Page 43

Draevyn

D raevyn’s eyes fluttered open as the cold, damp air bit into his skin.

The runes carved into the walls were no longer lit. The tiny, subtle glow from Esmyra’s arms was their only light.

Draevyn blinked, his heart hammering in his chest. He couldn’t see anything, not even his hands in front of him, yet everything inside him screamed in alarm.

His fingers brushed over slick stone as he tried to push himself up, but his muscles screamed with exhaustion, his limbs heavy.

He cursed the cuffs for bringing his mortality to the surface.

“Esmyra?” he called out, his voice hoarse. The sound echoed, stretching into the surrounding void.

“ Quiet , you fool,” Esmyra snapped in a whisper. “We’re not alone.”

Draevyn shot up, frantically turning in every direction as if he could see a gods-damn thing in the pitch black. “What is? Who? Why are the runes no longer lit?”

At first, only silence answered him—an eerie, hollow void that made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. But then, faintly, Draevyn caught it. A soft, rhythmic sound resembling breathing, but it wasn’t their own .

Something grabbed his arm. Alarm raced through him, and he moved on instinct, rearing his arm back to strike. But whoever it was caught his other hand, and he felt the familiar taloned nails brush his skin.

Esmyra .

“How long have you been awake?” he whispered.

“Only moments longer than you,” she answered, her voice just as soft.

The foreign breathing grew louder, more distinct, and with it came another sound—an unsettling, wet scraping, like claws on stone.

Draevyn’s pulse quickened, the blood draining from his face as he realized he was entirely defenseless.

He stiffened, straining to listen more closely. “You hear that?”

The scraping grew louder, closer. Multiple sets of claws, circling. The sound came from all sides, from above, behind, and directly before them.

“We’re surrounded,” she whispered, her hold tightening on his arm.

Panic gripped him, his pulse thundering in his ears. They were unarmed, in the pitch darkness, and surrounded by something that set his entire body on edge.

“Esmyra,” he started.

“Aye?”

Draevyn nearly scoffed at her being so casual in the situation. “I’m without flame. We are without weapons…aside from you. Whatever’s here with us feels like much more than one person alone can handle.”

“You know nothing of me, Draevyn Rowe. You’ll remain bound. Nice try, though.”

“Are you saying you have the gods-damn key?!”

The breathing turned into a soft, guttural growl, echoing from every direction. It reverberated off the walls, bouncing through the tunnel like a warning.

Draevyn scrambled to his feet, pulling Esmyra up with him. “We need to move.”

The growling intensified, and the wet scrape of claws sent a chill down his spine. It was clear they didn’t have a choice and would need to fight their way out of this.

“There are too many,” Esmyra admitted.

“How many?” His muscles tensed, feeling the presence only feet from him now.

“Many,” she whispered, followed by a gulp. “On the count of three, my eyes will shift, and we need to run . And fight our way through.”

“I have no means to fight,” he reminded her.

Silence answered him for several seconds before she spoke again. “Then it appears our time together is over, Phoenix.”

“You’re fucking kidding me.”

Just as they took their first step, something shifted in the dark—a sudden rush of movement, quick and lethal. A low hiss sliced through the air.

Esmyra’s eyes shifted, illuminating the tunnel, and all gods …he wished she hadn’t.

Hundreds of humanoid creatures clung to the walls of the forked tunnels—their bodies pale, gaunt, and grotesque.

They filled every inch of the cavern, some crouched low to the ground, others hanging upside down from the jagged rock formations above, their blind, milky eyes glowing faintly in the soft, teal light.

Their nearly translucent skin stretched tightly over sharp bones and gnashing teeth.

Esmyra’s breath hitched as she took a step back, her eyes wide with horror. “Kaelypso’s tits.”

The creatures were motionless. Their heads tilted slightly, as if listening to every word they had spoken since awakening, while their lips were pulled back in silent snarls. The stench of their decayed, rotting bodies stuffed itself in Draevyn’s nostrils, nearly making him gag.

“Krechuums,” Esmyra hissed. “They’re…everywhere.”

A sudden, low hiss echoed from above, and they slowly turned their heads up. There were somehow more of them, hanging like bats with dangling limbs as their claws clicked softly while they shifted.

There was no escape—not forward, not back, not even up .

“What do we do? We can’t fight them all,” he stated.

When Esmyra didn’t answer, he glanced down to find her eyes darting in all directions, looking at the krechuums surrounding them, only waiting for a chance to tear them apart.

“You look as if you’re weighing our options,” he whispered before slowly bending down to her ear. “I’ll save you the time. We have none .”

Suddenly, the creatures shifted. It was subtle at first—just a twitch of a claw, a tightening of their bony limbs. And then the cavern echoed with a sickening series of clicks and hisses.

“Not ours,” Esmyra whispered. “Mine.”

His nostrils flared. “You can’t be serious.”

She scanned the creatures before them, her throat bobbing the more her eyes wandered. The veins in her neck strained as her jaw ticked.

“Fine,” she growled. “Slowly—and I mean very slowly…reach into my pocket and feel for the key. On the count of three, I’m going to run and distract them. Fight off as many as I can so we can get the fuck out of this place.”

Draevyn’s eyes drifted down to her legs, where the pocket held the key to his freedom. “You’re freeing me?”

“For the time being,” she whispered. He nearly laughed at her. Over his rotting corpse would he ever be placed in the confines of these cuffs again.

“One.” Her voice was soft, snapping him out of his trance.

A creature on the ceiling dropped silently to the floor, landing with a soft thud. It stood before them as if it were mortal, but its face was anything but. The krechuum’s head twisted unnaturally, its mouth opening in a silent snarl as it sniffed the air.

More dropped from the walls and ceiling, moving in on them like a slow tide of death. Their guttural hisses filled the cavern, echoing and multiplying in the darkness.

“ Two .” The word left her in a near growl. It was a warning to him that he wasn’t moving fast enough, while her eyes shone brighter, revealing endless rows of the beasts .

Draevyn’s hand moved too quickly as he plunged it into the confines of her pocket and wrapped his fingers around the key. Esmyra never got the chance to say three as the creatures launched themselves to attack.

He ripped the key from her pocket as she reached for the pistol strapped to her side. A creature was directly before them in seconds, and she leveled the weapon at its face, but the gun never sounded as she pulled the trigger.

“Fuck! Wet gunpowder!” Esmyra screeched, followed by endless grunts and hisses.

Krechuums slammed into both of them, lunging out of the darkness. Several leathery, pale bodies hit him like a boulder, slamming him onto his back. And then he dropped the key.

Draevyn grunted in pain, his cuffed wrists unable to defend himself by flame or fist. Sharp claws raked across his chest, tearing through his shirt as warm blood spilled down his side.

Her eyes continued to be the only source of light, and he caught quick glimpses of her between swinging his bound hands. She fought fiercely—all claws and teeth. Her talons shredded any krechuum that lunged or stood too close, earning ear-shattering shrieks of agony, but it wasn’t enough.

Why wasn’t she summoning water?

He rolled, kicking with all his strength, managing to knock the creature on top of him off balance. It screeched, a bone-chilling sound that echoed through the cave. More of them raced toward him—eyes blind, yet sensing his every movement, mouths filled with rows of jagged teeth clicking hungrily.

“Fucking Irah!” he roared as he continued to kick and smash the monsters’ skulls with the metal cuffs when they reached him.

A small reprieve in their attacks came, and he dropped back down to his knees, his fingers brushing over dirt and stone as he frantically searched for the key.

“I didn’t free you for nothing !” Esmyra screamed through her attacks, a grunt sounding through every other word. “A little flame would be helpful! ”

“Working on it!” he yelled back. “I dropped the?—”

“You WHAT ?!” she cut him off.

The creatures swarmed her then, leaping onto her from all sides until they brought her to her knees. She fought relentlessly, but they pinned her to the stone beneath them. The sounds of her struggles and screams sliced through Draevyn’s mind. His fear for her held him by the throat.

Draevyn’s hand shot out again, brushing over something small, the cool touch of metal biting into his fingertips. The key.

His heart leapt as he fumbled to fit it into the lock on his cuffs as he continued to kick and slam the krechuums into the wall behind him.

One of them pounced faster than he could sense, claws slashing for his throat. Draevyn dropped to the floor and rolled, the key slipping from his fingers as he barely dodged the strike.

“ Draevyn !” Esmyra screamed for him. Her voice cracked, his name ending in a gasp.

Panic surged through him. He kicked the creature off again, this time with more force, sending it crashing into the stone wall so hard that its skull splattered across the space.

But more were already upon him, jaws snapping near his face. He struggled, pushing with his bound arms to create space, but they were too strong.