Page 20 of The Shattered Rite
Her pendant pulsed again.
Warm. Urgent.
She followed.
Her mind was swimming with all the possibilities of her impending death when the next one found her.
She didn’t hear it.
She felt it.
Claws hooked her shoulder from behind—dug deep, dragged.
She screamed.
Spun. Slashed blindly with a rock.
It wasn’t enough.
Her blood splattered stone.
She ran.
Faster.
Didn’t matter how much it hurt.
Didn’t matter how much her body screamed to stop.
She ran until her vision blurred, until breath was something she didn’t have anymore, until every footstep felt like a countdown.
And the thing followed.
A nightmare given flesh.
Jaws split sideways down its face, spiraling teeth grinding.
Limbs bending over walls, over ceilings. Crawling like something built to move anywhere it wanted.
Claws raked across her ribs.
She screamed again.
“This is it,” she gasped aloud. “Prophecy, destiny, and I’m going to bleed out in a pit because I’m slow.”
Her body didn’t listen.
Her legs kept moving.
Instinct and terror did what pride couldn’t.
Then—light.
She stumbled.
Fell.
Into a cavern.
