Chapter 21: The Stone Garden
The tunnel descended sharply. It felt less like a path and more like a throat swallowing us whole.
The air grew thick and heavy. It tasted of copper and old dust. The temperature dropped until I could see my breath puffing out in white clouds.
Kael walked in front of me. He held the flashlight steady but the beam seemed to die a few feet ahead of us. The darkness here was not just an absence of light. It was a physical presence.
"Do you smell that?" Kael whispered.
I inhaled. Underneath the damp earth smell there was something else. Acrid. Sour. Like vinegar mixed with rotting meat.
"Venom," I said. "It is close."
We stepped into a wider chamber. Kael swept the light across the room.
The beam landed on a figure standing in the corner.
It was a man in a
