My head was still a little swimmy, and something was nagging at me. Something the attackers had said … but I couldn’t put my finger on it. It didn’t help that I probably had a concussion, and was now hanging upside down and bouncing around. Holding my head up was making me nauseous, so I hung back down. Also not comfortable. I thought about Rayna, how she swore by her yoga classes and the way they “allowed her body to achieve maximum relaxation.” I wondered if she’d be able to find a position that was comfortable while jouncing around inverted on someone’s back. I wondered if she’d be more or less relaxed in this position if she knew the back in question belonged to a possible incubus who’d been haunting her dreams.
I giggled.
I was clearly not one hundred percent.
“In here,” I heard Sage whisper, and he slung me off his shoulder and into his arms. He was standing in front of what looked like solid brush, but he parted the foliage with his foot to reveal a small hole. Ben crawled inside. Then Sage looked down at me.
“You okay to crawl?” he whispered.
I nodded, and he set me down on the ground. I had to lower myself almost completely flat to get inside, and I clawed my way forward for what seemed like an eternity.
I couldn’t see a thing, but I could hear the scratch of Ben’s shoes just ahead of me. I listened for Sage behind me. I couldn’t hear him. Was he there? I didn’t even have room to turn around in here.
My throat grew tight and I couldn’t swallow. What if this was a trap? What if Sage was an evil spirit, and this was how he’d strike? What if Ben was about to reach a dead end? We’d try to crawl backward … only to find that Sage had closed off the entrance, leaving us to suffocate in this makeshift coffin.
Was that how he got my dad’s watch? Had Sage killed my father?
I started hyperventilating, but forced in a slow, long breath, willing calm into my body. Losing consciousness now would be the worst thing I could do. I was letting myself go back to Extreme Thinking, when I had to be in the moment and aware. Like Rayna doing her yoga.
Rayna. Yoga. Aware.
I recited it like a mantra to help me stay calm, and within moments the crawlway opened into a large cave, with ceilings eight feet high. A tiny bit of light streamed in from above, just enough to make out the space and Ben. He rushed over to help me to my feet.
“Tell me I’m not the only one who thought he’d set us up,” he murmured.
“Totally imagined a huge dead end,” I agreed.
We laughed with giddy relief as Sage emerged into the cave.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
I nodded, and then I remembered—the thing that had been nagging me.
“The men who attacked us … they didn’t know who I was at first.”
“Because they weren’t after you,” Sage said. “They’re after me.”
“Who’s after you?” I asked. “Why?”
“I can’t tell you that.”
“You should,” I countered. “If you don’t, I could turn you in as the guy behind my father’s disappearance.”
Sage looked at me in disbelief. “I just saved your life. Doesn’t that mean anything?”
“Not if you won’t admit what you know. You could be just as dangerous as they are.”
“You really believe that?”
He looked at me, and we both knew I didn’t believe it at all. Not really. But I wasn’t going to admit it. I held his gaze as he leaned against the wall and lowered himself to the ground, settling in.
“Fine,” he said. “I’ll tell you everything I can. I have to, because as things stand now … we’re stuck together.”
“ACTUALLY,” Ben countered, “we’re not stuck together at all. We’re staying here only until we’re safe. Then we leave, and if you’re lucky, we don’t turn you in to the police.”
“That’s funny,” Sage said, then turned to me. “Your boyfriend’s funny. But you’re not going to the police when we get out of here, because the last thing you want is for me to be anywhere except by your side.”
“Yeah, right,” Ben scoffed.
“Listen, I know how these guys work. They saw me help you, so now they think we’re together and they can use you to get to me. I’ve seen it happen before.” Sage turned to me, and his face grew serious. “I saw it happen with your father.”
“You need to tell me how you know him,” I said. “I want to know everything. Where did you meet him?”
“I didn’t, really. He met me. He came looking for me because I have information about something he was interested in.”
“Which was …?” I urged.
Sage took a deep breath, then let it out as he replied, “Something called the Elixir of Life.”
Ben perked up. “What do you know about the Elixir of Life?”
“I know it’s ridiculous! Please tell me my dad wasn’t taken by some psychopath who thought it was real.”
“I can’t tell you that,” Sage said.
“But that’s so stupid!” The waste of it was more than I could handle. The idea that someone could hurt my dad because of something that didn’t even exist …
“Grant didn’t think it was stupid,” Ben said, cutting into my thoughts. “He believed in it. He knew it would be the ultimate breakthrough in modern medicine.”
“It’s not medicine,” I said. “It’s a fairy-tale drink that makes people live forever.”
“In large doses,” Ben said. “In smaller doses it has incredible healing powers. It cures any disease.”
“Are you listening to yourself?” I asked.
“You haven’t seen all your dad’s research. He has volumes of it, and it’s not just myths, it’s in history, too. How do you think he knew where to dig up the vials?”
“The empty vials,” I clarified.
“Empty,” Sage chimed in, “because the Elixir had been moved somewhere else. That’s the information I have—I know where it is.”
“You know where it is?” Ben’s entire energy changed; suddenly his whole face filled with excitement.
“I do.” Sage spoke slowly, as if it were an effort to make sure he chose just the right words. “But I don’t know exactly how to get it. It’s like I have only one piece of the puzzle. Clea’s father said he had the rest.”
Ben nodded eagerly. “Okay, wow, this totally makes sense … but how did he know where to find you?”