A lump rose in my throat, but I swallowed it down. “I remember those caves,” I managed to say.
We walked in silence for what felt like hours.
The air grew colder, the stone narrowing around us until my cloak brushed the walls. My flame pulsed beneath my skin, a quiet warmth I didn’t dare unleash in a space so tight.
When the sound came, it was faint. A whisper of stone shifting against stone.
Keres froze mid-step. “Did you hear that?”
Everyone stopped. The tunnel filled with the soft crackle of torchlight, the hush of breathing.
Then the ground trembled.
Just once, like something massive had shifted beneath it.
Daegel raised his torch higher. “What in the?—”
Something erupted from the darkness ahead—its massive body slick and gleaming like obsidian. It struck so fast that Einan and Rydian barely dove aside before it slammed into the spot where they’d just stood.
A pair of gleaming yellow eyes, larger than I’d ever seen, stared straight into mine.
For a moment, everything stopped.
Then it opened its mouth, and a roar shook the air, deep and guttural, echoing down every corridor.
“Get clear,” Rydian barked, shadows flaring from his hands.
I retreated along with the others, drawing Dorcha as I went.
From the looming darkness ahead, the rest of the creature burst through the rock—a worm-like monstrosity thick as a tree, its scales black and glassy, its body ridged with spines thatpulsed faintly with blue light. Its mouth gaped open, a ring of fangs glistening with frost.
Soldiers began yelling as the creature’s tail lashed across the tunnel, sending two Withered flying into the wall.
“Back,” I shouted, raising my sword.
I lunged, slicing into its side. The blade barely cut through the glassy scales before the creature reared back and slammed its body into the rock wall, trying to crush me against it. Thorne shoved me aside, hard enough that I hit the wall with a pained grunt.
“Thanks,” I managed.
Thorne was already moving, trying to put himself between the creature and whoever it chose next. The serpent whirled, far quicker than Thorne or anyone else could move, and snatched a Withered soldier with its maw, impaling him on its fangs.
The soldier screamed—and then abruptly fell silent.
The creature dumped him aside and then turned for its next victim, its jaws snapping inches from my face. I rolled, furyfire bursting from my palm. The blast hit its flank, searing through the first layer of armor. The air filled with the smell of burnt carcass.
The serpent shrieked, a sound that echoed inside my skull.
Daegel said something to Slade, and they began inching around, trying to sneak up from the creature’s rear. Rydian’s shadows coiled up the serpent’s body, wrapping around its neck like chains. He yanked hard, forcing its head back, then drove a second wave of darkness straight down its throat. The creature convulsed, shrieking as its breath was cut off.
The serpent thrashed, slamming its body into the walls so hard the tunnel shook. Shards of rock rained down. One caught my shoulder with enough force to make me stagger.
“Now,” Rydian shouted, voice rough with strain. His shadows bit deeper, even as the serpent choked and thrashed.
Keres darted in, daggers flashing, driving one into the seam beneath a scale. The monster jerked hard. Its armor split, leaking black ichor that hissed against the hot stone.
I stepped in to finish it, furyfire blooming along my blade. Pain stabbed through my arm as I swung, and Dorcha slipped from my grasp.
The creature saw the weakness.
