“I don’t like it. Rynna, Kaelith, and I are the more experienced unit.”
“And this is our destiny.” Taren rested his hand on the hilt of his great sword.
“Let us take this burden.” Elara looked back as they continued down. “You and Rynna have been preparing us for this moment for the last eight years.”
The words stopped Rynna mid-step. Her foot hovered above the stone as she stared at Elara’s back, the girl's quiet conviction echoing louder than any battlefield scream.
“We may be young, but we’re not blind,” Elara added. “You’ve both done enough.”
Rynna’s jaw tightened, her eyes flicking between Fenn and the younger Hollow-born as they continued down. Every step echoed hollowly, while the pathway narrowed with each turn. Inching closer, Rynna skimmed her fingers against Fenn’s before catching his hand in hers.
“There may yet be obstacles before the final battle,” Kaelith spoke from behind them. “I’m sure there will be plenty of opportunity for you to roar, wolf.”
“So long as we end the horde.” Fenn nodded.
The staircase continued to stretch, the disorienting twists making it hard to gauge how far they had come. But as the last step came into view, the path finally opened into a small, dimly lit chamber scored directly into the earth. The air here was colder, the walls damp and uneven. And at the far corner, half-hidden in the darkness, an opening had been cut into the rock, its edges coarse and uneven as if it had been hastily carved.
“Whatever it is must be through there.” Bran pointed toward the door and started forward.
Then—
Click.The sound echoed through the space, and Rynna’s spine went rigid as the world fractured around them. The walls convulsed with a grinding groan as black sigils flared to life beneath their feet, pulsing across the stone like inky veins under skin.
What?She barely had time to think before a sudden weight slammed into her side.
Kaelith, shoulder-first, knocked her off balance, sending her crashing into Fenn in a tangle of limbs as something grated overhead, deep and mechanical.
Turning mid-fall, Rynna’s eyes widened at Kaelith, just behind them, with an arm outstretched from where he’d shoved her forward. Then the ceiling above the stairwell split open, and a slab of stone dropped like a guillotine. Right on his leg.
“Kae!” The slab struck with a bone-deep shudder, sending dust billowing outward as Kaelith’s scream carried through the haze.
Rynna blinked through the grit, calling into his mind.Kae!
But his leg was trapped beneath the slab, crushed under its full weight, as his hands clawed into the floor, slipping in the growing puddle of blood.
On the other side, just past him, Bran, Taren, and Elara had moved together into the small alcove to the side of the fallen door. Firelight from Bran’s blazing hair danced across their cheeks and rippled over the stone wall behind them.
Elara went first, stepping toward Kaelith, hand outstretched as a streak of black tore from the wall.
Rynna gathered her Will, ready to jump, but Taren was faster. He lunged, caught the young woman by the collar, and hauled her back just as a blade of shadow burst from the stone, cleaving through the space she had occupied a heartbeat earlier.
“Go!” Rynna shouted at the others. “We’ll follow!”
Then, without hesitation, she dove for Kaelith.
But the room was already shifting again, panels in the walls sliding open with a mechanical hiss, and new blades snapping out, whirling and retracting in timed bursts. It was like the chamber on the dead continent…except worse. There was no escape here, no wall to cling to for safety.
Air hissed between Kaelith’s teeth. “Can you get me out?”
Rynna dropped to her knees, heart hammering. The slab pinning him was massive.
Don’t panic. Just think.
Her vision darted, searching for anything that might be used to move the stone, before landing on Fenn.
“Go with them.” She reached for the slab, planting her feet. “I’ll get him out. Just go!”
She strained with everything she had, pulling on the hidden well of strength buried deep inside her, teeth gritted. And for a second—just one—the stone shifted. A fraction. Enough for air to hiss through the larger gap.
