Page 70 of Third

Nothing happened.

She circled the pedestal, fingers twitching with the instinct to reach. “This is it, right?”

“It is the stabilizer,” he confirmed. “Compatible, assuming it is undamaged.”

“I don’t see damage.”

Tor’Vek stepped beside her, gaze locked on the device. His jaw flexed. “I will remove it.”

“No,” she said, before she even knew why. “Let me.”

He turned to her. “You are still—”

“I’m steady. Ipromise.” She held his gaze, her hand resting lightly on the pedestal’s edge. “And if something goes wrong... you’ll get me out.”

A pause.

Then he nodded.

Anya reached forward.

She touched the stabilizer. Cool. Solid. It hummed at her touch. But it didn’t resist. No alarms. No vibrations.

She liftedit.

And the lights overhead flared.

They both spun. Tor’Vek’s body shifted to shield her, his sword in hand. But nothing emerged.

The light dimmed again. Silent warning—or countdown. She didn’task.

Tor’Vek’s jaw was tight. “We move.”

She nodded and secured the stabilizer to her chest with the cross-straps from their gear. The surface was glassy-smooth, but dense, like lifting a contained storm. The crystal buzzed faintly against her skin, the cold edge of it sharp through the fabric of her shirt. She adjusted the weight automatically, but it pulled her posture inward—like it wanted to fold her around it. Carrying it felt like a promise. And a dare. The moment it touched her, the weight of it sank deep—literal, but also something more. The future. The cost of failure. The monster that waited beyond.

As they turned back toward the exit, the corridor moaned.

It didn’t sound like a structural groan this time. Anya froze, her body instinctively locking down. Her eyes darted to Tor’Vek. He had gone still too, his gaze already scanning the dark. Her pulse thudded in her ears. The sound didn’t come from the walls. It came from somethinginthem.

It sounded like breath—drawn slow and deep, as if something massive had just woken and was taking its first inhale in ages. Not mechanical. Notwind.

Alive.

Chapter17

THEY MOVEDin silence, the stabilizer secure against Anya’s chest. Behind them, the pedestal chamber remained open for several long steps—until the corridor’s walls shifted with a hiss and a deep mechanical grind. Hydraulic locks engaged, and slabs of metal slid across the opening, sealing itshut.

Tor’Vek’s steps were measured, blade still in hand. The final glimmer of chamber light vanished behind the sealed door, swallowed completely by shadow.

They had no choicenow.

The path back was blocked. There was only one directionleft.

Toward the monster.

Anya didn’t speak. Her breath stayed quiet, shallow, as if sound might draw the thing waiting up ahead. The bond between them didn’t hum—it bristled, tight and alert. She felt it crawl like static under her skin, tingling at her wrists, the back of her neck, asubtle prickle that made her muscles lock just a little tighter. Awarning system. Alivewire.

They passed the junction where the scouts had split.

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