The Unseen stayed tight behind her, weapons drawn, breath silent. Drakaa was never more than a half-step back, silent and sure, until they erupted from a narrow tunnel into a cavern?—
Usti’s men blocked the path forward.
Only three.
Kai laughed. “Who wishes to be first?”
The closest male lunged, axe swinging high.
Kai dropped low and rolled beneath the swing. She rose in one fluid motion, pulling the sword from her back, and cut behind his knees with a clean, brutal arc.
He howled?—
Drakaa plunged her knife through his throat, and the sound died with him.
Kai met the second male. Their swords clashed. A jolt rang through her wrists. He shoved her against the stone wall, pinning her with a forearm.
She planted a heel, twisted, and broke free.
More armed males poured into the cavern, all bearing the mark of Rising Moon.
The Unseen met them without hesitation.
These weren’t warriors—just miners with delusions. No match for fighters whose blades had been honed over centuries.
A knife shot through the air for Kai.
She spun her opponent into its path?—
The knife sank into his back with a wetthud, and he screamed.
She shoved him aside.
A low groaning trembled through the stone—a sound that didn’t belong to man or beast, but the mountain itself.
“We’re running out of time,” Drakaa said.
Kai nodded. “I have to find Fala.”
“Go,” the Eternal One said, already turning her attention to her next fight. “No one will follow.”
Kai ran the tunnel’s length and met a line of healers guiding more wounded out. All bloodied and coughing. Tear trails stained their dusty faces.
Still, no sign of Fala.
Her chest pulled tighter with every step.
“Fala!” she yelled into the void ahead. “Fala!”
A male leapt out of a shadowed crevice?—
His shoulder crashed into her ribs, slamming her into the wall. Black stone scraped her skin. Her sword clattered out of reach.
He slammed her a second time.
Her head bounced off the rock. Her ears rang. Vision blurred.
His teeth flashed, and the mountain’s bioluminescence highlighted his Rising Moon tattoo.
