Chapter 1256
There was only one direction left - the narrow passage at the back of the shrine, the one they’d never dared explore, the one half-choked with rubble and dark as a grave. Jude didn’t hesitate. He pulled Lucy with him, Zoey and Susan close behind, Emma and Sophie covering the rear as they plunged into the darkness. The air grew colder still, the shadows thick and choking. The sound of the thing in the shrine - a wet, slithering scrape, a growl that was felt more than heard - followed them like a curse.
They stumbled through the narrow passage, over broken stone and tangled roots, the walls pressing close on either side. The tunnel angled downward, steep and treacherous. Jude’s boots slid on loose gravel, his hand finding purchase on jagged rock. The only light came from the faint, eerie glow that clung to the cracks in the walls, like the last breath of the symbols that once held the creature at bay.
Behind them, they heard Rose’s voice again, pleading, weeping. And then it was cut off by a sound that froze the blood in their veins - a single, sharp, wet snap, like bone breaking under too much weight.
Sophie didn’t look back. "Faster!"
The tunnel opened abruptly into a vast cavern, the ceiling lost in shadow. Stalactites dripped with moisture, the floor uneven with ancient stone and shallow pools that reflected their pale, frightened faces. At the far end, a stone archway stood half-collapsed, beyond it a glimmer of something - light, or the memory of light.
"We head for that," Jude said.
But the thing was already spilling into the cavern behind them, its form stretching, tendrils of darkness creeping along the walls, along the floor, reaching for them. The cavern shuddered as if the island itself tried to shake the intruder free, rocks falling from the ceiling, splashing into the pools below.
Zoey turned, knife raised. "Go! I’ll hold it - "
"No!" Jude grabbed her arm, pulling her with him. "We stay together."