Page 67 of A Sunwoven Ascent

A long, sharpened claw slid slowly along her cheek, and Evelyne gasped. Hot, rotten breath rolled over her face, the stench so foul it left her swallowing against the urge to gag. Her eyes strained against the black until, little by little, shapes began to form: elongated, skeletal figures wrapped in moving mist. The creature before her tilted its narrow head with disturbing curiosity, and its eyes were so dark she could almost see her own reflection staring back.

The realization hit her all at once. She scrambled backward, palms skidding through the dirt, only to slam into another body. Evelyne cried out and recoiled, her heart hammering wildly. She crawled in the opposite direction, reaching for the sound of Holden’s breathing. Her sight had sharpened just enough to catch his outline in the dark. He was naked like she was, iron fastened around his ankles, seated back to back with another male while bloodroot-threaded chains stretched from them into the cavern floor.

The Noskari’s cruel laughter slithered through the dark.

It did not move toward her. Instead, its shape seemed to peel and ripple, as though it were savoring her fear. The black mist cloaking its skeletal frame swelled and thinned in a grotesque, pulsing rhythm.

“Such good blood,” it hissed, its long tongue sliding over a row of narrow, glistening teeth. “We will share it… though I may keep you for myself.”

Her stomach lurched hard. Then again. The stench of its breath hit her full in the face, and bile rushed into her mouth before she could stop it. She doubled over as vomit spilled onto the dirt between her hands, leaving her throat burning. When it passed, she stayed folded there, trembling, emptied out and even more parched than before.

Holden reached for her in the dark, his hand finding the center of her back. He rubbed slow circles between her shoulders, as if trying to ground her. But nothing could steady her now. She only needed to know where Kaldrek was. Where she—

The air grew heavier with every breath.

They were underground.

Evelyne forced herself to lift her head and blink into the dark until her eyes adjusted enough to see. The walls were not stone, but packed earth threaded through with thick, vein-like tendrils. The sight of them was enough to confirm it. A tunnel. Again.

A tremor ran through her, then another, until her whole body shook. The dirt walls felt closer now, crushingly close, and she turned her head, trying to make sense of the shapes chained along the ground.

One.

Two.

Three—

There were at least seven others. Seven bodies besides her and Holden. Some slumped where they sat. Others remained upright, though all of them were chained. Evelyne stared at them through the dark as dread crawled deeper into her chest. Who were they? How long had they been trapped here, wasting away beneath the land?

The Noskari meant to feed on them. On all of them. Was this how they gathered their strength—hoarding bodies underground like livestock, draining them slowly while they hid and built power beneath the surface? The thought made a sick kind of sense. And when the creature spoke again, she knew at once it was the same one that had pierced her wrist near the trading post, the same one that had nearly drained her dry.

“I’ll be back for this one,” it said before slipping away.

That explained the pounding in her skull, the weakness in her limbs, the hollow ache beneath her ribs. When the last trace of it was gone, Evelyne was left there with Holden and the other prisoners, all of them, so far as she could tell, human.

“Take a breath,” Holden murmured beside her. “Steady yourself. You need to think clearly.”

She instinctively crossed her arms over her chest, covering her exposed breasts. The darkness concealed most of her, but she knew his wolf-sight allowed him to see more clearly than she could. His gaze, however, never wavered from her face.

She obeyed him. Because she could feel herself unraveling. Her thoughts were splintering and panic clawed at her composure. If she lost control now, they were both dead.

She had survived a tunnel like this before.

She had faced bloodroot veins and creatures born of blood magic.

She had fought them. Killed them.

She could do it again.

Evelyne closed her eyes and focused on her breathing. Inhale. Slow. Controlled. Exhale.

She imagined warm grass beneath her feet. Sunlight on her skin. Kaldrek standing behind her, correcting her stance during training. His large, steady hands adjusting her wrist, guiding her shoulders back into place. Grounding her.

“Good,” Holden said quietly. “Now look at me.”

She turned toward him.

“As far as I know,” he continued, his voice low, “it’s only you and me from our pack down here. I don’t know what became of the others. I only remember being dragged. But we’re underground. Another one of their tunnels, most likely. That explains the smell. And why they’re nesting here.”