Something crunches underfoot, and I realize it’s glass from a shattered bottle lying on the floor, where liquor pools in the rock’s many crevices. My chest seizes, and my heart stutters, the beats tripping over each other.

“Willow!” I scream into the echoing dark. “Willow is gone!” I shout in the other direction, and then I’m running, the light from the lantern bouncing against the walls, offering the barest glimpses into the surrounding blanket of night.

“Willow!” I scream as I twist through the tunnels. “Where are you!”

My voice cracks as I scream her name over and over, moving deeper and deeper. I hear the others following behind me, but I keep running, crashing into corners, my shoes skidding on the rocks. “Willow! Where are you?”

A path angles into the darkness, and I don’t hesitate to pick my way down. My toe catches on a rock, and I stumble, falling onto my hands and knees. The lantern tumbles from my grip, smashing into pieces and plunging me into night.

“Nadir!” I scream in the other direction as I lurch to my feet. My skirt is torn, and my knees ache. I wipe my bloodied palms on the fabric. “Tristan!”

The darkness is like a living thing, filling my ears and eyes and nose. I nearly choke on it, feeling blindly into nothing. Then I remember the new magic in my veins, and I draw on it, marveling at how smooth and easy it feels. I send out a tendril of bright violet light just as everyone comes running up.

“Lor, are you okay?” Nadir asks as he barrels down the path, wrapping an arm around my waist.

“We have to find her!” I choke out. I’m breathing so hard, I can barely speak.

“What happened?” Tristan asks.

I gulp down air as my vision spins. “I don’t know. She’s gone. Something took her.”

I think again of the creatures Rion created using the virulence, dreading what foul nightmare might have my sister in its clutches. Suddenly, my legs feel like mist, and I cling to Nadir before I collapse.

“We have to find her,” I repeat, gasping for breath.

“We will,” he answers. “We will find her.”

I nod and push up, wiping my eyes with the back of my hand before Nadir grabs it. Amya is beside me now, and I take her hand on my other side, squeezing it firmly. Neither one of us says anything, but I understand how much Willow has come to mean to her.

“We’ll get her back,” I whisper. “I won’t let there be any other outcome.”

“I know you won’t,” she answers.

“Let’s go,” Nadir says as we continue through the tunnel with Morana and Khione on our heels. The others follow behind us until we reach a cavern with five branching pathways.

“Which one is it?” I ask, spinning around. “Willow! Willow!”