Adrenaline surged through my veins, hot and volatile, drowning out the agonizing throb of my bruised ribs and the raw sting of my split lip.
There was no time to think. No time to weigh the odds, and certainly no time to pray. Beta Marcus was seconds away from tearing through the crawlspace access door at the end of the shaft. If he caught me trapped in this narrow, stone-walled pipe, he would run his broadsword through my spine before I could even draw breath.
crawling backward through the dark was a death sentence. The tunnel was too narrow, my movements too slow.
I have to go down.
I curled my knees tightly against my chest, my bare feet slipping on the gritty stone, and drove both heels forward with every atom of desperate strength left in my battered frame.
CLANG!
The rusted iro
