Chapter 19 — Between Teeth and Stone
The cave shook harder.
The old thing shifted its weight, stone grinding against stone. The symbols across its body glowed unevenly now, like it was waking up in pieces.
Behind them, the scraping laugh grew closer.
Kael exhaled slowly. "Of course you'd both pick now."
Lira looked from the tunnel to the massive shape ahead. "If they fight each other, I'm voting we leave quietly."
The old creature made a deep sound again. Not words this time. A warning.
The tunnel wall cracked.
A hand burst through first—the pale one—fingers digging deep as the laughing thing forced its way in. Its grin appeared next, stretched and eager.
It froze.
Not at Kael.
At the old creature.
The air shifted. Heavy. Tense.
For the first time, the laughing thing stopped smiling.
The old creature leaned forward, symbols flaring brighter. The ground responded, vibrating in rhythm, like the cave was its body.
The laughing thing hissed. "You're not supposed to be awake."
The sound of its voice felt wrong, like it didn't belong in the air.
The old creature answered with movement.
It slammed one massive limb into the ground.
The shockwave threw Kael and Lira off their feet. Kael hit hard, shoulder screaming. Lira slid across the stone, barely stopping herself from rolling back toward the tunnel.
The cave erupted.
Stone spears burst from the floor, forcing the laughing thing to leap back. Its grin snapped back into place as it dodged, almost playful.
"Oh," it said. "This will be fun."
Kael pushed himself up, ears ringing. "We need to move. Now."
Lira nodded, already crawling toward a narrow gap forming in the wall as the cave split under the strain.
The old creature roared—not loud, but deep enough to rattle bones—and lunged.
The laughing thing met it halfway.
Stone shattered.
Symbols flared.
The cave began to collapse in earnest.
Kael grabbed Lira and dragged her toward the gap as dust and debris rained down. Behind them, the fight tore the space apart, blows shaking the ground like an earthquake trapped underground.
They squeezed through the gap just as the ceiling gave way.
The cave behind them folded in on itself.
Silence hit hard.
They lay there for a moment, breathing, hearts pounding.
Then Kael felt it.
That pressure again.
Not behind.
Ahead.
He lifted his head.
The passage they'd fallen into sloped downward… and ended in light.
Not white.
Not dark.
Something else entirely.
And whatever waited there had been waiting a long time.