Chapter 28 The Beast In The Valley
The ground shook with every breath the creature took.
Lyria staggered as she and Rael sprinted across the fractured slope, her pulse still erratic from the ember’s earlier surge. The remnants of the citadel loomed behind them jagged silhouettes of ancient stone and shadow. But the monster crawling out of their depths was no silhouette.
It was flesh.
It was steel.
It was fury.
The thing’s head rose from the rubble, long and angular like a warped wolf skull forged in a dying star. Scales rippled down its spine scorched, cracked, leaking embers with each movement. Its eyes burned with an unnatural orange blaze, too bright, too hungry.
Rael swore under his breath. “A Ruinforged beast. They were supposed to be extinct.”
“Clearly,” Lyria gasped, “someone forgot to tell it.”
The beast roared a deep, grinding sound like collapsing mountains and launched forward.
The shockwave knocked Lyria sideways. She hit the ground hard, elbows scraping stone. Rael spun, blocking falling debris with his blade, then grabbed her hand and yanked her up.
“Move!”
They ran.
The beast’s claws tore through the earth behind them, leaving molten grooves. The citadel’s ruins groaned under its weight. Shards of stone exploded outward as it barreled closer and closer.
Lyria’s vision blurred. Her chest burned again a warning, a threat, a whisper from the ember that wanted out. Not now. Not now. She shoved it down, teeth clenched.
“Rael,” she panted, “we can’t outrun that thing.”
“We don’t have to.”
“Then what”
Rael pointed toward a narrow canyon slit ahead, almost invisible between two dying cliffs. “There.”
Lyria hesitated only a breath before following him.
The beast lunged.
Its jaws snapped shut where she had stood half a second earlier.
The shockwave flung her forward into the canyon mouth. She crashed against the cold rock wall, ribs screaming. Rael stumbled in beside her. The walls trembled as the massive beast rammed into the entrance behind them, trying to force its way in.
Its skull scraped the narrow gap with sparks.
It howled, enraged.
“We’re trapped,” Lyria whispered.
“No.” Rael pointed deeper into the canyon. “We push through.”
The crack narrowed into dark shadow, barely wide enough for one person. Cold air funneled through it the kind of cold that carried secrets.
Lyria’s heart hammered. “This feels like a bad idea.”
“We’re out of good ones.”
Behind them, the beast’s claws gouged rock. The canyon walls shook. Stone splintered.
No choice.
Lyria squared her shoulders and stepped into the darkness.
The air inside felt old ancient, even brushing her skin like memory. The stone walls pulsed faintly with veins of glowing blue crystal. Rael slid in behind her, close enough that she could feel his breath on the back of her neck.
“Stay close,” he murmured.
“I wasn’t planning to wander off.”
A rumble rolled through the canyon as the beast slammed into the gap again. Dust rained down from above. A crack split open along the wall, spreading like lightning.
Lyria quickened her pace. The tunnel twisted sharply, dropping steeply downward. Rael kept one hand on the wall, bracing them both whenever loose gravel shifted beneath their feet.
Then, all at once, they stepped into a cavern.
Huge.
Brilliant.
Impossible.
Pillars of shimmering crystal rose from the ground, refracting light in every direction. Streams of luminescent energy flowed like water across the floor, winding around stone and air, forming symbols Lyria didn’t recognize.
But she recognized the power.
Dragon magic.
Old. Untouched. Pure.
Rael exhaled in awe. “This place shouldn’t exist.”
“That’s becoming a theme,” Lyria muttered.
She took one cautious step forward and the ember inside her reacted. Violently.
Her sigil flared, blazing bright enough to illuminate the cavern. The ground trembled. Energy rippled outward in concentric rings, turning the air sharp and electric.
Rael grabbed her shoulder. “Lyria, breathe.”
“I’m trying” She grit her teeth, nails digging into her palms.
A voice whispered inside her mind.
Welcome, little spark.
Her blood froze.
She staggered back. “No. Not her.”
But the voice wasn’t the Warden.
It was deeper. Older.
Something that thrummed through her bones.
You carry my ember.
The cavern shifted. Light bent. The energy streams twined together like serpents then shot upward, coalescing into the shimmering outline of a dragon towering above her.
A ghost made of light.
A memory given shape.
Rael froze, unable to speak.
The phantom dragon lowered its massive head until its spectral snout hovered inches from Lyria’s face.
You carry my heart-fire, it whispered. And you burn without knowing why.
Lyria’s breath trembled. “What are you?”
I was called Pyrrhion, the phantom murmured. The last light of the Redflight. The ember you carry belonged to me.
Lyria swallowed hard. “The Warden said… someone before me had the ember. Another girl.”
The phantom’s eyes dimmed with something like sorrow.
Yes. She failed.
Lyria’s stomach twisted. “Failed how?”
She broke beneath the fire. Her body collapsed. Her mind shattered.
The cavern air tightened around her throat.
That girl… that could have been her.
It will be you too, Pyrrhion warned gently, if you continue as you are.
Lyria stared up at him, breath uneven. “Then tell me how to survive it.”
A tremor ran through the cavern. Dust drifted from the ceiling. Pyrrhion’s head snapped toward the tunnel.
Too late.
A deafening roar echoed through the chamber.
Rael spun, drawing his blade. “It forced its way in. How”
The Ruinforged beast thundered into the cavern, ripping crystal pillars aside like brittle twigs. Its molten eyes locked onto Lyria with feral hunger.
Pyrrhion’s ghost flickered, unstable.
Run, the dragon commanded. You are not ready.
“No.” Lyria shook her head, stepping forward even as Rael reached for her. “I won’t run.”
The beast roared.
Her sigil flared, burning like wildfire.
“LYRIA!” Rael shouted, grabbing her wrist. “This is suicide!”
“Then stay behind me.”
She raised her hands.
Lightning coiled around her fingers.
Fire swelled in her lungs.
Pyrrhion’s voice whispered through her bloodstream.
Control the ember… or let it control you.
The beast lunged.
Lyria stepped into the charge eyes blazing, power erupting through her veins with terrifying intensity.
And the cavern exploded in light.