Page 93 of The Hyena’s Guardian

Theron did not answer at first. The light from the passage reflected across his face, making him look carved from shadow and old grief. “No,” he said finally. “But it belongs to him.”

Matt’s grip tightened around the knife. “That distinction is doing absolutely nothing for my anxiety.”

A shape appeared at the base of the stairs. At first Matt thought it was a wolf crawling on all fours. Then it unfolded.

The creature crawled upward on limbs too long for its body, its spine bowed sharply beneath stretched gray skin. Patches of fur clung to it in uneven mats, and bone pressed visibly beneath the surface as though the body had been reshaped badly and left unfinished. Its eyes glowed the same pale gold as the First King’s.

But there was something worse than its appearance. The corruption had changed him just enough to turn Matt’s stomach.

The creature stopped halfway up the stairs and opened its mouth. When it spoke, the voice was neither smooth nor whole. The words scraped through broken anatomy as though language itself hurt. “Returned.”

The Valker agents held their fire, but only barely.

Matt searched Theron’s face for some sign that he didn’t understand what he’d just heard. “Please tell me that thing is not talking to you.”

Theron’s face had gone utterly still.

The creature dragged one hand up another step. Its claws scraped lines into the stone. “Returned…” it rasped. “Blood remembers.”

Theron moved before anyone could stop him. Matt caught his arm this time and did not let go. “Do not,” Matt said.

Theron did not look at him. “It was one of mine.”

The words hit harder than Matt expected.

His gaze returned to the creature on the stairs, and the horror of it shifted without lessening. It only deepened.

One of mine. A wolf. A person. Someone who had belonged to Theron before the mountain reduced them to this broken thing crawling out of the dark.

Matt’s grip loosened, but he did not let go completely. “What does that mean?” he asked.

Theron’s throat worked once. “It means the mountain kept more than memory.”

The creature’s head tilted, and for a moment its gaze drifted away from Theron. It settled on Matt.

The hyena slammed against the inside of his skin so violently Matt nearly staggered.

The creature inhaled. Its nostrils flared, and recognition spread across what remained of its face. Its lips peeled back from too many teeth. “Anchor.”

The word struck the chamber like a gunshot. Matt forgot how to breathe.

Every wolf in the chamber went still. One by one, their heads turned toward Matt.

Theron went still in a way that frightened Matt more than any movement could have.

The creature smiled, if the expression could be called that, and crawled one more step into the light.

“King sees,” it rasped. “King knows.”

The mountain trembled beneath them.

The crack of distant stone rolled through the chamber, and somewhere far below, something answered with a roar so deep it seemed to pass through Matt’s bones before reaching his ears.

The creature lunged, and the chamber erupted into motion.

Gunfire thundered through the chamber as the Valker agents opened fire. The creature moved far too fast for something built that badly, throwing itself sideways across the stairs and slamming into one of the pillars hard enough to fracture stone. Bullets tore through its shoulder and chest, but it barely slowed.

Matt ducked as a chunk of rock shattered near his head.