Chapter 29 Lucan
My limbs have never felt so free, bounding down the catacombs with Saskia on my heel.
I can feel her presence right behind me, even more than I can hear the other dozens of thundering paws of my pack. Something about her energy feels like static electricity, causing every hair on my werewolf body to bristle with anticipation—as if she’s the one I should be running toward.
The dichotomy of having her by my side as we approach an inevitable war and the primal need to scoop her up and protect her from every horror in this world is thrilling in two very different ways.
She’s in her element, free, wild. Her exhilaration palpable against my back.
I would never deny her this moment or become a Monster that hides her away from the world.
But that doesn’t mean I won’t do everything in my power to keep her safe, because I will become a Monster the second anyone threatens or harms her in any way, no questions asked.
My heart swells, basking in the fact that I’ll be whatever she needs me to be. That she can just be herself, a privilege she’s never been granted.
But I keep my eyes forward, my vision cutting through the darkness and taking in every damned dust particle that swirls in the tunnels we zigzag through.
Left, Saskia murmurs to me when we come to a fork, but I already know. I spent months sketching out these tunnels from the outside, and now I know the way to the center by heart.
To think that right above our heads are all the people I’ve always dreamed of saving…
To think that at any second, one of the Guardians could zip around any corner…
It’s only when we come to a cavernous opening, several archways circling the area as fresh torchlight flickers in brackets around us, that I skid to a halt, the others stopping in a crowd around me to listen for any signs of life. Or death.
A steady drip, drip, drip of water leaks from the ceiling, plopping into puddles of shimmering, red-tinged water on the ground. By the sudden alarm bells ringing in Saskia’s head, I can tell that she smells blood. And frankly, so do I.
The scent of death, like metallic rot, permeates these very walls.
That tunnel right there. Silently, Saskia points toward the gaping mouth of an opening directly across from us. That one leads to the dungeons of the Blood Moon Palace.
Every cell in my body screams at me to follow that direction, to invade immediately, but I can’t shake an equally loud feeling that we need to stay basked in shadows for a moment longer. There are no cameras down here, but it’s like the tunnels themselves are watching our every move.
Let me go first, I tell Saskia and the pack, lowering my mental block so that all of our minds are connected. As soon as it’s all clear, we run again. But I just want to check.
Thankfully, none of them argue, even Saskia. I place a single, large paw out into the cavern, then another, until I’m treading silently into the very center, splashing through the puddles. All that flickering light illuminates me, and the air in the catacombs seems to fall utterly, deathly silent.
I think we’re good to— Merrick starts.
Just as a blur of marble white rushes at me from one of the tunnels at my back.