Kael ran.
Sage matched his pace exactly. The underground corridor blurred past. Stone walls, flickering torches, carved symbols pulsing with red light.
The staircase spiraled upward.
The rune door appeared above. Still open. Still green.
They burst through it into the warehouse and didn't stop. Across the empty factory floor, past rusted machinery, through the hanging half-door that led outside into cold night air.
Thornwick's skyline greeted them. Two moons. Empty streets. The distant hum of a city that didn't know what lurked beneath it.
Kael slowed to a walk. Sage slowed with him.
"We made it," she breathed.
"Don't—"
The signatures hit his Essence Trace like a wall.
South. East. West. Multiple groups converging on the warehouse from three different directions. Dozens of them. Moving in tight formations just like the abduction team they'd followed earlier.
Black clothing. Red masks. Horns.
"Down," Kael hissed.
