The stillness pressed against my ears until I could hear nothing but the uneven rasp of my own breath.
And then, cutting through it, came a sound.
It sounded like an animal’s snarl and I gasped as the growl deepened, reverberating and creeping at the edges of the room until it felt as though the chamber itself were alive and breathing.
My head lifted and my gaze snagged on the faint seam in the wall, the one that led to the hidden tunnel and the makeshift graveyard beyond it.
A cold prickle crawled up my spine.
Was that where the sound was coming from?
I swiped the back of my hand across my face, dragging tears instead of banishing them. My legs trembled as I slid from the bed. The furs trailed at my ankles like they were begging me to stay, and the floor’s chill bit hard through the soles of my feet, warning me with every step not to go closer.
The growl came again, louder this time, like the creature was distressed. It sounded like … like Roz did in its beastly form.
Alarmed, I raced toward the wall. My palms found the hidden seam and pressed. Stone groaned in protest, then yielded, the panel yawning inward on unseen hinges. A breath of air spilled out to meet me, the cold brushing across my tear-streaked cheeks like an exhale.
I leaned forward, peering into the black throat of the passage. The growl came again, ghosting through the dark. This time accompanied by the faint echo of a man’s voice, warped and indistinct.
Seizing a torch from the wall bracket, I struck flint until flame licked to life, stepped across the threshold, and moved down the stairs as quickly as I could without slipping on the worn steps.
The voice echoed again, somewhere ahead. I swallowed hard, tightened my grip on the torch, and walked deeper. Corridors twisted at unnatural angles, and it took me a minute to realize when I’d strayed into a section of the tunnel I hadn’t walked before.
Was that the same pillar that I’d just seen?
The air grew colder, and the stones beneath my feet were damp. Moss clung to the walls as I descended farther down. The tunnel narrowed as I passed under a low archway etched with symbols I didn’t recognize.
The growl swelled louder with every step until finally I turned, my torchlight swinging wide and …
Up ahead, Roz was hunched in its nightmare form, bark and stone plating its hide, sealing it in a carapace of earthbound horror. Another growl thundered from its throat, and dust and chunks of dirt sifted down from the ceiling, peppering my hair and shoulders.
It crouched, every joint coiled as if it was about to spring.
“Roz!” I cried. The torch wavered in my grip as my gaze dropped, and I blinked hard. Roz’s claws didn’t meet the stone. They hovered inches above it, suspended, scraping uselessly at the air.
“What are you doing awake?” Theron’s voice slid out of the dark.
I spun toward it, pulse racing, as he stepped forward with one hand lifted. Sigils smoldered along his skin, their pale light pulsing in rhythm with Roz’s convulsions. Each flicker tightened the invisible bonds, pinning the beast where it hung mid-lunge.
In his other hand, he held a length of bone as if it were nothing more than an idle accessory.
“What are you doing to it?” I gasped, stumbling closer.
His shoulders lifted in a faint shrug, the grin that followed as careless as ever. “Trying to calm it down, obviously. It found me in a rather precarious position, and it won’t let me explain.”
“Let it go.” My voice broke sharp in the close air, scraping against the tunnel walls.
He laughed softly. “I’m sorry, Your Majesty … but I can’t do that for you. Not right now. Because—” His gaze held mine, unwavering. “I’ve finally found a clue to all this.”
Disgust surged up, acrid and burning, choking the back of my throat. “Roz ismine,” I spat, the word tearing out of me like venom.
That grin widened, a glint of mischief sparking. “Yes,” he said, unbothered. “You playing house with it all this time while I searched desperately for it is so typical of our relationship. Don’t you think?”
Something ruptured inside me.
My chest seized, that alien rhythm hammering through me again, too fast, too loud, as if another heart was beating against my own. Images tore through me:his lies, his sigils burning in the air, Achilles collapsing under his spell, Amyklai drowning in red mist. All the games, all the torment. All of it consumed me, filling me until there was no room left to breathe.
The pressure swelled until my ribs felt like they might crack, each breath scraping thin and shallow. Heat surged through my veins, molten and uncontainable, building higher and higher until my vision blurred white at the edges. My body trembled, shaking apart under it, and I swore the next heartbeat would rip me open, scatter me in a spray of blood and smoke.
