Page 39 of The Hyena’s Guardian

He caught the thing by the torso and drove it sideways into one of the carved pillars surrounding the platform. Stone fractured beneath the impact. The creature screamed and clawed at him wildly, but Theron’s growl ripped through the chamber with enough force that the others recoiled for half a second.

Only half a second. Then they came all at once.

Matt backed toward the platform, firing as the creatures flooded into the chamber in jerking bursts of speed. The flashlight beam swung wildly across pale bodies, clawed hands, open mouths, and silver-veined eyes. Every shot bought space, not safety. The creatures moved too quickly, using the walls and columns like the chamber had been built for them.

Theron fought like something that had been surviving them for years.

He did not waste motion. He broke limbs, used the stone itself as a weapon, and kept forcing the creatures away from Matt even when it opened fresh wounds across his own body. Blood darkened the fur along his ribs, but he never slowed.

Matt noticed that too. Even in the middle of gunfire and shrieking, even with adrenaline burning through his system, he noticed the way Theron kept putting himself between Matt and anything that moved.

A creature dropped from above. Matt saw it too late. Theron did not.

He slammed into Matt from the side, driving him out of the creature’s path as claws tore through the air where Matt’s throat had been a second earlier. They hit the floor hard together, and Matt felt the impact jar through Theron’s wounded side.

Theron snarled, but the sound broke halfway through with enough pain behind it that Matt felt the reaction instantly.

Instinct surged hard beneath his skin, and for the first time since entering the catacombs, it pulled him forward without fear.

It was rage.

Matt rolled onto his back, raised the pistol with both hands, and fired three shots into the creature crawling toward Theron. The first bullet snapped its head back. The second tore through its open mouth. The third finally dropped it against the stone with a wet, twitching collapse.

For half a second, Theron stared at him. Matt breathed hard. “You’re welcome.”

Theron’s eyes narrowed, but the look did not hold. Something uncertain moved behind them, wary and unreadable.

The King's Hand laughed from the platform.

The sound cut through the chamber sharply enough that both Matt and Theron turned toward it.

“Yes,” it rasped. “There it is.”

The chamber tightened around them as the symbols carved into the walls began to glow.

Faint silver light spread through the rings encircling the chamber, crawling along ancient grooves buried beneath dust and mineral buildup. The chains attached to the platform tightened with a violent metallic snap, dragging the bound figure upright as its smile widened.

Theron went still. Matt saw fear flash through his face before rage buried it. “Run,” Theron said.

Matt looked at him. “What?”

Theron turned toward him fully, and the command in his voice cracked beneath something almost human.

“Matt. Run.”

The silver light spread rapidly across the chamber walls.

Ancient symbols flared brighter beneath layers of dust as energy pulsed through grooves carved deep into the stone. The chains surrounding the platform snapped taut one after another with violent metallic cracks, dragging the bound figure upright as the entire chamber began to vibrate beneath Matt’s boots.

The remaining creatures recoiled instantly.

Shrill clicking cries echoed through the room while the pale creatures scrambled backward toward the tunnels with sudden panic overtaking their earlier aggression. One of them slammed hard into a wall in its desperation to escape before disappearing into the darkness beyond the chamber entrance.

Theron did not move.

Every muscle in his body had locked rigid as he stared toward the platform with an expression Matt had not seen before.

Whatever was happening had shaken Theron.