The fall was endless.
Air tore at Rhea's hair, her claws scrabbling against nothing as she plummeted beside Kael. The only light came from above—tiny now—the jagged hole shrinking until it was just a pinprick, the Queen's silhouette framed in it like a dark star. Her laughter rolled down after them, deep and cold.
The heat rose before the ground did.
They hit,not stone, but flesh. The impact was a wet, shuddering thud, and Rhea sank knee-deep into a surface that rippled under her weight. It pulsed beneath her boots like the living brain above, but hotter, slicker. She yanked herself free, heart pounding.
Kael landed in a crouch beside her, sword in hand, scanning the void. "This isn't rock."
He was right. The ground stretched in every direction, a massive, pulsating plane of muscle threaded with black, vein-like tubes that pumped glowing crimson fluid. Overhead, stalactites hung,except they weren't stone. They twitched.
A deep, slow thoom vibrated up through their feet.
"Where the hell are we?" Rhea whispered.
Kael's jaw tightened. "Inside something. Or… on something."
The heat was suffocating, each breath tasting of copper. Then the surface bulged ahead of them, rising into a mound. Flesh tore open in a clean slit, and from it, something crawled out.
It had no eyes,just a skull-like head split by a circular mouth of serrated teeth. Its arms were too long, its nails curling into hooked claws. Steam hissed from its joints as it unfolded, hunched and jerking.
Rhea's wolf surged forward. Kill.
The creature moved first,its body lurching forward with insect speed. Kael met it head-on, steel clanging against claw. Rhea circled, searching for an opening, until the thing's mouth split wider and it screeched. The sound drilled into her skull.
Her vision blurred, knees buckling. Behind her, the ground quivered again, and two more slits opened—two more creatures dragging themselves free.
"Three!" she shouted, forcing herself upright.
Kael's blade severed one of the first creature's arms, but it didn't slow. The stump gushed black smoke instead of blood, the stench acrid. "We move,now!"
They ran, boots slapping against the wet, pulsing surface. The creatures followed in a loping, uneven gait, their claws raking the ground and leaving steaming gashes in the flesh-floor.
The heat grew worse. Ahead, the terrain sloped downward toward a red glow.
Rhea risked a glance over her shoulder,the lead creature was leaping. She dropped into a slide, claws out, catching it midair and raking its belly open. Steam hissed from the wound, the creature's scream a raw, metallic wail.
Kael grabbed her arm, yanking her upright before the other two closed in. They sprinted together into the narrowing slope until the space opened into a chasm.
Below, an ocean of molten blood churned, dotted with floating masses of bone. A massive shape moved beneath the surface,too big to see entirely, but the ripples it caused made the entire chamber quake.
The creatures didn't hesitate,they dived after them.
Kael's arm wrapped around Rhea's waist. "Hold on!"
They jumped.
The air was a blast furnace. The ocean of blood surged upward toward them,but just before they hit, something rose from below. A platform of bone, as if pulled by unseen hands, jutted upward to catch them.
Rhea rolled onto her back, panting, trying to understand.
Then she saw the figure at the center of the bone platform,tall, cloaked in molten shadows, with eyes like twin eclipses. His voice was deep enough to vibrate her ribs.
"You run from her, little wolf. But now you have fallen into my domain."
Behind him, the molten ocean swelled and a colossal jaw began to break the surface.