Page 99 of The Hyena’s Guardian

Matt let out one short laugh that sounded nothing like amusement. Otherwise, he might have driven his fist through the nearest stone wall just to put the rage somewhere.

Vale stepped in before the argument could escalate. “If he doesn’t do it, the King gets free.”

Matt looked toward her sharply. “I understand the stakes.”

“Do you?”

The question cut deeper than Vale likely intended.

Theron stood there calm enough to discuss his own probable death as though it were a logistical inconvenience. And suddenly Matt understood something terrifying: Theron had already accepted dying here, probably long before any of them entered the mountain.

The realization left Matt cold. The hyena reacted instantly, rage flaring hot beneath Matt’s skin as a single instinct rose hard and absolute inside him.

Not him. Not after finding him.

Theron must have seen something change in Matt’s face because his expression softened almost imperceptibly. “Matt,” he said softly.

Matt shook his head once. “No.” The word came rough.

Theron stepped closer, lowering his voice enough that only Matt could hear the next part. “There may not be another way.”

Matt met his eyes, and everyone else in the chamber fell away. There was only Theron and the impossible certainty growing more dangerous every minute Matt spent near him.

“You don’t get to ask me to survive you,” Matt said through clenched teeth.

Theron’s control fractured for a heartbeat. Then the whispers below the stairwell rose sharply, breaking the moment apart.

A scream echoed from somewhere deep beneath the mountain, distorted enough that Matt could not tell whether it belonged to a wolf or something wearing the remains of one.

Vale turned toward the stairs. “Movement.”

More sounds followed. Claws scraped across stone below them in uneven waves, too many impacts striking the stairs to belong to a single creature.

Baptiste’s expression darkened as he stared into the passage. “They’ve reached the stairs.”

Theron straightened.

The fracture vanished, replaced by the hard focus Matt remembered from the tunnels.

“We move now,” he said.

Matt gripped the handle of his knife tighter.

The mountain shifted beneath them with a deep, grinding strain.

Far below, more tombs continued to open.

***

The stairwell descended deeper beneath the mountain in long uneven spirals carved directly into the stone. Whatever civilization had once existed here had not built for human comfort. The steps were narrow in some places, steep enough in others that several of the Valker agents nearly lost footing as the chamber behind them continued trembling from distant impacts below.

Matt stayed close to Theron near the front of the group. At first he told himself it was because the stairwell narrowed unpredictably in places and because Vale wanted tighter formation spacing during the descent, but deep down he knew the truth had very little to do with tactics.

He simply did not want Theron out of reach anymore.

The deeper they descended, the warmer the air became. Moisture gathered along the walls in slick black streaks that reflected the pale glow of mounted weapon lamps.

The whispers no longer drifted aimlessly through the tunnels. They tracked the formation somehow, sharpening each time the stairwell carried them deeper.