The rune beneath us split like the world had decided to crack open under my feet. The clean line of light carved its way outward in jagged branches, lightning etched in slow motion across stone.
The sound that followed was worse.
A deep groaning growl echoed through the chamber, like something massive had shifted far beneath the ground and the whole mine protested against its own existence. Dust rained from the ceiling. Then pieces of stone. Then larger chunks.
Leah screamed, “The mine is reacting to Asterin’s unfinished awakening.”
“Of course it is,” I muttered as another rock slammed into the floor a foot away from me. “Why would it not?”
Nathan did not wait for my sarcasm. He wrapped an arm around my waist and yanked me backward as another slab of stone crashed exactly where I had
