The mountain was tearing itself apart from the inside.
Dust, coarse and thick enough to choke on, rushed through the narrow subterranean pass like smoke from a furnace.
Massive slabs of jagged ceiling crashed around them, shattering into jagged fragments and fine powder that blinded the eye and burned the lungs.
Valerius led the sprint, his heavy boots crushing fallen rock, his broad sword drawn in his right hand to deflect the smaller fragments plummeting from above.
Behind him, Sye moved with precise, fluid steps, his other hand clamped tightly around Raven's collar.
He practically lifted her off her feet each time a section of the tunnel floor buckled, vaulting her forward over opening fissures.
Despite all the hellish, near inhuman training the great Houses put their scions through and the umbralis coursing through her veins, Raven felt truly helpless.
