Page 99 of Reset

“Ryan,” she shouted again.

All she heard was ringing in her ears.

Pulling her knees up to her chest, Sarah went over the facts as she knew them.

One: She’d shoved Ryan out of the way, so he had to be fine. Unless the rest of the tunnel came down after she’d been knocked out…

No.

It wasn’t likely. She’d spotted the crack above them a split second before the candle went out. The crack had run horizontally across the tunnel, not down it. In fact, there were no cracks in the section just before the one that collapsed. She’d noticed because the tunnel seemed to be full of them. When the one overhead had groaned and started to crumble and the sprinkling of dust became a torrent, she’d known there were only seconds to spare until it all came down. The area they stood in would be buried—and them along with it. Her only thought was to get Ryan out of the way before it collapsed.

And she was sure she’d shoved him hard enough.

Which meant the odds were good that he’d been safe on the other side.

She nodded. Okay. That made sense. She took a deep breath and carried on.

Two: If Ryan was okay, that meant he was looking for her or had gone to get help.

Or, he left you…and forgot about you…again…

“Get out of my head!” she snapped at the voice from her childhood. “I don’t have time for abandonment issues.”

The chances of Ryan forgetting her were slim, unless he’d been hit on the head again. Which was unlikely, seeing as she’d shoved him hard so that wouldn’t happen again. Anyway, he’d never leave her there alone. Never. Every fiber of his being was designed to be the hero. His honor wouldn’t let him leave her. She knew that now. Only something completely out of his control would keep Ryan from returning to get her—like a coma.

Which led her to three: She had to stay where she was so he knew where to find her.

She blinked against the black void. Where was she going to go anyway? For all she knew, there could be a pit five steps from her, waiting for her to walk into it, and she would never know because she couldn’t see a thing.

Yes. Staying put was a very good plan.

Four: She didn’t have much water left, so she had to conserve it until she was rescued.

Five: She should also conserve her energy, which was fine considering she wasn’t going anywhere anyway.

All she could do was wait.

And seeing as she wasn’t the hero of the piece, that was fine by her.

Her hands shook as she grasped the water bottle, reminding her that she was barely keeping it together. Her mind kept straying into areas it shouldn’t go, and she fought to bring it back. To keep herself focused on the facts—and not on the bodies that’d dehydrated and died alone, lost in the tunnels.

Absently, she felt a tingling on her neck and brushed at her hair. A bug crawled over her hand. Gasping, Sarah shook it off. It felt big. Lots of legs. Spider? She felt movement on her other shoulder. Then her knee.

Jumping to her feet, she dropped the water bottle and swept her body and hair with her hands. Brushing away everything and anything that might be there. She was panting now. Imagining all kinds of unseen things crawling over her.

Any second, and her hyperventilating would result in a full-blown panic attack, which would send her into an oblivion where bugs crawled over her unconscious body.

Oh! No!

Had they been doing that while she’d been out cold?

She flapped her shirt to get anything stuck in there out. Followed up with running her hands up and down her legs, under her skirt, checking every inch of herself. Lastly, she doubled over and combed out her hair with her fingers.

That was the best she could do.

“Calm down,” she told herself. “You need to stay calm.”

There were bugs on the floor—she was sure of it. She might be unable to see them, but she sure as hell could imagine them. Great big spiders coming for her. She could see them in her mind as they crawled over Ryan’s huge shoes and up her—