The growls rolled toward them in waves, low and resonant, vibrating through the damp stone under Elinora’s boots.
The tunnel ahead was black — not the natural kind of darkness, but the kind that swallowed light, bending it into something unnatural.
Her wolf bristled inside her. Not alive. Not dead. Wrong.
Kaelen shifted forward, his shadows crawling along the walls like tendrils searching for prey. “There are more than a dozen,” he murmured. “Maybe two.”
“Two dozen?” Riven’s hand went to his sword.
Kaelen nodded once. “And they’re not waiting for us to make the first move.”
The first pair of glowing eyes blinked out — and then the guardians lunged.
They came fast, their black armor almost seamless with their bodies, blades fused to gauntleted hands. The sound they made was worse tha
