Ashley and I exchanged a long look.
“Yeah… about that,” I nodded dryly in Rylan's direction. “Our exit is kind of blocked off.”
All heads turned to him.
He suddenly found the floorveryinteresting and shrugged with exaggerated innocence. “What? I sealed the tunnel like a good soldier.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose. “I’m going to kill you. Slowly.”
The glowing map pulsed behind us like a living thing, waiting. Somewhere far above, I could feel Thyros through the golden thread, furious, desperate, but getting closer. Good.Whether I wanted him here or not… we were going to need our overprotective alien gods to finish this.
Without warning, the chamberscreamed. A deep, resonant tone vibrated through the stone. The blank center of the map pulsed once—violently—before cracks of dark energy spiderwebbed outward from it. From the walls and ceiling, crystalline constructs began to detach—tall, elegant figures made of the same luminous stone and crystal as the ruins. Their eyes ignited with cold white light.
They weren’t alive… but they moved like they were. One of them stepped forward and pointed a long, spear-like arm straight at us.
“Intruders,” a hollow, ancient voice echoed through the chamber. “Incomplete vessels. You will not unseal what was sealed.”
“Shit—” Ashley raised her blaster.
The first guardian lunged. I shoved Ella behind me and fired. My blaster bolt slammed into the construct’s chest, cracking the crystal but not stopping it. Nadine grabbed a fallen metal rod and swung it like a staff. Ashley was already firing.
“Back-to-back!” I shouted. “Don’t let them surround us!”
Rylan, Jax, and Marek jumped into action, firing. Whenever one of the constructs was shot, it splintered into pieces, unfortunately, only to regroup seconds later. One of the guardians backhanded Marek hard enough to send him flying into a pillar with a loud crack, indicating he had broken his neck. Rylan cursed and kept shooting.
The constructs were fast and relentless. Every time we destroyed one, shards of crystal reformed. The floor beneath us began to tremble as the activation destabilized the entire chamber. Ella was breathing hard beside me, her glowing arm raised like a shield. “They’re protecting the map! We must be triggering some kind of final safeguard!”
A guardian’s spear slashed toward Nadine. I tackled her out of the way, and the blade scored a burning line across my shoulder instead. Pain flared hot and bright.
Thiswas why we needed them.
The men.
Myman.
Because, as powerful as we were, we were still trapped underground in a collapsing chamber with ancient defense systems that clearly didn’t want us here. I could feel Thyros through the golden thread, closer now, burning with fury and raw determination. I gritted my teeth, raised my blaster, and felt blood trickle down my arm.
“Come on, you big golden idiot,” I muttered under my breath. “Now would be a really good time to prove you’re useful.”
The chamber shook harder. Another guardian rose from the floor. We weren’t going to last much longer.
We had just emergedfrom the suffocating tunnel into a wider underwater gallery when the bond slammed into me hard enough to nearly stop my heart.
Naeris.
She was in danger. I sensed combat and blood. Not pain—not yet—but close enough that the flaw inside me instantly reared awake like a starving beast scenting blood in the water.
“Danger,” I snarled at the exact same moment Zapharos and Dravok did.
Xandros stiffened beside us, his eyes going wild. “Ashley?—”
We moved immediately, without any strategic plan; our females were in danger, and instinct overrode everything. There was only the desperate, primal need to reach them.
Water exploded around us as we surged through the submerged ruins at impossible speed. Ancient crystal columnsblurred past in streaks of pale gold while the bond burned hotter and hotter inside my chest.
Naeris.
She was close. Not afraid, but worried and furious. The flaw pulsed harder in response. It was hungry. I felt her need for me in the marrow of my bones. It nearly made me fly.
