Dodging around the coffee table, tramping over the sheepskin rug, weaving around beanbags and the comfy armchairs and couches, I picked a random wall and started there.

I scrambled through the shelf at waist level. My fingers pulled on the novels frantically. I dragged each one of them out, letting them spill haphazardly to the ground as I moved to the next. My feet trampled over the top of the cast-off books as I went through the shelf, before moving to the next shelf, higher up, in a systematic panic.

Too late, too late...

A storm of footfall and the library door crashed open.

I heard my name being called down below.

"Wychthorn..."

Horror exploded inside my chest.

Oh gods. Jett was already here. The five minutes had flown by.

I scrambled faster, tossing book after book onto the floor, hoping that my fingers would latch around one that wouldn't budge easily. That I'd hear an audible click. Or a door would mysteriously appear.

There were too many books.

I froze, as did the air in my lungs, crystallizing into abject terror. Down below came an ear-piercing sound of a blade being dragged along the stone floor. A scraping-sparking noise that hackled the fine hair on my body. The noise was followed by lazy footfall that made metal creak before a low, goading voice spun through the air. "Times up, Wychthorn. Here I come, ready or not."

Mindless panic seized me. I fumbled with more and more books. More and more novels were flung to the floor. I scrambled through the shelves. Higher. Lower. I didn't know. My gaze bounced sideways at all the remaining shelves. My stomach pitched into a dizzy freefall.

It was impossible.

I'd never check all of them in time.

Yet as impossible as the task was, my sight landed on a collection of books on a shelf adjacent to this one. Why in all the chaos, the panic, my feet sliding and slipping upon the discarded books piled on the floor, that my eye would catch one in particular?

But I did.

No.

Yes.

Surely not.

Excitement thrummed through my veins.

I lurched, twisting sideways, stumbling over the books scattered on the floor, to scan the small collection of books amongst all the paperbacks. It was the same series that had captured my attention when Graysen first brought me to the library. The series of books were all the same size, with similar widths. All with a title regarding a princess. Just as the first book in the series suggested, 'The Princess and the Mechanic,' it would seem the princesses were trying their hands at a new career.

But it wasn't this series that had ensnared my attention.

It was the book caught up in the middle of them with a narrow spine and gold lettering stating the title: 'The Heir and The Servant.'

There was one thing I knew about Varen and Tabitha, and that was how they'd met all those years ago. Graysen had shared with me that his father, an heir at the time, had met Tabitha at my grandparents when she'd been a servant. They'd had a secret affair because of their difference in ranks. One of the upper ranks romantically entwined with someone of no rank was not permitted in our world.

My fingers shook as I pinched the top edge of the glossy novel, and I sent a prayer to Zrenyth. With the air trapped in my throat, I pulled on the book gently. I felt the resistance immediately. It was a trigger, heavily loaded. Adrenaline spiked a heady rush through my bloodstream as I eased the book forward.

A low click.

The air shivered.

The bookshelf did too.

Magic shimmered through the wall of books like a ripple of water and it reminded me of my father's treasure trove in his office. Everything before me faded away as if it had never existed and I was left facing absolute darkness.

The Crowthers' escape tunnel.

A way off the estate.

A different kind of terror fell upon me as I faced the darkness beyond. My mind fell back in time to the moment when my mother had shoved me into the tithe prison, despite my screams, my tears, and how I'd begged her not to. She'd shut the door, and with the absence of light, I'd descended into an almost catatonic state.

My heart thumped erratically in my chest as I stared into the velvety black nothingness. Clammy beads of sweat trickled beneath the knot of hair at the nape of my neck to slide beneath the back of my dress. My breath came too quickly, too shallow. My mind grew muggy, threatening to shatter, and I swayed.

I can't... I can't...

The sound of Jett's approach neared.

"Wychthorn..."

The threat of him thickened the air with menace.

I can...

I have to...

I shook my head clear from the past, and I scrabbled at the messenger bag hanging at my hip, unzipping it with shaking fingers and digging out the flashlight. It fumbled in my sticky grip as I turned it on.

A thin reedy light pierced the pitch-black gloom beyond.

Just one foot, one step...

That's all I needed.

"Ah, there you are rat," came from behind me.

Stifling a shriek, I lurched forward, stumbling down a short corridor that led to a spiraling staircase hewn from rock. I hastily descended the roughly carved steps that wound like a ribbon...

...down, down, down...

All to the steady strike of an adamere blade against rock ricocheting around me.

...clang...clang...clang...

The threatening ring of foreboding chased me down the curling steps along with a mocking laugh that reverberated through the cold air. "You're welcome, Wychthorn!" Jett called out from the entrance to the library.

And that's when panic clawed at my soul, stealing my breath. I'd stepped from the safety of the library's muted sunlight and thrown myself straight into darkness.

***

Darkness streamed by in a haze of black.

Mela and I hurtled through the tunnel, the rocky floor jittering beneath our feet. Mottled-white bones cracked underfoot, shards spinning away. Loose stones shivered and rippling water splashed upward as my boots pounded through puddles.

A horrifying noise filled the passageway, drowning everything out, the sound of our puffing breaths and my rapid heartbeat drumming in my ears. It was a thunderous gravelly noise—an earthquake rumbling through a vast mountain range.

"Faster, Mela. Faster!" I bellowed to my friend running ahead of me. Her sword was strapped to her spine beneath her bouncing daypack, and her armor was as filthy as mine.

Mela was flagging. It felt like we'd been running forever. I inched forward, wanting to scoop her up over my shoulder and streak faster through the rabbit warren of tunnels. As if Mela sensed what I was about to do, pride had her barking at me in puffing gasps over her shoulder, "Don't you dare! I swear to Brangwene, Gray...I'll never speak to you again...if you carry me out of here!"

"Then move faster. It's coming for us!" I roared. Glistening rock trembled all around us as something utterly terrifying chased us down.

Mela and I had been following old tracks and heading deeper into the labyrinth beneath Ascendria, when a creature that should never be disturbed, had been. Not by us either.

The Uzrek had set it upon us.

We were being hunted by a gigantic beast that chewed through rock like it was soft butter. And in our panicked flight, we were completely lost within the uncharted catacombs. Some tunnels were so constrictive, their ceilings so low, we'd had to bend half-over to hastily navigate our way through. Others had twists and turns like a wriggling snake. Some were littered with the dead, the pile of bones so deep we had to wade through them, the crunch of brittle bones much like seashells cracking underfoot. All we could do was run and keep running in the hopes of losing the beast or finding enough space to fight it.

Ahead of me, Mela's flashlight weaved erratically through the darkness, but I could see further with my night vision. We were fast approaching a fork in the tunnel. Left or right?

"Left," said the Uzrek, speaking into my mind with its hollow, ancient voice. "Turn into the left fork."

"Go left, Mela!" I shouted, just as the split in the tunnel appeared in Mela's vision.

She veered sideways and I followed right behind, my sweat-clumped hair swishing against my forehead as I swerved left.

Both of us charged down the tunnel, Mela striding faster, her arms pumping like pistons. My leggy stride matched hers. Adrenaline burned through my veins as we raced faster and faster. As to why the Uzrek was helping us now, I had no fucking idea. It very well might be leading us purposely to a dead end.

"Such little faith," murmured the Uzrek, amusement dancing in his tone.

The godsdamned monster could read my thoughts as easily as leafing through my memories. "You can't fucking blame me," I mentally hissed back. "You're the one who disturbed the serpent and sent it after us."

A rough chuckle. "Perhaps, spinner of deceit, the beast's hunt serves a purpose."

My stomach plummeted when I realized we were running down a tunnel, long and straight. It seemed endless, a single length of passageway with no way out, and if...

If we were running toward a dead end, we were fucked.

A gigantic quake rocked the tunnel—

The stone floor undulated and tossed us about—

Our footing stumbled—

Mela lost her balance and flailed. She tipped sideways, about to crack a shoulder into the pitted wall. I skidded to a rough halt, my entire body jittering with the shifting stone, as I lunged to grab hold of her arm and right her.

"Holy shit," she gasped. Both of us wobbled, teetering this way and that by the jostling rock. A horrifying grinding noise had both of us snapping our gazes upward. The craggy ceiling convulsed overhead, threatening to cave in. Twisting around, I almost regretted looking back the moment my gaze landed on where we'd come.

The tunnel's end wall exploded like a quarry blast—

An ear-shattering detonation BOOMED—

Fat chunks of rock scattered outward—

And a cloud of dust careened through the narrow space. The filthy plume engulfed us completely.

We threw up our arms as a shield, spinning away and bending over. Grime clogged my airway and I hacked for breath, wheezing as the dust faded. I half-turned to look over my shoulder.

Terror lodged itself like a blade in my throat.

An otherworldly beast erupted into the tunnel.

A Stone Eater.

The great serpent slithered toward us, fast.

The noise of it razing through the tunnel stabbed my eardrums. Stone scraping stone. Rock cracking against rock. I could barely hear anything above the writhing serpent. The rocky floor shook beneath my feet. Fierce quakes jarred my bones, chattering my teeth. I flung my arms wide as I shifted about, my balance off-kilter, moving with the twitching ground.

"Move, Mela, move!" I roared, shoving at her.

The Stone Eater's scales were flared outward like the edge of a saw, and segments of the beast's skin rotated in opposite directions like the metal teeth of a chainsaw to hew through rock. It took up the entire width of the tunnel. It was the color and texture of basalt rock, dirty gray and pitted, as ancient as the earth itself. Its enormous slanted eyes were fixed on us, a forked tongue flicking out.

Mela took off and I was right behind her.

We dashed down the never-ending tunnel which shook with the beast's harrowing approach.

Faster, faster, faster.

But the Stone Eater was swifter.

Fine stone and dust coated my armor, clung to my sweaty face, and gritted up my teeth. "It's gaining on us!" I bellowed. I was one heartbeat away from snatching up Mela and throwing her over my shoulder, to hurtle forward in a blusterous blur when the Uzrek roared, "Kill it!"

"Kill it?!" I replied, aghast.

"Yes. Now. In this tunnel!" he urged.

"How the fuck am I supposed to kill it?!" This time I hadn't replied mentally, I'd unintentionally spoken out loud and Mela overheard.

"You're right. We do!" she shouted back at me.

"We need a cavern, somewhere we can fight it!" The tunnels were too narrow to use our swords. My fingertips itched to snatch up a cursed grenade but we couldn't use explosives. Anything incendiary of nature would tip off Yezekael that we were down here hunting it.

There...there...

Fucking finally...

Ahead of us was a crossing of tunnels.

"There's a junction dead ahead, about 70 yards," I yelled to Mela.

"Which way?" I asked the Uzrek as I raced through the gloom.

A second later Mela tossed over her shoulder, "We use it!"

"What?!"

"We split up and take either side of the junction!" She reached behind her neck to grip the hilt of her adamere sword. The dark blade whistled through the air as she drew the weapon over her shoulder and a violent crack of sparks showered down as the honed edge struck the tunnel's ceiling. I threw up an arm, ducking my head as I ran through stinging heat scattering wide. "How's that wyrmblade of yours?!"

A slender flame of hope warmed my blood when I understood her plan. "Okay, okay..."

Shit, yes that could work.

On we ran, desperate to reach the crossing of tunnels.

The ferocious buzzing sound of shredding stone grew louder.

The beast's hot, reeking breath washed out like noxious fumes and shoved a burning path down my throat.

A massive quake erupted, shaking the ground and rocking my balance, slowing our speed.

An angry sound of splitting rock cleaved the air apart.

As we ran, Mela and I whipped our heads to the side as a ghastly fissure cracked its way through the tunnel wall, streaking right past us.

Fuck, fuck, fuuuck!

Mela's wide-eyed gaze tracked the crevice gouging through the rock. "Hellsgate."

The fissure splintered off to carve up, up, up—

And the ceiling erupted with a violent blast—

Black rock exploded in fragments.

Stone rained down in a hail of horrific thuds and dust.

I covered my head with my hands as the downpour of rockfall clattered on the stone floor all around me.

Shit, shit, shit...

Heavy rock struck my shoulder pitching me sideways. Another struck my back sending me sprawling forward. My foot tripped on bouncing debris.

I went down hard.

My knees met the jagged stone floor. Pain barked through the bone. My shoulder erupted in fiery agony. Skin was shredded from my burning palm as I pitched forward, slapping a hand down to control my movement.

Rock rattled downward, cracking all around me. Their blows were barely softened by my armor as I was half-buried in a rubble of stone.