Page 24

CHAPTER 24

S ilas

When I finally came to, the shadows inside the cave had come alive.

They moved, shifting with the sounds of skittering claws and guttural hisses. The air was thick with decay and the coppery tang of blood, the scent clinging to my fur, burning in my nostrils. My body ached, my side throbbing where one of the creatures had raked its claws deep into my flesh, but I ignored it.

At least Lia wasn’t here with us, captured by these terrible creatures with no apparent way out.

I could still feel the relief of her retreat, the sound of her paws pounding against the earth as she ran. The way my own roar had chased her into the trees, ordering her to leave us.

Good girl, Wildcat , I thought, gritting my teeth. Keep running.

I drew in a breath, my ribs aching, and turned my head. The cavern I found myself in was massive, its ceiling lost in the dark, the walls slick with moisture, glistening under the dim glow of phosphorescent fungi clinging to the jagged stone. The tunnel stretched deep into blackness, echoing with the chittering of the things that had dragged us inside.

“Rowan,” I growled, shifting slightly against the cold ground. My limbs were heavy, stiff with the weight of dried blood, but I forced them to move. “You still with me?”

A low, pained snarl came from somewhere to my right.

“Yeah. Fuck.” Rowan’s voice was gruff, strained, but alive.

“Varek?” I called out.

There was a moment of silence, then a cough. “Present,” Varek muttered, his usual arrogance dimmed by obvious pain. “Though I think I left half my ribs outside.”

I gritted my teeth. “Ryan?”

“Still breathing.” His voice was tight. “Can’t see shit, though.”

That made four of us.

Which meant Caleb was still missing.

And Hale—Hale was gone.

A growl built in my throat, my chest burning with rage. I tried to move again, but something yanked against my wrists. I looked down to see a thick fibrous material wrapped around my wrists and each time I jerked them away, it tightened.

I didn’t know what it was, but I didn’t like it.

I turned my head, scanning the cavern as my eyes adjusted to the darkness. Rowan and Varek were restrained the same way, shackled to the walls. Ryan, too, though he was still slumped forward, his skin slick with blood.

We had been dragged into the depths of the cave into the heart of whatever nightmare was waiting for us down here. As I listened to the rhythmic clicking that echoed through the cavern, the wet chittering sounds of the creatures moving just beyond the dim glow of phosphorescent fungi, I realized something that made my stomach twist: they weren’t just surviving down here.

They were thriving.

I had known they weren’t mindless, had assumed there was some level of intelligence, some degree of awareness in how they hunted. But this? This wasn’t instinct. These things had a system, a structure.

I could smell them—dozens of them, maybe hundreds, just beyond the reach of the dim glow of the cavern. They moved eerily, keeping to the shadows, watching.

Waiting.

“This is a hive,” Rowan muttered. His eyes glowed in the dim light, scanning the cave, his body coiled and ready to strike as soon as an opportunity arose.

I exhaled slowly, my jaw clenching. “And if it’s a hive…”

“Then there’s a queen… or a king,” Varek finished, his voice flat.

As if summoned by the words, a sound rumbled through the cavern. A deep, resonant vibration that wasn’t from the swarm. It seemed much bigger. Heavier.

I tensed as the creatures around us fell silent, their clicking stopping all at once, like an unseen force had ordered them to be still.

A gigantic shape moved at the far end of the cave, rising from the blackness. The others scurried away from it, clearing a path.

I had thought the Nyktos were terrifying before. This was so much worse.

This one was taller than any of the others; its form was hunched over, but it still towered over us. Its limbs were long, gangly, its body lined with pale, translucent skin stretched too tightly over grossly elongated bones. Its eyes—well, there were way too many of those—glowed a sickly yellow, blinking out of sync.

Then, to my everlasting horror, it smiled.

Not the snarling, jagged-toothed grimace of the others, but a real smile.

Slow. Eerily calculating.

And then it spoke .

“More food,” it rasped, its voice viscous, wrong, like it had been formed in a throat not meant for speech. “Good. The King is hungry.”

I snarled, my teeth bared, my body straining against the bonds. “Come closer,” I growled. “I’ll feed you your own fucking teeth.”

The King tilted its head, considering me. Then it laughed. The sound crawled down my spine, a wet, rattling taunt of amusement.

“Ah,” it mused, its too-many eyes blinking independently, “this one still thinks it is a predator.”

It moved closer, slow and purposeful, its huge, clawed fingers dragging along the cavern floor.

I curled my lip, my entire body bristling with rage. “I am a predator.”

The King’s grotesque smile widened.

“Not in here,” it whispered.

The King moved closer, its pale skin too thin, stretched like wax over a skeleton that didn’t fit quite right. It gave the impression that it was resisting the urge to tear us apart right then and there.

But it wasn’t in a hurry because it wasn’t afraid of us.

That’s what made my guts twist. I had seen death, had felt it creep close, had looked enemies in the eye that wanted nothing more than to rip me limb from limb.

But this?

This was something else.

This thing wasn’t fighting us.

It was playing with us.

The chittering and clicking from the swarm had faded into an eerie hum, the creatures shifting back, parting to make space for the King. I could hear Ryan breathing hard on my left, could smell the blood leaking from Varek’s side, sense Rowan still seething beside me, his eyes locked on the King like he was already planning to rip its throat out.

Then the swarm moved and brought Caleb out from their midst.

Dragged from the blackness, his body barely standing, his arms were held by two of the humanoid Nyktos. There were deep claw marks slashed across his chest. His breathing was rapid and shallowed by fear, his legs barely working as they forced him forward.

His eyes met mine, and in that moment, I knew he wasn’t getting out of this alive.

“Silas—” His voice was hoarse, a choked whisper.

I jerked against my bonds, a ferocious snarl ripping from my throat, pure rage flooding my veins. “Let him go!”

The King laughed. It was a wet, hollow sound, crawling over my skin like slime, like something that should have died centuries ago, but still lived. It turned its eyes to Caleb, its grotesque features morphing into something that almost resembled curiosity.

The King studied Caleb for a long moment, its monstrous, stretched skin quivering as if deciding whether he was worth the effort.

Then, with a movement so alien, so fluid it made my stomach turn, it lunged. Its clawed hand shot forward, piercing straight into Caleb’s chest.

Caleb screamed.

It was a horrible sound—raw, slick, wet—his body jerking violently.

I snarled, fighting against the strange bonds that restrained me. The King tilted its head, its forked tongue darting out as if to taste Caleb as he pulled the poor man’s body closer to him.

Caleb somehow kept screaming.

“I’m going to enjoy this,” it murmured.

Its mouth split open, wider than it should have been able to, like a snake unhinging its jaw, rows of sharp, translucent teeth glistening as it lowered its face toward Caleb’s gaping wound.

Then it started to drink.

A revolting, slurping sound echoed through the cavern as the King sucked the blood straight from Caleb’s body, its long tongue curling around the wound, pulling at the torn flesh.

Caleb convulsed, a keen of horror coming from him, his eyes rolling back as the color drained from his face. His body twitched—once, twice—his limbs spasming, and then he went still. A ragged, gurgling gasp left his lips, and then… nothing.

The King sighed, its too-many eyes fluttering closed in sick satisfaction, like it had just tasted something exquisite.

“Better,” it purred, its voice thick with sensual pleasure. “Fresher than the last ones.”

I lost it.

A furious snarl ripped from my throat, my body lunging forward against the restraints, straining for vengeance, my muscles burning, my wolf howling inside my skull.

The bonds held tight.

The creatures around us chittered, their clicking sounds sending shivers of disgust down my spine.

I could hear Rowan panting beside me, his immense black wolf barely contained, his gaze locked on Caleb’s lifeless body. Varek let out a low, vicious curse, blood dripping from his side, wild with rage.

The King licked its lips, wiping its mouth with the back of its pale, elongated hand, unbothered by the fact that we were watching.

“You will all die here, but don’t worry; you’ll be delicious,” it mocked, its voice slithering over my skin like something alive.

I had nothing to say in return.

I feared that it was right.