The Colossus opened its mouth and let out a sound that wasn't a voice, but the screech of tearing steel. It thrashed, bringing its massive stone sword down to sever the tendrils, but the blade passed harmlessly through the smoke.
"The shadows," Elias murmured, his eyes wide. "They hunger for magic. The statue is animated by divine will... it's a food source."
More tendrils burst from the cracks in the buildings flanking the alley. They swarmed the giant, wrapping around its thighs, its waist, its chest. They weren't fighting it; they were feeding on it. The white fire in the statue's eyes flickered and dimmed as the void sucked the animating power straight out of the casing.
"The enemy of my enemy," Flynn whispered, awe and horror warring in his scent.
"Is still a nightmare that wants to eat us," I finished grimly. I watched as the Colossus fell to one knee, its leg dissolving into grey powder beneath the onslaught of the smoke. It reached outa hand toward us, not to strike, but as if begging for help, before the hand, too, was enveloped by the writhing darkness.
"The way is blocked," Thane said, looking at the dissolving floor in front of us and the dying giant behind us. "We are boxed in."
I scanned the alley, my mind racing through tactical permutations. We couldn't go forward; the floor was gone. We couldn't go back; the Devourer was feasting there too.
My gaze landed on a set of heavy double doors set into the side of one of the buildings. They were made of bronze, green with age and verdigris, carved with reliefs of women playing lyres and flutes.
"There," I pointed with my sword. "That structure. It rests on a different foundation. The Devourer hasn't touched it yet."
"The Hall of Muses," Elias identified it instantly. "A place of archive and quiet. It has been sealed since the Golden Age."
“Then we’ll be the ones to open it.”
We scrambled toward the doors. The black tendrils were spreading, creeping outward from the feasting frenzy on the Colossus, sensing fresh meat. The stone beneath my boots felt spongy, hollow, as if the reality holding it up was thinning.
Thane reached the doors first. He didn't bother with the latch. He slammed his shoulder into the bronze, channeling a burst of earth magic to shatter the locking mechanism. With a groan of protesting metal, the doors swung inward.
"Inside! Now!" I shoved Aria through the opening, Flynn and Elias right on her heels.
I paused at the threshold, looking back. The Colossus was gone. In its place was a swirling vortex of black smoke, pulsing with a satisfied, sickly rhythm. A tendril lashed out toward me, moving with terrifying speed.
I slammed the doors shut.
Thane threw his weight against them, crying out as he forced the locking bars he’d just broken back into place. I placed my hand on the metal, pouring dragon fire into the seams, welding the bronze shut with a line of molten heat.
We stood in the dark, listening.
From the other side came a wet, slithering sound. Something scratched against the metal, a noise like fingernails on a chalkboard. Then, silence.
I exhaled slowly, relieved that we were safe, even if only for a moment. The air in the hall was cool, smelling of dust, beeswax, and the faint, metallic scent of old brass instruments. It was dead silent, a tomb-like quiet that pressed against my ears after the cacophony outside.
"Is everyone accounted for?" I asked, turning away from the glowing weld lines.
"Present," Flynn called out. "And probably traumatized. The usual."
"Aria?" I sought her out immediately.
She was leaning against a marble plinth, clutching the pomegranate seed Hades had given her in one hand and the hilt of his sword in the other. Her chest heaved, her skin pale and clammy in the dim light.
"I'm here," she wheezed. "I'm... okay."
I crossed the distance between us in three strides, holstering my sword. I cupped her face, tilting her head up. Her eyes were wide, the pupils blown, reflecting Flynn's firelight. The bond between us was a chaotic jangle of nerves and adrenaline.
"You are shaking," I murmured, running my thumbs over her cheekbones.
"We almost got eaten by the floor, Kaelen," she said, a hysterical edge to her laugh. "I think shaking is the appropriate physiological response."
"Fair," I conceded. I pulled her into my arms, burying my face in her hair. She smelled of sweat and fear and the lingering ozone of the lightning she had caught earlier. It was the best smell in the world because it meant she was alive.
"So," Flynn said, his voice echoing in the vast space. He raised his hand, illuminating the room. "Welcome to the Hall of Muses. Try not to break anything; the rent deposit is astronomical."
