Page 55 of The Hyena’s Guardian
Matt looked back at the shard protruding beneath the skin. “Why?”
Theron’s eyes remained fixed on the tunnel ahead. “To make certain the corruption could always find me.”
Matt hesitated before asking. “So it’s tracking you?”
“More than that. It gives the corruption somewhere to root and the First King something to reach through.”
Matt felt cold settle in his stomach. “Then why hasn’t it taken you?”
Theron was quiet. “Because I refuse to let it.”
The answer landed heavily between them.
Matt looked back at the dark fractures spreading beneath Theron’s skin. “The Hand did this to others.”
Theron nodded once. “Yes.”
“The hungry ones?”
“Some of them.”
Matt’s stomach tightened. “They were guardians.”
“Some were.” Theron’s gaze shifted toward the tunnel ahead. “Others came later.”
The chamber instantly felt much colder. Matt thought back to the pale creatures crawling across the walls with frantic animal hunger. “What happened to them?”
Theron’s expression darkened.
“They lost themselves at first. Memory fades. Instinct weakens. Hunger grows louder than everything else.” His voice roughened further. “Eventually they stop remembering there was a difference.”
Matt looked back down at the shard embedded beneath the skin near Theron’s collarbone. “And being near me is changing it.”
The pale eyes shifted toward him. “How do you know?”
Matt gestured vaguely toward him. “Because two hours ago you were threatening people with murder-growling and now you’re tolerating medical care and sarcasm.”
Theron held Matt’s gaze for another heartbeat before looking away, his jaw tightening as though deciding how much he was willing to reveal.
“I felt you before you arrived,” he admitted.
Matt rested his back against the wall. “What?”
Theron’s pale eyes shifted back toward him. “When you entered the mountain, I could feel it.” His voice roughened. “Something different.” He hesitated before continuing. “The closer you came, the stronger it became.”
Matt looked at him silently while the distant tremors continued rolling faintly through the catacombs around them.
“Your presence weakens its hold,” Theron said. “I still cannot explain why.”
Matt’s grip tightened around the flashlight. “You knew.”
Theron's gaze settled on the floor.
“You recognized me the moment we met,” Matt said.
Silence settled between them. Then finally: “Yes.”
The honesty of it hit harder than Matt expected. Not because Theron admitted it, but because he sounded ashamed of it somehow. Matt studied him carefully while the distant roar echoed faintly through the catacombs again.
