“We’ve got her!” I confirmed. “Come on, ladies. Let’s get you out of here.” The need to get them as far away from that damned shaft as possible clawed at my gut.

Willow clasped Rose’s hand and then gently pushed her ahead, toward where the tunnel narrowed to the door.

“Hi, Cam,” Rose said softly as she squeezed by me.

“Hey, Rosie.” I wanted to scoop her up, but I wasn’t going to let go of the door and have it close on Willow.

A shaky, trembling smile graced her lips as she passed me next, kissing my cheek. “Thank you,” she whispered.

“Nothing to thank me for,” I replied, then let the door swing shut once she was through. It met the frame in a heavy slam of metal.

Then I grabbed Rose and hugged her. “You scared us.”

Her tiny shoulders heaved. “I’m so sorry. The door shut behind me, and there’s no handle.”

There were about thirty ways I wanted to yell at her for scaring us, for coming down here in the first place, for listening to the ravings of a man who’d already lost his mind—even if he’d actually known what he was talking about in this instance. But her mother could do that as soon as we got her back to the surface. I just needed to feel her breathe for a second.

“You’re okay,” I promised, but I wasn’t sure if it was to the little girl in my arms or to myself.

She nodded against my neck.

I looked at Willow, but her eyes were on the door, two lines forming between her eyebrows. “Pika?”

“I can’t remember, but I know I was here.” She’d been the same size as Rose but alone for so many more hours. Broken, bleeding, and so cold, her skin had felt like ice against mine.

“Give me just a second,” I said to her and carried Rose out to where Gideon and Dad had just made it to the chamber. “Keep her,” I told Gid, handing Rose over, then went back to Willow.

She stood with the door open, her headlamp illuminating the tunnel beyond. “I want to see it. Is that weird?”

“Understandable.” There was a hook on the wall, and when I took the door from Willow and pushed it wide, the iron slipped into the ring on the door, holding it open. “I’ll go with you.”

“Thank you.”

I took her hand and stepped through the door first, keeping contact as she followed behind. The tunnel widened and opened onto a small ledge that looked over the ten-foot-wide ventilation shaft, and Willow stepped up beside me.

“You know when you go somewhere as an adult, and you say, ‘It felt so much bigger as a child’?” she asked.