A growl erupted from the darkness ahead of us.
Something rose in the back of the cave, massive and wrong. Eyes like burning coals ignited in the blackness, amber hatredfixed on us with terrifying intelligence. The creature’s head emerged first. It was a nightmare of matted fur and twisted horns that curved like scythes from an elongated lupine skull. Its maw split open in a roar, revealing rows of fangs meant for tearing. Its body unfolded as it lurched forward on muscular limbs, each movement accompanied by the scrape of claws against stone. Embers seemed to drift from its dark fur like dying stars, and the stench. Furies, the smell was rot and sulfur and something long dead. The beast filled the passage.
“Shit. Shit. It’s a Night Eater! Go back toward the entrance. Go back!” Wickett commanded.
Silas hissed a warning, and I hated how far he was from me. It didn’t matter that I was sandwiched between Wickett and Calder. I needed him beside me. But Lucy needed him at the other end of the line too. I fought every instinct I had, urging me to summon him to my side.
Wickett’s voice cracked with command. “Riot, you should shift. Now!”
Then he turned, whispering something to himself as he drew his twin blades. My eyes locked on him, only then understanding what I should have realized ages ago. The signs were all there, but I hadn’t connected them.
“I can’t. The cave isn’tthatbig!” Riot shouted back.
Wickett roared, his blades singing as he moved in a blur. “Shift, or we’re all dead!”
Another snarl came from the entrance, a second beast, just as massive as the first, blocking our escape route. Panic flooded me. The thing was headed straight for Lucy and Silas’s end of the line.
I whipped my head between the two beasts, desperately trying to find a path out for us, but the new beast was different. It was sleeker and built for speed instead of brute horror. Dark fur covered its lean frame, and beneath the surface, its core glowedlike a forge, as if the creature burned from within. Smoke rose from its back in thick, curling plumes. Long, curved horns swept back from its narrow skull, and its limbs were elongated and sinewy, ending in wicked talons. Where the first Night Eater was a battering ram of muscle and fury, this one was a blade.
Its head tilted, eyes bright with hunger and intelligence both.
Calder’s gasp was barely audible. “A Stalker.”
We were trapped between them.
Chapter 41
Syneca
When your ears burn, someone speaks of you. Left ear means lies; right ear means truth. Both ears mean a Nymph is deciding whether you’re worth remembering.
Two beasts, each blocking the only ways out.
The Stalker ran for Lucy, and she met it head-on with her blade, moving with the kind of grace that came from years of playing Nexus. Silas launched himself at it with a screech that rattled my teeth, claws extended. He connected, tearing flesh from its spine, sparks from the beast’s insides pouring out. The fucking thing really was on fire inside of it.
“The Stalker’s talons are poisonous. Be careful.” Wickett warned.
Riot, with no other options, shifted, despite knowing better. Purple scales rippled down his arms, his form expanding until his horns scraped stone. The cave screamed beneath the strain, dust raining down as the ceiling cracked.
The Night Eater lunged at Wickett.
I yanked the vial in my pocket free. “Acqua Empalio!” I screamed, shaping spears mid-flight, driving them toward the Night Eater’s eyes and throat because he was the closest to me. They hit, but the creature barely slowed. Just kept coming, kept advancing, massive jaws opening wide enough to fit a sprite as he backed us closer toward the other monster.
Wickett was suddenly in front of me, body positioned to take whatever came next. “Stay behind me.”
“Like hell?—”
“Syn, please—” He was desperate, pleading.
Calder, with Pip buried in his pocket, guarded the Oracle, holding them pressed against the wall, because there was almost no room with Riot’s massive body creating a barrier between the two monsters. Between the screaming and the chaos, I couldn’t tell who was attacking and who was being attacked. I could only see purple scales, only hear the impact of things that were far too big hitting walls that were far too fragile.
The beast closest to us, the Night Eater, swung a massive claw. Riot intercepted it with his tail, but the force of the blow sent cracks spider-webbing up the cavern walls. More dust fell. Larger rocks.
This was it. The cave would come down on all of us. We’d be buried or torn apart, and there was no way out, no clever solution, no?—
Lucy screamed.
Not pain. Not fear. Something else entirely.
