Free Forgotten Love: An Action-Packed Adventure Romance (The Forgotten Chronicles) by Kameron Scott

tendrils snaked closer to them. She was probably right about this being a carnivorous plant. Why else would it be hunting them like this?
    "Don't move, Gillian. It's okay. I've got you. We'll be fine. See how it's slowing down? I think it's getting cold. Plants don't like the cold. Under the ground it's got heat and warmth in the soil. Maybe even the warm air from the vents keeps it warm, too. Now that the ice melted, it's got the warmth of the sun. But in here, further away, it's cold. It's got no reason to come this way. It will go away soon. I promise, Gillian. Gillian? Can you hear me? Come on now."
    Her foot lifted, like she was going to take another step, then gently settled back down. "I hear you, Theo," she said in a shaky voice, almost too quiet for him to make out.
    Those words allowed him to finally relax. He had reached through to her in time, before she gave into her fear and her admittedly reasonable desire to run away. She trusted him to get them through this. Watching the hungry exploration of the plant monster, he hoped that her trust would be justified.
    Nothing had ever prepared him for something like this.
    The vines or tendrils or whatever they were stopped. All of them, all at once. Theo had just enough time to wonder what they were doing before they snaked their way back into the hole, bumping and gliding over each other.
    "It's the cold," he explained to her. "The metabolism of the plant responds to heat for the same reason every plant responds to the light of the sun, the warmth of summer. The cold slows it down to a near hibernative state. I wouldn't be surprised if that thing had been sleeping under the ground down here since before the Norsemen came."
    "That's impossible," Gillian said, shivering and pressing her body against him from behind.
    "No, it's really not. There was a case where a Judean date palm was revived after being dormant for two thousand years, and it still grew. There's a Quaking Aspen tree system that keeps sprouting up new trees from the same underground roots, and it's estimated to be 80,000 years old. It's not beyond the realm of possibility that this plant here is something similar."
    He felt the beads of sweat running down the back of his own neck. So this was the monster that local legend talked about. Not a serpent, but a giant, hungry plant locked under the surface of Greenland. The Norsemen who had fled the surface so many centuries ago when the weather turned on them had thought they would be safe down here. They'd been wrong. The monster had covered them in blood. It had killed them all. And it was still here, still thriving, and still looking for anything that moved and breathed.
    "Anyway, didn't see that in the brochure, did you?" he said, trying to lighten the mood.
    Gillian laughed nervously. She let go of his hand and slumped heavily against the wall of the tunnel.
    "Gillian, wait," he called to her, reaching out to grab her arm.
    Too late.
    Tendrils shot out again from their hole, running along the ground, all of them thrusting in the direction of Theo and Gillian. Vibration. It was drawn to vibration. Crafty beast!
    No time to admire the thing. No time for anything but one thought. "Run!" he shouted.
    She was at his side again in an instant as they both ran away from the plant monster, away from the burial mounds, away from the village that time had forgotten. They ran into the dark recesses deeper into the cave.
    They ran for their lives.

Chapter 10
    THE WALLS BEGAN getting closer, and closer, as the place narrowed down.
    "Please don't be a dead end, please don't be a dead end," he kept repeating to himself. Their packs were back in the ruins of the village, left behind in their mad dash to save their lives. They had nothing to defend themselves with.
    Soon the walls were close enough to touch on either side. The ceiling had lowered itself as well, to a few feet above their heads. And closing.
    "Tell me there's a plan here!" Gillian begged him. There was no