Page 5

5

LIORA

T he roar splinters through the cavern, carving through the tunnels like something solid, something alive. My bones rattle with the force of it, the sound so deep, so ancient, it feels like the walls themselves are screaming.

I freeze.

Not from cowardice, but from instinct.

Something that massive, that hungry, doesn’t chase. It stalks. It waits for the prey to run, because running means panic, and panic means mistakes.

Mistakes mean death.

Dain moves first. His claws scrape stone as he turns toward the sound, head tilting slightly, listening. Not bracing to fight. Not preparing to strike. Listening.

He laughs.

The sound is low, guttural, full of something too dark to be amusement.

"Of course it still lives."

Still. Still.

Whatever is out there, whatever just screamed its hunger into the tunnel—it isn’t just some wild beast. It’s his.

“What is it?” My voice is barely above a whisper, but it doesn’t matter.

It has already heard me.

Another sound slithers through the cavern—a wet, sticky pull of something massive dragging itself across the stone. The air thickens with a musk that is not entirely animal, something foul, something ancient and wrong.

Dain exhales, low and sharp. “A gift from the dark elves.”

A new sound claws into existence.

Not a roar this time. A clicking.

A chittering, wet and grinding, as if something with too many teeth is testing them, waiting for the moment to sink them into flesh.

The next sound is worse.

Breathing.

Not normal breathing. Not something natural. This breath comes from everywhere, from nowhere, from deep inside the dark. It surrounds us.

Then, something shifts.

A shape unfurls just beyond the reach of the tunnel’s dim glow, too massive, too alien, its bulk shifting in a grotesque, uncoiling slither.

I step back. I can’t help it.

Dain doesn’t.

He stands his ground, rolling his shoulders like this is just another inconvenience, just another night spent dragging himself back from the precipice of something not quite human.

A dark chuckle. “They sent you to die here, girl.”

The thing beyond the dark sniffs the air—a slow, wet inhale that makes my stomach curdle.

I swallow hard. “And what about you?”

His head tilts, as if considering. “They wanted me to watch.”

The clicking sharpens.

I glimpse movement—a shimmer of flesh, something slick and segmented, long limbs ending in curved talons too long for any normal beast. A mouth that should not exist, a vertical split in the center of its head, full of teeth that aren’t arranged in rows but in spirals.

My stomach turns over.

“That’s not natural,” I whisper.

Dain huffs. “Nothing they create ever is.”

A second, larger sound shifts in the deep.

There’s not just one.

There are more.

It moves.

Not in the way a beast moves. There’s no weight to it, no thud of claws on rock. It scuttles. Fast, too fast, its limbs folding unnaturally, dragging its segmented body forward in jagged bursts of speed.

My muscles lock.

Dain doesn’t wait.

He’s on it before my mind catches up, slamming into the bulk of it, claws tearing into its armored hide. The thing lets out a screeching wail, recoiling, but its other limbs lash toward him.

He snarls. Dodges. Strikes back.

The cavern erupts into chaos.

I should run.

I should leave him to it, let him handle the monster and find a way to escape?—

But I can’t because another shape moves in the dark, a second one.

This one sees me.

I barely throw myself sideways before it lunges, its too-long limbs cracking against the stone where I stood a breath before. My shoulder slams into the ground. I roll, scrambling backward, hands empty, useless, weak.

Dain is too busy tearing through the first one to notice.

The second creature stalks toward me, moving too smoothly for something so massive. Its clicking slows, as if tasting the moment, savoring it.

The way a predator enjoys the way its prey shakes before the kill.

I scramble back, my breath a sharp thing in my heart, but there’s nowhere to go.

The limb strikes.

I barely twist in time, the curved talon slashing across my arm instead of my throat.

Pain erupts. I choke on a gasp, pressing my free hand to the wound as blood spills too fast.

My pulse slams in my ears. The creature tilts its head.

It can smell it.

It likes it.

I clutch at the ground, my fingers finding nothing, no weapon, no defense, nothing but stone and death waiting to happen.

I’m going to die.

The beast tenses, ready to lunge?—

Then it happens.

Something bursts through me, not from my body but from beneath it, from the center of my heart outward, like a pulse that has always been there, waiting.

Power.

It erupts.

Not controlled. Not intentional. Just raw survival.

A blinding light rips from my hands, lancing into the creature’s chest.

It screams.

The entire cavern shudders, a shockwave of energy blasting outward, shoving everything away from me.

Including Dain.

The first creature crashes into a wall. Dain slams into the ground, his wings snapping open to stop the impact.

The second beast shrieks, its flesh seared where my magic hit it.

The pain hits me. The magic rips itself out of me like a piece of my soul is being torn apart.

I collapse, gasping, cold, so cold, my limbs shaking as if every drop of life in me was just siphoned away.

The beast staggers but it’s not dead.

Now, I can’t move.

Dain rises, slow, deliberate, eyes locked onto me.

Not the creature. Me.

I feel it inside me—the shift in the fight, the shift in his focus.

He saw what I did and he didn’t like it. The displeasure is clear on his face.

The beast snarls, trying to recover.

Dain doesn’t let it.

He launches forward, slamming his claws through its skull, tearing it apart in a spray of black ichor.

The cavern falls silent.

I gasp, pressing a trembling hand to my chest, still shaking from the magic, from the emptiness it left behind.

Dain turns toward me. Slow. Intentional.

A predator with a new target.

He crouches, tilts his head. "That magic.What is it?"

I swallow, throat raw. "I told you, I don’t know."

His lips curl. It’s a dark, hungry sort of amusement.

Behind him comes another roar.

Louder and way closer. There are more.

Holy shit, how am I going to survive this?