Page 96 of The Hyena’s Guardian

Theron’s gaze remained fixed on the darkness below. “I do not know.”

“That’s not reassuring.”

“No,” Theron agreed. “It isn’t.”

Matt’s attention returned to Aric’s body near the shattered pillar. Two Valker agents had already covered him with a tarp, concealing the thing the mountain had made of him. Theron had not looked back at him.

Matt was beginning to realize that Theron’s control came with a cost. Every time the mountain forced him to remember someone he’d lost, he buried it before the grief could surface. The cracks were showing anyway. Matt wasn’t sure he wanted Theron carrying that weight alone anymore.

Baptiste crouched near the open passage, examining the carved symbols surrounding the seam in the wall. “These markings weren’t made recently,” he said. “The stone around them is ancient.”

Vale moved beside him. “Can you read them?”

Baptiste glanced toward Theron.

Theron finally tore his attention away from the darkness below and stepped closer. For a moment he simply stared at the carvings without speaking. Recognition tightened Theron’s expression.

“It’s an old dialect,” Theron said. “Older than most civilizations still remembered.”

“Can you read it or not?” one of the agents asked.

Theron ignored the impatience in the question. His fingers traced one of the symbols carved nearest the seam. “It describes a rite.”

Matt disliked that sentence.

“Define rite,” he said carefully.

Theron’s eyes flicked briefly toward him. “Not the comforting kind.”

“Fantastic.”

Vale folded her arms. “What kind of rite?”

Theron studied the wall a moment longer before answering.

“A sealing ritual.”

The chamber quieted as tension moved through the gathered wolves. Even the younger agents understood what the words meant.

“A prison?” Vale asked.

Theron nodded once. “The First King could not be killed conventionally.”

“That’s usually how immortal monsters work,” Matt muttered.

Theron continued as though he had not interrupted. “The wolves who served under him eventually realized destroying his body would not matter if his spirit remained bound to the mountain itself. So they created the tomb network.”

A crease formed between Matt's brows. “You’re telling me this entire mountain is basically one giant supernatural containment unit?”

“Yes.”

“That somehow makes me feel worse.”

“It should.”

Theron’s voice remained calm, but Matt caught the exhaustion beneath it.

Baptiste rose to his feet. “If the tombs are opening now, then whatever imprisoned him is failing.”