"Run!" Selene hissed, yanking me sideways through a narrow rock passage. My legs were dead weight, my lungs screaming, my arms still burning from that damned underwater mess, but I didn't argue, didn't have time to think as well. All I could do at that moment was to run.
The thing behind us moved faster than anything its size had any right to. Every step rattled the cavern, its glowing eyes stayed glued to me, not even blinking.
It wasn't chasing or studying me, all it was doing was calculating. Like it already knew how this ended.
Selene dragged me around a corner so sharp I nearly went flying. "Left! There should be a ladder, just go!"
I stumbled after her, slipping on the wet stone, coughing up the taste of lake water. Everything dripped, my teeth wouldn't stop chattering.
A hiss rolled up the tunnel behind us: deep, awful, the kind that crawls straight into your bones.
Then the voice slammed into my mind again: "You cannot escape, you belong to the line."
I swallowed hard, forcing air into my burning chest. "I don't belong to anything!" I shouted back. "I'm me!"
Selene shot me this wild look, hair stuck to her face. "Not the time! Keep running!"
I didn't fight her..., I couldn't. Kael's face kept flashing behind my eyes, the moment the creature pulled him underwater, and something inside me clenched so tight it hurt.
The ladder appeared, crooked and rusted against the stone wall. Selene jumped, caught the top rung, and reached down toward me.
I froze for half a second. My hands were shaking. "Selene… what if it….."
"You're not dying here! Grab my hand!"
I lunged and she caught me. I swung upwards slamming my shoulder into the metal.
"Ahhhhh!!!!!!, Selene!." I screamed in pain as it shot up my arm.
"Hold on!" Selene yelled. "I've got you!"
The wall behind us exploded, making stone chips rain down on us as the creature's claws ripped through the rock. It swiped right where my head had been, I clinged to the ladder like my life depended on it..., because it did.
With one last heave, Selene pulled me over the edge. I collapsed onto the cold floor, gasping so hard it felt like my chest might split open.
"That was… way too close," she breathed.
I coughed hard, tasting metal. "Kael… he's still down there, isn't he?"
Selene's expression fell. "Yeah, he's trapped. And breathing only because that thing wants him alive.
"He can't…. he shouldn't….. I can't just…."
Selene grabbed my shoulders, shaking me. "Elara, Listen. You're the target, not him. If that thing gets its hands on you, it's over. Move!!!!."
She was right and I hated to accept it.
We ran up a slanted tunnel that was lit only by strips of glowing moss. Every sound behind us made my heart jump into my throat.
Then we reached a fork.
Left: smelled like rot.
Right: cleaner, but metallic, like blood in the air.
Selene didn't hesitate. "Left, trust me."
I wanted to ask why, but she was already gone, so I just followed.
The tunnel opened into a massive chamber, water dripping from the ceiling like the whole place was breathing slow and heavy.
That's when we heard it again, the creature's footsteps. But it was slower this time, too slow and measured like it was testing us.
Selene whispered, "It's waiting, it wants to see what you'll do."
My stomach lurched. "How am I supposed to react to THAT?!"
The low growl that followed almost knocked the breath out of me. The whole chamber felt thick, like the creature's presence filled every corner.
Selene grabbed my hand. Hard. "We run on three. One… two…."
Something shifted across the room. A shadow stretching too long to be human, its eyes glowed amber. And in the dark, it looked like it was smiling at me.
"Three!"
We bolted. Our footsteps splashed through the shallow water, echoes bouncing everywhere. The creature didn't chase straight, it circled, herded us forward like it was shaping our path for us.
And damn it, I could feel it. In my ribs, in my pulse and in the blood crawling under my skin.
It knew me.
Then I saw an opening that had a faint pale light. I sprinted for it and Selene followed right behind me.
But something cold and slick snapped around my ankle and that made me scream.
Selene ripped me free with both hands. "Elara! Move!"
I staggered the last few steps and burst into the light, collapsing on solid ground, my limbs were shaking.
But as my eyes adjusted…This wasn't outside.
We were standing on a cliff above Lunaris Manor.
Victor was below in the gardens and the were elders standing around him in a half-circle. And in the center….. was Kael as he was chained. Kneel with his head down.
The guardian wrapped around him like a storm waiting to break.
My blood went cold immediately I saw him, my heart stopped beating for a second.
This wasn't a rescue anymore, it was the opening strike of a war.