"You're completely insane, Adam!"

  Kael tightened his grip.

  His fingers burned.

  Dangling over the void, Adam managed a strained smile.

  "Not my fault the floor was a damn trap."

  His muscles taut, he clung to the edge as best he could.

  Below them, roughly four meters down, sharpened spikes gleamed beneath the flickering torches fixed to the cavern walls.

  A circle of metal teeth — cold, still, waiting to swallow whatever fell.

  Around the spikes, the stone was etched with grooves and scars.

  Clear signs the trap had fired before.

  Some patches of ground even seemed to tremble faintly, as if the air itself held its breath, just waiting for them to slip.

  Above, five or six meters up:

  the platform they had fallen from.

  No way back.

  Kael clenched his jaw.

  His arms trembled beneath Adam’s weight.

  "You could at least say thank you…" he muttered, trying to hide the shake in his voice.

  "I thought you liked playing the hero?" Adam shot back.

  A smirk — thin, brittle.

  Sweat trickled down his forehead, giving away the fear he was trying to mask.

  Kael didn’t answer.

  He tried bracing his feet against the slick rock.

  Nothing.

  Only air.

  His gaze swept the cavern.

  No ledge.

  No exit.

  He focused, desperately searching for a grip—

  But then his foot slipped on the wet stone.

  His body lurched.

  Balance vanished.

  His heart clenched as Adam, startled, tried to steady himself.

  Too late.

  A strangled cry tore from Adam’s throat as he dropped slightly, fingers peeling away from the wall.

  Kael, in a desperate reflex, gripped the rock tighter to avoid being dragged down with him.

  Pain exploded through his palms—

  but he held on.

  Suspended in the merciless dark.

  His grip faltered.

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  Adam, in last-second panic, grabbed at the only thing he could reach — Kael’s leg.

  His fingers grazed skin before digging into the fabric of Kael’s pants, ripping a cry from him.

  Adam now hung from Kael by cloth alone, clinging with raw, terrified strength.

  Their eyes met.

  Panic surged through Kael — sharp, electric.

  He straightened, pulling with everything he had, heart hammering.

  "Hold on, Adam!" he gasped.

  "Don’t move too much."

  His voice had changed.

  Lower.

  Harder.

  "If we fall, it’s over."

  Adam nodded weakly.

  Silence thickened around them.

  Heavy.

  Tense.

  Only their ragged breaths echoed —

  desperate reminders of how close everything was to ending.

  And the endless scraping of stone beneath their fingers, biting deeper with every shift.

  Kael closed his eyes a moment.

  Jaw clenched.

  Body stretched like a bowstring.

  Each breath was torment.

  Each movement — agony.

  Then the pain hit him full force.

  First the palms.

  Then the fingers.

  The stone — sharp as broken glass — shredded his skin.

  He felt nails bending, splintering.

  Flesh tearing under the weight of two lives.

  A bead of blood escaped his palm.

  Then another.

  And another.

  They pattered on the stone — violent, red punctuation marks.

  Blood streamed down his arms, soaking through his torn tunic, dripping, drop after drop, onto Adam’s face.

  The heat of it — both cold and burning — mingled with sweat.

  His body screamed to let go.

  But he didn’t.

  He refused.

  A new wave of pain surged up his arm.

  A shard of rock buried itself under a fingernail.

  Flesh tore silently.

  His muscles spasmed.

  His fingers, mangled and trembling, clung to the edge — somehow still holding.

  The blood now flowed in rivulets.

  Down his arms.

  Onto his clothes.

  Onto the stone.

  Onto Adam.

  Each drop a silent vow:

  He wouldn’t let go.

  Not now.

  Not after everything.

  "Shit… Kael, you’re bleeding!" Adam gasped, eyes widening.

  His words barely reached Kael, drowned beneath the roar of agony.

  Kael felt his grip weakening —

  but refused to let fear take root.

  The abyss clawed at them.

  But he focused on the only thing he still controlled:

  his fingers.

  Every drop of blood burned.

  He clenched his teeth.

  Re-tightened his grip.

  Veins bulged under his skin, ready to burst.

  Hot, salty blood slid down his arms, leaving fiery trails behind.

  His gaze stayed locked on the void below.

  He didn’t dare imagine falling.

  He knew he couldn’t hold out forever.

  But he held anyway.

  Refused to fall.

  Refused to let go.

  The thought of his sister —

  alone if he failed —

  became the anchor that kept him sane.

  That image.

  That fear.

  That love.

  It kept him breathing.

  The physical pain was hellish —

  but compared to losing her?

  It was nothing.

  Then—

  Something pulsed in his skull.

  A dull throb, like a wave echoing through the cavern.

  His eyes stung.

  Heat bloomed in his chest.

  The timing — the rhythm — felt synchronized.

  As if something, somewhere, aligned at that very moment.

  Then it hit him.

  The pulsating pain.

  The heat.

  The blood droplets hitting stone…

  All in sync.

  And suddenly — though the cave remained dark — something emerged.

  Not through sight.

  Through something else.

  With each drop of blood striking the rock, Kael saw a pulse ripple outward.

  Like sonar.

  Radiating in every direction.

  He froze.

  Disoriented.

  Overwhelmed.

  Pain.

  Pressure.

  Fear for Adam.

  Fear for Lyana.

  And now… this?

  His senses clashed and tangled, trying to cling to any single reality.

  Then — something moved at the edge of that new awareness.

  A shadow?

  A shape?

  He didn’t know.

  But one thing was certain:

  If he didn’t act — right now—

  He wouldn’t survive.