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No one spoke.

Every step was cautious, each breath taken as silently as possible. The only sound was the faint crunch of loose gravel beneath our boots as we picked our way across the rocky terrain.

Suddenly, I heard a noise: soft, faint, barely there.

I stiffened, my pulse spiking as my ears strained, trying to pinpoint it. It wasn’t the wind. It wasn’t the shifting of stone. It was… It sounded likeclicking.

I glanced around, scanning the tree line. The land sloped downward here, leading into the mine, the dark entrance of the cave pulling at us like gravity. The rocks along the ridge jutted out at odd angles, shadows stretching too far, twisting nauseatingly.

Something was watching us.

Tracking us.

I felt it.

I turned my head just slightly, my voice barely above a whisper. “Silas.”

He stiffened beside me, his golden eyes slicing toward me.

I barely moved my hand, just enough to indicate the rocks along the ridge. “A sound. Something’s moving over there.”

Silas’s expression didn’t change, but I saw his body coil, his fingers flexing at his sides, inching toward his knife. He shifted his stance slightly, so subtle that anyone watching wouldn’t have noticed, but I did. He issued a quiet hiss of warning to the others.

Because he believed me and he knew I wasn’t wrong.

A second passed.

Then another.

Then the rocks above us exploded.

A blur of pale limbs and black eyes launched from the shadows, moving so fast I barely had time to react.

The Nyktos were here. They hadn’t waited for us to come to them. They had come to us,huntedus.

The first one slammed into Caleb, knocking him back with an inhuman shriek. Its long, vicious claws dug into his shoulders as its misshapen, monstrous face snapped toward his throat.

Gunfire erupted.

Rowan’s rifle boomed, the sound ricocheting through the valley as he took down another one midair.

But more were coming. Too many.

They poured from the rocks like ants from a disturbed mound, their bodies skittering across the red rock. Long, thin limbs snapped and crunched as they moved, their joints bending in ways that made my stomach turn and fear climb my throat. Some of them were small, barely the size of a man, their eyes bulbous and wet, their teeth too long for their sunken mouths. Others were larger, hunched figures with exposed ribs and sinewy muscles stretched over bone.

The worst ones were the insectoids.

Tall, lanky figures with elongated arms, their fingers ending in hooked claws, their backs split open to reveal thin, quivering wings that clicked as they vibrated—a weird, unnatural frequency that sent ice shooting down my spine.

They weren’t just attacking; they were hunting us, herding us.

Silas roared, his knife already slicing through the first one that lunged for him. Varek fought like a wild animal, his blade tearing into flesh, his silver eyes burning with adrenaline. Ryan, Caleb, and Hale had their backs together, daggers flashing as they tried to keep the creatures from surrounding them.

I had my own blade in my hand, swinging before I could think. A smaller one lunged for me, its thin arms jerking bizarrely, its black eyes targeting me. I dodged at the last second, barely avoiding its claws as I twisted and sank my knife into its neck.

The creature shrieked, a sound so high-pitched I thought my eardrums would burst. Then it collapsed with a throaty groan. It didn’t get up again.

I barely had a second to breathe before another one came for me, its too-wide mouth opening as it hissed, rows of jagged teeth glistening in the shade.