Page 23

CHAPTER 23

L ia

The cave loomed ahead, black and endless, its entrance gaping wide like a mouth ready and waiting to swallow us whole.

The air was thick with damp and rot and something else, something sour and metallic, like old blood soaked into the earth. Every instinct I had screamed at me to stop, to turn back, to run, but I forced my feet forward, keeping close to Silas as the group moved in a slow, careful formation.

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 like clicking .

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, hunted us.

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.

I moved, my blade flashing, but it was fast, faster than anything its size should have been.

Someone shot their gun beside me and the creature’s head snapped back, black blood spraying against the rocks.

I turned just in time to see Silas lower his gun, his eyes blazing with fury.

“Lia!” he roared. “Stay close!”

I barely had time to nod before another wave of Nyktos came pouring from the cave, their limbs twitching, the clicking growing louder. This was an ambush; they had been waiting for us.

Silas shifted first, his body warping with the sickening crack of bone and muscle as thick, smoky gray fur erupted across his skin. His golden eyes burned even brighter, his massive form crouching low before he lunged, his deadly jaws tearing through the throat of the nearest one.

Rowan shifted a heartbeat later, his wolf form huge and jet black, his blue eyes now fierce and glowing like ice. Without hesitation, he ripped through a humanoid creature, sending it skidding across the rock-strewn earth, its shriek cut off as he clamped down on its ribcage, crunching through bone like it was nothing.

Varek was a blur of movement, his coat a sleek silver with dark streaks running down his back, his fangs bared as he turned and raked his claws across the belly of one of the insectoid monsters, sending a sickening splat of black ichor spilling onto the dirt. The creature flinched, making a clicking, garbled sound, but before it could scramble away, Varek pounced, snapping its head clean off with one vicious shake of his jaws.

Ryan, Caleb, and Hale shifted next, their wolves snarling as they barreled into the fray, their fur bristling, their claws and fangs tearing through the things that dared to attack us.

It was chaos.

The Nyktos weren’t just fast; they were relentless.

They swarmed, their movements erratic, their jagged limbs twitching and spasming, as they skittered and lunged, screeching with insatiable hunger. The humanoid ones crawled along the rocks, their gnarled fingers reaching, grasping, their eyes gleaming wet and soulless as they pounced from above.

The insectoid ones hovered just above the battlefield, their thin wings vibrating, their long claws slashing downward in quick, deadly arcs. One of them dove for Silas, its gaping mouth opening wide, lined with rows of needle-sharp teeth.

I moved instantly.

My knife was already in motion as I dodged a lunging Nyktos, twisting and slicing its throat in one smooth motion.

It screamed, gurgling as it collapsed, but there was no time to breathe.

Another one came from the side, its black eyes bulging, its long fingers stretching toward me. I ducked low, rolling under its grasp before kicking up, slamming my boot into its chest. It stumbled back just enough for me to drive my blade up into its gut.

The creature convulsed, screaming as it collapsed.

I was panting now, my heart slamming against my ribs, my muscles burning, but the creatures just kept coming.

A blur of movement caught my eye; another insectoid Nyktos had Hale pinned, its claws digging into his chest, its mandibles snapping at his throat.

I started toward him, but then…

Pain .

A sharp, searing agony erupted through my body, tearing through my spine like fire, like my bones were breaking all at once.

I screamed, collapsing to my knees.

The pain barreled through me without mercy.

It was shredding me apart, burning me from the inside out.

My skin rippled and stretched. Whatever the fuck was happening, I was powerless to stop it. My fingers dug into the dirt as my vision blurred, my heart pounding to the point of agony, every sound too loud, every scent too strong.

Another shriek, a Nyktos, lunging for me, and then, everything shifted.

One moment, I was human.

The next, I wasn’t.

I felt the sheer power that suddenly surged through my limbs, the newness of it, the wrongness and rightness all at once. I lunged, my new form instinctively responding before my mind could catch up.

A furious, feral snarl tore from my throat as I barreled into the creature that had been coming for me, slamming it to the ground.

My claws tore into its throat before I even had time to think about what I was doing. My fangs sank deep, my instincts taking over, and when I ripped away, the Nyktos let out one final, awful gurgling wail before it collapsed, twitching, lifeless.

Everything felt different.

I had shifted!

I was a wolf now.

I was still adjusting to my new form, my paws light on the dirt as I moved, every nerve in my body alive with heightened senses. The world was sharper, clearer—the scent of blood thick in the air, the sounds of chittering and snapping jaws making my ears flatten—but there was no time to think about what had just happened because the Nyktos were everywhere.

It was utter bloody chaos.

Rowan’s massive black wolf form lunged, his fangs clamping around the throat of one of the smaller creatures, snapping its spine with a terrible crunch. Varek, his silver coat streaked with blood, tore into the chest of another, but one of the insectoids was already circling behind him, its thin wings vibrating as it raised its clawed limbs to strike.

I moved faster than I’d ever moved before.

The wind rushed past me as I leapt, barreling into the creature’s side before it could attack. My new form was powerful, my claws digging into its hard, chitinous exoskeleton as I ripped its head back.

It screeched, thrashing wildly, but I held on, my new fangs sinking deep into the base of its skull. My powerful jaws crushed through the bone and it collapsed beneath me, twitching, black blood leaking from its wounds.

I whirled around, looking for my next target when I saw Hale fall.

One of the larger Nyktos—one that was humanoid but still so wrong, its limbs stretched unnaturally long, its face twisted into a grotesque mockery of a man—had impaled him, driving its clawed hand straight through his chest.

Hale’s wolf form jerked violently, a wet, gasping whine slipping past his lips as blood poured from his body.

A snarl ripped from my throat, raw and savage, but before I could move, the creature ripped its claws free, sending Hale’s lifeless body crashing to the ground.

My vision blurred with rage.

I launched myself forward, my claws digging into the creature’s back as I ripped and tore, my teeth finding its neck, tearing through it in a hot, wet spray of blood.

It collapsed, its limbs twitching, but it was a useless vengeance.

Hale was dead.

Caleb was next.

I didn’t even see what got him—just a blur of movement, a flash of razor-sharp teeth, and he was gone, dragged screaming into the darkness of the cave’s entrance.

Ryan let out a howl of rage, his huge brown wolf charging after him, but another Nyktos leapt onto his back, its clawed limbs tearing into his flesh.

There were too many.

We were losing.

Horrified, I watched Varek go down. One of the creatures slashed across his side, its claws ripping through muscle, sending him sprawling into the dirt with an agonized cry.

Silas snarled viciously, his smoky gray wolf form tearing through the monster before it could finish Varek off, his fangs snapping through its head, shaking it viciously before throwing its lifeless body to the ground.

I ran toward Varek, my paws kicking up dirt as I reached him. His fur was soaked with blood and his breathing was ragged, his sides heaving.

I pressed against him, guarding his body as two more creatures lunged.

Silas was there before they could reach us, his enormous wolf body crashing into them midair, sending them skidding across the ground in broken, twitching piles.

But he wasn’t fast enough to dodge the next one.

The humanoid Nyktos pounced, its claws raking across Silas’s side, cutting deep, his dark fur splitting open as blood poured from the wound. A snarl tore from my throat, raw and frantic, and I lunged before it could strike him again, my fangs sinking into the back of its skull, biting down until I felt bone give way.

Silas staggered, his eyes blazing with pain, but he didn’t fall.

The ground trembled.

A sound erupted from the cave, low and wrong , like the deep, guttural vibration of something enormous waking up. The air shifted, heavy with rot, and then… more of them came.

Not a handful. Not a dozen. Hundreds. A whole fucking swarm.

They poured from the cave in a wave, their distorted, writhing bodies surging forward like a flood of nightmares. They crawled and skittered into the shadowed daylight. The humanoids ran on disjointed legs. Others moved on all fours, their backs splitting open with wet, quivering wings that buzzed as they took to the air. Some scuttled about freakishly, their exoskeletons clicking as they climbed over the rocks, moving in sync with the rest like an alien army.

Silas roared, his massive wolf lunging for the first line, but for every one he tore apart, five more took its place. Rowan was a shadow, his black wolf a storm of fury, his fangs tearing through the thin, membranous wings of one of the flying ones, sending it crashing into the dirt.

Varek, still wounded, was fighting like a cornered animal, bloody and reckless, his snarls feral. Ryan was holding his ground, but he was surrounded as he tried to fend off the creatures crawling toward him from all sides.

There was just no way to adequately defend against this onslaught. The Nyktos didn’t fight—they swarmed. They moved with terrifying coordination, tearing through us with long, clawed fingers, their bulbous black eyes unblinking as they struck, feeding off the chaos, overwhelming us.

One leapt at me.

I barely managed to get away, my claws raking across its chest. Black ichor splattered against my fur, the stench so vile it made my stomach heave. Another latched onto my back, its thin, spider-like legs clamping around my shoulders. I bucked, snarling, twisting wildly as I ripped it off and snapped its neck between my jaws.

Still, more came.

I heard a loud cry and Ryan went down, a mass of them dragging his wolf toward the cave. He thrashed, howling, but there were too many, their limbs wrapping around him like snakes, their bodies piling over and under and around him until he was gone.

A claw slashed across Silas’s flank, cutting deep. His wolf staggered, blood streaming from the wound, but he kept fighting. Rowan roared, but even he was being forced back, his massive black wolf drowning in the wave of monsters. Varek was bleeding badly, his movements slowing, weakening.

Silas’s voice, anguished and exhausted, cut through the chaos.

“Lia, run!”

His voice echoed inside my skull, and I immediately realized that even though we were in wolf form, we could still communicate with each other. I turned my head and a bolt of panic tore through me as if I’d been struck by lightning.

Silas, Rowan, Varek—all of them, buried beneath a mass of Nyktos, claws and wings and teeth, dragging them toward the cave. They were being taken! And if I stayed?

I would be too.

“Go!”

Our eyes met through the chaos, his beautiful stare burning through me even as he fought, even as his body was pulled down, even when something hit him over the head, even as he went down.

“Go! Lia! Go! Please obey me. Just this once!” The frantic despair in his voice reached my very soul.

I hesitated for a heartbeat, and then I ran.

I tore through the trees, my wolf form pushing past its limits, my lungs burning, my legs aching. The forest was a blur, shadows whipping around me as I sprinted, my paws pounding against the ground. Behind me, the sounds of the fight faded.

They weren’t chasing me, but I kept running.

I didn’t stop, didn’t look back, not until my body collapsed beneath me, my wounds bleeding, my breath coming in wretched gasps.

Mercifully, darkness consumed me.