Page 48 of Forged By Heart and Claws
Vad’s gaze snapped up and around; then his jaw tightened. He shoved me toward the door of the gathering room. “Not in here. Go!”
I cupped a hand over my mouth. “Thalen! Myantha!” My voice cracked with terror at the thought of what might have happened to them.
Thalen appeared in the doorway then, eyes wide and tunic rumpled. Myantha was behind him. “What in the scaffing void happened?” he shouted.
“Larder path! We’re moving out,” Silus shouted back. “Grab whatever you can.”
A wolf snarled and barreled toward Thalen. I surged forward, my muscles screaming in protest. I kicked the wolf from the side, knocking it off balance. Vad was there in an instant to finish it with his claws hooking beneath its jaw, ripping its head clean away. The body crumpled with a sickening thud. He adjusted his grip on his sword, growling.
Thalen leaped over the threshold, barefoot, half-dressed, his silver-white wings flaring wide. He dove for the weapon pile and snatched up a fallen sword. “Well, come on then! You can’t expect me to leave you here.”
Myantha darted forward on bare feet and grabbed a run bag and a lamp. Her golden-brown locs whipped behind her as she turned back toward the hall.
Three more wolves bounded out from the portals.
I grabbed one of the last remaining run bags and a sword, my shoulder burning as I flung the bag across my back. My breath sawed in and out as more wolves howled and charged.
Vad shoved me through the doorway and seized the handle. He jerked it shut as claws and teeth battered the other side. The thuds echoed, dust trickling from the lintel. “That’ll buy us seconds.”
The corridor pulsed with noise from our friends already sprinting ahead, Silus half-carrying Elara, Veralt and Rhielle right behind them with blood streaking their arms, Vyraetos clutching the medicine bags and a flickering lamp. Quen trotted beside him, her expression grim and her face tearstained while looking back at Elias.
Then I smelled it—wet fur, sharp and sour, closing in from the side passage. My stomach twisted.Wolves. There are more of them, I linked and pointed toward the passage.
Vad’s head snapped in the direction as a faint, hollowtoktoktoktok—trrrrrolled down the stairs beyond the doorway, like wooden beads scattering over stone.
Everyone froze.
Something is coming through the dungeon path, Vad linked. Silus caught his gaze from the front, and Vad lifted one finger and pointed.
My pulse thundered. The echo of that sound—toktoktoktok—trrrr—lodged itself in my bones. It wasn’t loud. It didn’t need to be.
It was a warning.
Vad turned toward the side passage, every muscle in his body pulled taut like a drawn bow. His nostrils flared. My own senses sharpened, honed by instinct and terror.
The scent hit again a second later… wet fur, smoke, and blood. More wolves.
I gripped the sword tighter, my palms slick. The weight of the run bag across my back dragged at my balance. My breath rasped too loudly in my ears.
The door behind us shuddered as the wolves we’d trapped howled and snarled.
Anothertoktoktoktok—trrrrsounded down the corridor, closer this time.
Ahead, Veralt and Rhielle slowed, weapons raised. Silus angled toward the tunnel that veered left, guiding Elara beside him. Her limp was more pronounced now with one wing dragging low, but she didn’t utter a sound. Vyraetos flanked them, the medicine bags bouncing against his hip and the lamp in his grip trembling slightly with each step.
We crept forward, each footstep painfully loud in the narrow corridor. My pulse slammed against my ribs, sounding louder than even our steps. The walls narrowed around us, and the ceilings pressed low, as if the passage itself meant to trap us. The hall split both to the right and to the left. Each swing of the lamps cast shadows that jerked and crawled like claws reaching from the darkness.
Behind us, the wolves continued their assault, claws shredding wood and snarls vibrating through the air. The door we’d barricaded was holding, but only barely.
Vad stayed pressed to my shoulder with his sword in his bloody hand. He bristled with tension, each impact behind us twitching through his frame. If the door failed, there’d be nowhere to run. The wolves would have a narrow stone corridor to rip through.
I looked back. There was still nothing visible, but thetok tok tokhad fallen silent. The quiet before the storm.
Silus reached the door at the end of the larder path and shoved his sword into Elara’s hands before fumbling for something in his tunic. The door groaned, and the hinges screamed. The sounds cut through every bone in my body like ice water.
Then came the eyes.
Five sets of yellow eyes emerged around the bend, slinking forward like flames in the dark. One blinked… and then another.
