The hallway she led Aiden into was identical to the room they just left. The same carved walls sloped upward, the same dark sand crunched under his sneakers. It was wide, about as wide as his quarters, and ran forward in a slow curve. He saw pockets of doorways here and there, but when he peeked inside, most were empty.
The further they went the better he felt, until he found himself pulling away from Ashala and making his way on his own. She beamed a smile of approval.
"Where are we?" His voice bounced from the cool stone. "I didn't see any mountains or cliffs in the desert."
"Deep underground," she said. Aiden's shoulders tightened but he forced them to relax. He hated closed spaces. "You collapsed near the entrance to our caves. Some of us had just gone to the surface to close the do
