The tunnels were suffocating.
Raine ran, the echo of their footsteps pounding against the stone, swallowed by the dark. The light from the masked man's torch flickered wildly, barely cutting through the oppressive gloom pressing in from all sides.
The whispers hadn't stopped.
They hadn't gotten softer either.
If anything, they had grown clearer.
Lenora…
Why did you leave me?
Lenora didn't speak. She hadn't since they fled the chamber.
Raine kept his gaze locked on her as they ran, watching the stiffness in her movements, the way her shoulders had curled inward, how her hand still clutched the dagger at her side as if letting go of it would break something inside her.
She was shaking.
Lenora never shook.
And that scared him more than anything.
The masked man took a sharp turn ahead of them, his voice clipped. "We need to keep moving."
Raine barely resisted the urge to snap at him. "No kidding."
They weren't out of danger. He could still feel it—something was watching them. The weight of unseen eyes dragged down on them like a storm pressing against the horizon, waiting to break.
And Lenora…
She was still hearing it.
Raine reached out, grabbing her wrist as they ran. "Lenora—"
She ripped her arm away before he could finish, her breath ragged. "Not now, Raine."
Her voice was tight. Not cold, not sharp—tight.
Like she couldn't afford to let anything slip.
Like if she did, she might not recover.
That should have been the end of it.
But Raine was too stubborn to let it go.
He grabbed her again, harder this time, pulling her to a stop.
Lenora twisted to face him, and there—there it was—
That flicker of something beneath her anger.
Not frustration. Not defiance.
Something raw.
Raine didn't let go. He took a slow breath, lowering his voice. "What did you see back there?"
Lenora's throat worked as she swallowed. "It wasn't real."
"That's not what I asked."
She hesitated. Just for a second.
And in that second, something cracked.
"It was her." Lenora's voice was quiet, too quiet. "She's not supposed to be here."
Raine stared at her. "Who?"
Lenora's fingers tightened around the hilt of her dagger. "My sister."
The words hit like a stone dropped into deep water. A slow, echoing impact, swallowed immediately by the dark.
Raine felt his breath catch. "Lenora, you never—"
"She died."
The way she said it—it wasn't a statement. It was a correction. A warning.
She didn't want to talk about it.
But she'd already said too much.
Raine didn't move. Didn't breathe. Didn't even blink.
Lenora had never spoken about her family. Not once. Not in all the time he had known her.
She had always been alone.
And now, for the first time, he understood why.
The masked man spoke, his voice breaking the moment. "We don't have time for this."
Raine clenched his jaw. "We make time."
The masked man didn't flinch at the venom in his voice. "We don't."
As if to emphasize his point, a scream echoed through the tunnels.
Not human.
Not alive.
Lenora jerked, gaze snapping toward the sound.
Raine cursed. "You've got to be kidding me."
The masked man started moving again. "Move. Now."
Raine hesitated, just for a second—then he grabbed Lenora's wrist and pulled her forward.
This time, she didn't fight him.
They kept moving.
The tunnels twisted, turning in on themselves, leading them deeper when they should have been going up.
The air got colder.
The light dimmer.
The whispers closer.
Raine felt it in his bones before he saw it.
The walls were changing.
Gone was the rough stone of the tunnels. The surface here was smoother, polished—etched with faint spirals, like veins of silver running beneath the surface.
It looked almost like the door from before.
Lenora slowed, her breath hitching. "This isn't part of the ruins."
The masked man didn't stop. "No."
Raine exhaled sharply. "Great. So we're lost and trapped in some place we're not supposed to be. Fantastic."
Lenora turned, fixing the masked man with a sharp glare. "Where are you leading us?"
"Forward."
She stepped in front of him, forcing him to stop. "That's not an answer."
He regarded her for a long moment. Then, finally—
"This place is older than the catacombs. Older than the city." His voice was quieter now. "It wasn't built. It was found."
Lenora's eyes darkened. "By who?"
The masked man hesitated.
And that hesitation was enough.
Lenora took a slow step back, her fingers flexing over the hilt of her dagger. "You knew we'd end up here."
Raine's blood went cold.
The masked man tilted his head slightly. "No. But I hoped."
Raine's dagger was in his hand before he could think. "The hell does that mean?"
The masked man didn't move. Didn't blink.
"It means," he said slowly, "that I was waiting for the door to open."
Lenora's breath stopped.
Because that wasn't the first time she had heard those words.
Raine felt something shift in the air.
Something was moving in the dark beyond the tunnel.
The masked man exhaled softly. "And now it has."
A heartbeat of silence.
Then—
The whispers surged.
And the shadows came alive.