, which would lie in wait in the shade of the parent plant, until that life-giving water found them.
The part of the desert plant below ground was giant and complex, never seen, but networking through the ground in a powerful mesh.
Misty studied the tendrils sticking out of the ceiling above her and the wall around her. She thought of how she’d controlled the vines in the Fae cave, but she had no idea if the book’s spell would work here.
But then, this basement was on a ley line, and in Faerie, magic was real. She agreed with Ben that she needed to collapse it—this place was dangerous for humans and Shifters alike, and humans didn’t need to ask questions about why the hole was here in the first place.
Misty took a breath, and took a risk. “Pull it down,” she said to the roots.
“Ma’am.” The corporal behind her was polite but firm. “You need to come with me.”
“Now,” Misty whispered.
Nothing happened. Misty clenched her jaw and turned around. She knew if she tried to evade the soldiers any longer, they might question her too closely—where she’d been, how she’d been injured, who she’d been with, what was down here . . . She’d been gone five days? She needed to get with Ben and interrogate him.
“Oh, well,” Misty said, giving the corporal a helpless little smile. “I guess I can always get a new phone.”
A root moved. Rustled. Another trembled. As Misty stopped to look up, the entire mass of roots began to vibrate, and clods of earth came down.
Misty backed up swiftly. The corporal grabbed her by the shoulders at the same time and pushed her to the ladder. As Misty climbed ahead of him, her legs shaking, the entire ceiling of the basement caved in, pulling with it a line of trees, bushes, and the foundations of the house that was being built over it.
The ladder shuddered and started to collapse. Eric reached down from the top and grabbed Misty, hauling her up just as the ladder broke into several pieces. The corporal tried to hang on and pull himself up, but falling dirt and rock carried him back down, his hands struggling for purchase.
Eric pushed Misty at Diego, flowed into his snow leopard form, clothes falling away, and went for the hole. He climbed with feline grace down into the avalanche, grabbed the corporal by the back of the shirt, and hauled him up again. Eric’s claws scrabbled on the shifting dirt, his muscles straining, as the hole continued to fall in around him.
Finally, Eric leapt like the cat he was, landing on firm ground, and dragged the corporal well away from the hole before he released him.
Behind them, the basement disappeared, a rush of broken foundation, dirt, rock, and trees filling it in.
Graham. Misty looked at the wreckage of the basement she’d stood in a few moments ago, wondering if she’d just buried alive the man she loved.
• • •
"Five days,” Misty said to Diego as he walked her across the common yards after the paramedics had checked her. Xav had arrived while the paramedics were assuring themselves she was unhurt, his handsome face showing his relief.
“Reid told me that time moves differently inside Faerie,” Diego said as they walked. “I guess we have to believe him. You’ve been gone five days, your mother called your brother, who is also worried sick. Since none of us knew where you were, we couldn’t help.”
Xav shook his head. “I couldn’t exactly explain that you disappeared from a convenience store stockroom in a whirl of flowers. And I couldn’t follow. Why couldn’t I? I was standing right next to you.”
Misty shook her head. “I don’t know.” She broke off, feeling the press of Xavier’s shoulder holster against her. “Wait, maybe because you were carrying a gun. Iron. Maybe it didn’t let that through. Reid could come in with a tire iron, because he’s an ironmaster.”
“Yeah, well, Reid is missing too,” Xav said. “Peigi is about to go postal. My guys practically camped out at the convenience store, but we couldn’t follow you, and I couldn’t find that Ben guy. Trust me, I looked. And then he turns up here today, out of the blue.”
Diego regarded Misty sharply. “What happened to Dougal and Graham?”
“I don’t know.” Misty’s breath hitched. She wanted to break down and sob, sink to the ground and bury her face in her hands. “He was behind me in the basement. And then I—”
“Shh.” Xav went to her and put a comforting arm around her. “Knowing Graham, he found another way out. I’ve learned that Shifter spaces are more complicated than just holes in the ground.”