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more like terrible or horrible? I asked. He squeezed my hand. Stop being such a worrier. You beat Kalona and Neferettonight;everything`s going to be okay. I squeezed his hand back and made myself smile and look less worried, eventhough I knew deepin my heart, deep in my soul, that what had happened tonight had not been anending or even avictory. It had been a terrible, horrible beginning. Wow. I stared around in shocked disbelief. Wow squared is more like it, Damien said. Stevie Rae really did this?That`s what Jack told me, Damien said. He and I stood side by side and peeredinto thedarkness of the newly hollowed earth. Okay--creepy. I spoke my thoughts aloud. Damien gave me an odd look. What do you mean?Well, I paused, not entirely sure what I did mean, even though the tunneldefinitely made mefeel uneasy. Um, it`s, uh . . . Really dark. Damien laughed. Of course it`s dark. It`s supposed to be dark. It`s a hole in theground. To me it feels more natural than a hole in the ground, said Sister Mary Angela asshe joined usat the mouth of the tunnel, peering with us down its black length. For some reasonit comfortsme. Perhaps it`s the way it smells. The three of us sniffed. I smelled, well, dirt. But Damien said, It smells rich andhealthy. Like a newly plowed field, the nun agreed. See, it`s not creepy, Z. I`d definitely hide down here during a tornado, Damiensaid. Feeling overly sensitive and kinda silly, I blew out a long breath and peered into thetunnel, trying to see it with new eyes and feel it with a more accurate instinct. Could I useyourflashlight for a second, Sister?Of course. Sister Mary Angela handed me the big, square, heavy-duty flashlight she`d carriedwith us fromthe main basement into this little side section she`d called their root cellar. The icestorm that hadencased Tulsa for the past several days had knocked out the abbey`s power--as ithad most ofthe city`s power. They did have gas generators, so in the main part of the abbey afew electriclights were on, along with the zillions of candles the nuns liked so much, but theyhadn`t wastedelectricity in the root cellar, and the only illumination came from the nun`s flashlight. This Ishined into the hole in the ground. The tunnel wasn`t very big. If I spread my arms, I could easily touch both sides of it. I looked up. It only cleared my head by about a foot. I sniffed again, trying to find the sense ofcomfort thenun and Damien obviously felt. My nose wrinkled. The place reeked of dark anddampness, rootsand things that had been stirred up from under the surface. I suspected thosethings slithered andcrawled, which automatically made my skin shiver and crawl. Then I mentally shook myself. Why should a tunnel in the earth seem so gross? Ihad an affinityfor earth. I could conjure it. I shouldn`t be afraid of it. Gritting my teeth, I took one step into the tunnel. Then another. And another. Hey, uh, Z, don`t go too far. You have the only light, and I wouldn`t want SisterMary Angelato be left back here in the dark. She might get scared. I shook my head and, smiling, turned around, shining the flashlight toward theentrance andilluminating Damien`s worried face and Sister Mary Angela`s serene one. You wouldn`t want the nun to be afraid of the dark?Damien shifted guiltily. Sister Mary Angela rested her hand on his shoulder for a moment. It is kind of youto think ofme, Damien, but I have no fear of the dark. I was giving Damien a don't be such a sissy look when the feeling hit me. The airbehind mechanged. I knew I wasn`t alone in that tunnel anymore. Fear fingered its way up myspine and Ihad a sudden urge to run--to get out of there as fast as I could and to never, evercome back. And I did almost run. Then I surprised myself by getting mad. I`d just faced a fallenimmortal--acreature I was connected to on a soul-deep level--and I hadn`t run then. I wasn`t going to run now. Zoey? What is it? Damien`s voice sounded far away as I whirled around to facethe darkness. Suddenly a flickering light, like the glowing eye of an underground monster, materialized. Thelight wasn`t big, but it was bright, temporarily causing spots in my field of vision andpartiallyblinding me so that when I looked up the monster appeared to have three heads, with a wild, waving mane, and shoulders that looked mismatched and grotesque. Then I did what any sensible kid would do. I sucked air and let loose with my verybest girlscream, which was instantly and creepily echoed by the three mouths of the single-eyed monster. I could hear Damien shrieking behind me, and I swear Sister Mary