"What the hell was that?" Dante demanded.
A sound rose from deeper within the cave, distant at first, then dragging toward us like something being born. Wet. Cracked. Twisted. It was as if the mountain had a throat, and it had just cleared it. The noise echoed up through the stone and spine alike. I froze mid-step. My breath caught, not out of fear but instinct. Old, ancient instinct. The kind I hadn't felt since my turning. It told me to run. It screamed at me to get out. Dante muttered something in a dead tongue, but Rolan was the one who spoke first. Voice low. Rough. Dead serious.
"It's coming," he said. "The evil in Blood Stone Mountain. It knows we're here. And now it's coming for us. It has awakened and headed right for us."
I looked at him. The Rolan's eyes were glowing fully now. No human left in them. Just beast. And the beast was afraid. "That sound…" I said slowly, scanning the black ahead. "It's not just noise. It's waking something."