The skeletons moved like water.
Sunrei barely yanked his dagger free before bone fingers closed around his ankle. He kicked out, shattering ribs that reknit before they hit the ground.
Move! Cael grabbed his arm, hauling him toward the broken tower door. Kaelis covered their retreat, her knives flashing as she severed skulls from spines but for every skeleton that fell, two more clawed their way up the cliffs.
Moonlight painted the scene in shades of blood and bone.
Sunrei's brand throbbed with each step, the memory of Ryvan's brother's dying face seared behind his eyes. First of many.
Cael's grip tightened as they reached the cliff path. They're drawn to our brands. We need to
An arrow hissed past Sunrei's ear.
It struck Cael in the shoulder.
The Hunters emerged from the tree line like shadows given form.
Ryvan led them, his bow already nocking another arrow. His eyes sunken from days of pursuit locked onto Sunrei with something beyond hatred.
Recognition.
You, he breathed.
Sunrei's brand flared in response.
Kaelis shoved Cael behind a boulder as another volley of arrows rained down. We're pinned!
Cael snapped the arrow shaft protruding from his shoulder. His blood, Sunrei noted, was darker than it should be. Almost violet where it dripped onto the stone.
The caves, Cael gritted out. Below the cliffs. They won't follow us there.
Why? Sunrei demanded.
Cael met his gaze. Because what's down there makes skeletons seem kind.
They ran as the Hunters' war cries mingled with the clicking of pursuing skeletons.
The cave mouth yawned before them, black as a demon's throat. Salt crusted its edges like dried spit.
Kaelis hesitated at the threshold. Last chance to pick a better plan.
An arrow grazed her thigh.
She cursed and plunged inside.
Sunrei followed, Cael at his heels. The moment they crossed into the dark, the sounds of pursuit ceased. Not faded ceased, as if someone had severed the world behind them.
Then the cave breathed.
Walls of glistening flesh pressed in around them.
This isn't a cave, Kaelis realized, her knives raised. It's
A living thing.
The ground lurched. Sunrei slammed into a spongy wall that clung to his skin like wet parchment. His brand ignited, casting violet light over the nightmare:
Veins pulsed overhead, pumping black fluid. What he'd taken for stalactites were teeth, each longer than a man.
Cael pressed a hand to the fleshy floor. It's dormant. For now.
You led us into a demon's mouth? Kaelis hissed.
Cael's smile was all teeth. Better than Ryvan's arrows.
Sunrei's brand pulsed. The demon's veins echoed the rhythm.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Like a heartbeat.
Like his own.
They picked their way through the gullet, stepping over half-digested bones that crunched underfoot. The air grew thicker, hotter, until Sunrei's shirt clung to his skin with sweat.
Kaelis wiped her brow. How far to the other side?
Cael didn't answer. He'd gone still, his head cocked.
Sunrei heard it too.
Whispers.
Not from ahead from inside the walls.
A section of flesh peeled back, revealing a pulsing sac. Within it floated a figure.
Sunrei's breath caught.
Lithriel.
Her silver hair fanned around her like a halo, her body preserved in black fluid. Her eyes snapped open.
Hello, Prince.
The voice came from all around them. The sac ruptured.
Black fluid flooded the passage.
Sunrei barely grabbed Kaelis's wrist before the current tore them apart. The liquid burned where it touched his brand, searing through wrappings to etch new markings into his skin.
Cael screamed a sound that cut off abruptly as the tide yanked him under.
Sunrei's head slammed against something hard.
Darkness.
Then
Memory:
Lithriel pressing a blade into his hands.
Remember, she whispered.
The more you forget, the stronger it gets.
Sunrei woke choking on saltwater.
Dawn light filtered through the cave's entrance now behind them. They'd been spit out on a rocky shore.
Kaelis groaned beside him, clutching her bleeding thigh.
No sign of Cael.
Sunrei's brand ached, the new markings forming words he couldn't read.
Then
A whisper in his ear, though no one stood there:
The Eclipse is coming.