Page 44 of The Hyena’s Guardian

The Hand’s smile twisted. “They were already failing.”

“You hastened it.”

“I stopped pretending the prison could hold forever.”

The Guardian's pale eyes never left him. “It was never yours to decide.”

Theron flinched like the words had struck something buried too deep for Matt to see.

Matt resisted lowering the weapon. “So the enormous terrifying wolf is the prison’s security system?”

The King’s Hand regarded Matt for a long moment before the corner of his mouth lifted. “An inelegant way to put it,” he said. “But yes. One guardian among many.”

The Guardian's claws pressed harder into the glowing stone as another crack split across the chamber floor. “The King must remain below.”

Another tremor rippled beneath them as several of the silver symbols went dark. A crack split across the chamber floor and kept spreading.

The stone near the far tunnel entrance collapsed inward abruptly, revealing a vertical shaft descending far deeper into the mountain than the chamber itself. Cold air rushed upward from the darkness below carrying the smell of wet earth, blood, and something old enough that Matt’s instincts reacted before his thoughts did.

His hyena recoiled as something deeper than fear surged through Matt: echoes of memory and a certainty old enough to feel inherited rather than learned.

Matt froze.

For one impossible second, images flashed through his mind that did not belong to him. Ancient stone corridors. Blood covering carved walls. A crown made from black antlers. Silver eyes staring upward through darkness while entire cities burned somewhere far above the earth.

Then the vision vanished. Matt staggered backward, breathing hard. Theron caught him before he hit the wall.

The touch sent another violent surge through Matt’s chest, sharp enough that both of them reacted instantly. Theron’s claws flexed hard against Matt’s arm before he jerked his hand away almost violently.

The larger creature turned toward them. Its pale eyes narrowed. “You feel him,” it said.

Matt swallowed hard while the lingering images still burned through the back of his mind. “Feel who?”

The King's Hand’s smile widened again. “My king beneath the mountain.”

The shaft below them answered.

A sound rose from the darkness deep beneath the chamber, low and distant at first before it rolled upward through the catacombs with enough force to shake the walls around them.

Matt felt the vibration in his bones. The larger creature stepped backward from the platform. Even Theron went still beside him. Then the roar came again, louder this time.

And somewhere far below them, something ancient became aware of him.

The roar echoed through the catacombs again, deeper now, as though the mountain itself had answered.

Dust drifted steadily from the chamber ceiling while the larger creature remained near the fractured platform, its attention fixed on the darkness below the newly opened shaft. Even the King's Hand had gone silent, the silver eyes narrowed with wary calculation rather than amusement now.

Theron stepped backward toward the nearest corridor entrance. “We leave,” he said. “We find your people. Then we find a way to stop him before the mountain fails.”

Matt did not argue this time.

Another violent tremor rolled through the floor beneath them while the silver markings carved into the chamber walls pulsed unevenly through the darkness. Somewhere deeper underground, stone collapsed with a distant thunderous crack followed by shrieks that cut off abruptly one after another.

The catacombs were coming apart.

Matt followed Theron into the adjoining corridor while the larger creature remained behind near the platform. He glanced back only once in time to see the King's Hand watching them leave with an expression that unsettled him far more than open hostility would have.

The thing looked intrigued.