Chapter 14 · Crush Depth

"Don't you dare close your eyes on me!" Cane slammed his palm against Lyra's cheek, hard enough to sting. "Hey! Look at me! Breathe!"

The rock above them cracked. Loud. Like a gunshot through water. Dust and silt exploded everywhere and the whole trench shuddered.

"Cane!" Lyra choked, her voice thin inside the failing mask. "The ceiling —"

"I see it!" He shoved her against the altar stone as another slab sheared off and crashed two feet to their left. The impact sent a shockwave through his chest. His pressure gauge screamed. Red. Almost empty. "We gotta move! Now!"

She grabbed his arm. Her fingers were freezing. "We can't! The tunnel caved! We're boxed in!"

He looked. She was right. The way back was gone. Just a wall of fallen rock and swirling silt. And the way forward? That narrow fissure they'd been trying to squeeze through was now pulsing.

Because something was coming through it.

A low thrum vibrated through the water. Through his teeth. Through his bones.

"Oh, hell no," he muttered.

Lyra's whole body went rigid. Her eyes went wide and black, the veins around them darkening. "It's here," she whispered. "It smelled the blood.