The voices stopped.
Every single one.
The silence that followed was worse.
Darius kept his sword raised.
"Nobody moves."
A drop of water fell somewhere in the darkness.
Then another.
Uriel listened.
Nothing.
No footsteps.
No breathing.
No movement.
He glanced toward Nox's tattoo.
The serpent remained still.
That frightened him.
Nox had sensed danger before anyone else.
Now even the serpent was waiting.
A soldier whispered,
"Captain..."
Darius raised a finger to his lips.
Then the sound came again.
Scrape.
Scrape.
Scrape.
Something dragged itself across the stone.
Veyra shifted her stance.
Maera backed toward the wall.
Rowan's wardens raised their bows.
A shape appeared at the edge of the torchlight.
A man.
At first.
He stumbled forward.
His clothes were torn.
His skin was pale.
His head hung low.
"Help..."
Uriel's fingers tightened around his sword.
The man lifted his face.
His eyes were completely black.
The soldier beside Darius stepped forward.
"Sir?"
The man smiled.
His jaw opened far too wide.
"Run."
The soldier froze.
Then the creature lunged.
Darius struck first.
His sword cut across its chest.
The creature crashed into the wall.
Another shape emerged behind it.
Then another.
The tunnel erupted.
"Hold the line!"
Arrows flew.
Steel flashed.
The creatures moved like men who had forgotten how their bodies worked.
One crawled along the wall.
Another moved on all fours.
A third threw itself at Rowan.
She caught it with her sword and drove it backward.
"Uriel!"
He turned.
One of the creatures was coming straight for Maera.
Uriel moved.
His sword struck its shoulder.
The creature spun and clawed at him.
He blocked.
The impact drove him backward.
The mask burned.
Let me.
"No."
The creature attacked again.
Uriel ducked beneath its claws and drove his blade upward.
The creature collapsed.
Another came.
Then another.
He moved faster.
Steel.
Blood.
Stone.
Breath.
The battle became instinct.
But something was wrong.
The creatures weren't trying to kill everyone.
They were trying to reach him.
Every time one appeared, it ignored the nearest soldier and went for Uriel.
Veyra noticed it too.
"They're after you!"
"I know!"
Uriel cut down another.
The mask burned hotter.
They remember.
"What?"
They remember you.
Uriel froze for half a heartbeat.
A creature took advantage.
Its claws struck his chest.
He was thrown against the wall.
Pain exploded through him.
The creature charged.
Then Nox appeared.
The serpent erupted from the tattoo without a word from Uriel.
Its enormous body wrapped around the creature.
The beast screamed.
Nox tightened.
Bones cracked.
The creature stopped moving.
The serpent released it and turned toward the remaining creatures.
They froze.
For the first time...
They were afraid.
Nox's head lifted.
Leave.
The creatures retreated.
Not slowly.
They fled.
They disappeared into the darkness.
Uriel stood.
"What are they?"
No one answered.
Maera stared at Nox.
Then at Uriel.
"We'll discuss that later."
Uriel nodded.
The serpent disappeared back into the tattoo.
Darius looked toward the tunnel.
"They weren't guarding the entrance."
"No," Rowan said.
"They were guarding something deeper."
A low sound echoed from beneath them.
The ground trembled.
Dust fell from the ceiling.
Everyone looked down.
Something had moved below the quarry.
Something enormous.
Uriel felt the mask pulse.
And for the first time...
He heard a voice beneath the stone.
Uriel.
He knew that voice.
He couldn't remember from where.
But his body did.