“This does not,” I said, looking up and up at the fifty feet or so to the next sublevel. It wasn’t vertical, thank God, or we both would have died, but the incline was steep enough that I wondered at my own bravery back then.

“No, it’s just as awful as I remember.” She stepped closer to the edge and looked down, focusing on the jagged outcropping I’d found her on about ten feet below us. “Cam, I didn’t fall the whole way.” She looked up the shaft at the tiny pinpoint of light that marked the surface. “That’s why I didn’t break more.”

Like her neck.

“You fell from here.” I put it together, watching one of the small rocks just past my feet give in to gravity and fall. It smacked the outcropping, then fell into the blackness. I tugged Willow’s hand and pulled her back a step. This thing was anything but stable.

“But you didn’t. You came all the way down.” She looked up again, shaking her head. “How did you do it? Get down here and get us both out?”

“Sheer willpower.” I clutched her hand even tighter.

“You’re incredible. Do you know that?”

I nudged her hard hat up so the beam didn’t hit me straight in the eye. “Not really.”

“Desperation and love make ordinary people do heroic things,” Dad said from behind us, moving to stand next to Willow at the edge of the unstable ledge. “You were never ordinary, and you had both.” He stated it like a fact, not a compliment, then glanced at me before surveying the space.

“I didn’t see this ledge,” I admitted. “Or the one across the way. We climbed all the way up for nothing.”

“This one wouldn’t have done you much good, seeing as the door can’t be opened from this side.” Dad thumbed back toward the door. “And the other opening is small, too. As dark as it is in here, you wouldn’t have seen it. We’ve got three headlamps, Camden, one of which is brighter than twenty of what we had back then.”

I kicked myself for not being more observant, for putting her through more than I had to when she was already so hurt.

“Stop,” Dad snapped, seeing my guilt. “You focused on the light and started climbing, just like anyone else would have.”

“You saved me.” Willow smiled up at me.

“Hey, isn’t that—?” The ledge gave way under Dad.

“Art!” Willow screamed, grabbing for Dad as rocks crashed to the unknown bottom below.