The riverbank buckled again.
Zoya stumbled backward, gripping Manraj with both arms as the cracked earth pulsed like something breathing underneath it.
The tunnel mouth behind them glowed with shifting light— silver
then white
then black
then all three at once—
like the world couldn't decide which force owned this moment.
Manraj groaned softly.
Not awake. Not aware.
His head lolled against her shoulder, the glow across his chest flickering like a dying lantern.
Zoya held him tighter.
"Stay with me… please stay with me…"
Below them—
A roar split the night sky.
Not the guardian.
Azhar.
But this roar wasn't human—it tore through the tunnel like a storm of teeth and broken stars. A surge of shadow exploded up the shaft, nearly swallowing the moonlight.
Zoya flinched back.
"Azhar—!"
No answer.
Only the sound of stones grinding, bones cracking, something enormous slamming against rock.
The river's surface rippled. Birds scattered into the sky. Dogs barked in distant alleyways.
The city was waking to something ancient.
Zoya pressed a hand against the riverbank edge, forcing herself to peer down toward the broken tunnel.
She saw nothing but darkness.
And within that darkness… movement.
Not the guardian's weight. Not the vault's collapse.
Something thinner. Faster. Desperate.
Azhar's shadows—hundreds of them—ripped upward, clawing at the walls as if searching for a way out.
But they were being dragged back.
Zoya's breath hitched.
"No—no no no—"
A blast of white light tore through the shadows. The guardian's six burning eyes flashed in the darkness like lanterns floating on black water.
Zoya staggered backward again, nearly falling.
It was climbing.
Faster now.
Azhar's roar echoed through the earth—
"GO—ZOYA—GO!"
Zoya's legs almost buckled.
She clutched Manraj tighter.
"But I can't just— I can't leave you—!"
Another roar cut her off. Azhar's again.
This one sounded like pain.
And then—
Silence.
Zoya froze.
Her heart stopped.
"…Azhar…?"
Manraj twitched in her arms, his fingers curling weakly into her sleeve.
He whispered—barely air:
"Zoya… don't… look back…"
For once… she obeyed.
She pulled him farther from the collapsing riverbank, stumbling across the rocks and reeds. The night wind cut through her hair, cold and sharp, but she didn't stop.
Because if she stopped, she knew she'd run back into the dark.
And that would kill them both.
Behind them—
The earth heaved upward.
The guardian's arm burst through the riverbank like a spear of living stone, grabbing onto the surface with impossible force.
The entire bank lurched downward as if the world had shifted under their feet.
Zoya screamed, stumbling forward again.
"Manraj—wake up—I need you—please—!"
Manraj's eyelids fluttered. A white-silver glow flickered beneath them.
But he didn't wake.
A second stone arm ripped through the riverbank. Then a third.
The guardian was pulling itself into the world above.
Zoya choked on a breath.
"Why won't it STOP?!"
A whisper slid through the night.
Not the guardian. Not Azhar.
Manraj.
"…Because I ran…" he breathed. "…and it remembers…"
His head sank back onto her shoulder.
The guardian's massive torso rose up from the hole, bone-mask glowing with cracks, six white eyes blazing.
It spotted them instantly.
Its voice rolled over the river like thunder:
"ERYTH.
RETURN TO THE ROOT."
Zoya felt something cold coil in her stomach.
Because this time…
it wasn't speaking just to Manraj.
It was speaking to everything inside him.
And the ground beneath her feet cracked again.
Azhar was still nowhere.
No shadows rose from the hole. No voice followed. No sign he was still fighting.
Zoya swallowed hard.
"Hold on, Manraj."
She pulled him into the reeds and toward the old stone embankment path, dragging his weight with trembling arms.
"Hold on… and Azhar… please…"
She didn't finish the sentence.
Because she couldn't say the words out loud—
Azhar, plea
se be alive.
Behind her—
The guardian's roar split the river in two.
The Hunt was coming.
And this time, it wasn't underground.
It was in their world.
And Zoya was alone.