“Mela!” I roared. “MELA!”
Fuck, fuck, fuuuck!
We were deep below the city of Ascendria in the catacombs. Only a week ago, I’d tracked Nelle down here after she ditched me to hunt down the Uzrek.
The Uzrek had known all along what we were and how we fitted together as Wyrm and Tamer. And it had recognized what I’d been doing all this time—Spinner of deceit.
Mela and I had been here for almost a week. There was only one place in Ascendria Yezekael could evade a Horned God—a place with endless tunnels and caverns to hide in. Part of the catacombs had been mapped, but over the centuries those that lurked here in the dark, dank passages had dug a myriad of extensions and burrows.
And now my friend was in trouble. Serious trouble.
Mela cried out once more, the sound lanced with agony and fury. Fear gouged my insides, and cold sweat trickled down my spine.
Shit, shit,shit—
I pushed harder, barreling down tunnels dripping with icy wetness, the fetid smell of decay fermenting every breath I dragged into my fiery lungs. Wicked currents of air tore at my hair as I plunged through the tomb-like passages at a reckless pace.
As I ran, I drew my arms free of my daypack and ditched it.
Most of the time I’d fought with daggers. Swords were only good in open-spaced caverns. But for those rare times Mela and I had to battle our way through an unexpected encounter with a beast, I kept my wyrmblade strapped to my back, along with its twin bastard.
Mela’s bellows of rage and the chittering-sawing noise grew louder as I approached.
Closer, closer,closer—my boots slamming across the pitted rock—faster, faster,faster.
Where is she, where is she, where is she—
Mela screamed.
My godsdamned heart dropped to the pit of my gut.
I burst into an enormous cavern that dropped away into shadow, its craggy ledges and broken stone jutting like fangs.
A faint, frayed slice of yellow light was swinging wildly, illuminating the back of the cavern where Mela twisted, kicking and slicing and stumbling.
High above, the roof looked as if it was alive, writhing like an angry sea, as chittering, creeping critters crawled out from a large crack in the ceiling.
Krekenns.
My fingers tightened on the twin daggers.
Fucking, nasty, mindless creatures. Tiny and arachnid-like with eight long, hairless limbs, smooth, murky-green skin where their eyes should be, and mouths full of needled teeth. In smaller numbers, we could easily stamp them out, but with this many, gods, both of us were in perilous danger.
They dripped from the ceiling and scuttled in wavering lines, like a swollen river that had broken its banks and churned along the pitted ground toward my friend.
I swerved and headed straight for Mela. A smaller number of krekenns had already swarmed her. She swiped with her daggers as they leaped for her, slicing through limbs and abdomens, batting others aside, but more were climbing up her legs, in such numbers it was like watching a large insect brought down by ants.
My heart pounded in a panicked ricochet as I saw her flail.
Stagger back.
And almost lose her balance.
Holy hells…Mela!
More krekenns poured down from the fissures in the roof and scurried toward me.
“MELA!”I roared.
