Page 56 of The Hyena’s Guardian
“You thought I’d reject you.”
“Yes.”
The answer came instantly this time.
Matt felt something painful twist low in his chest. “How long have you been alone down here, Theron?”
Theron let out a slow breath. “Before Valker opened the outer seals, it was different,” he said. “The prison still answered. The corruption slept for years at a time. I could hold it back.”
His voice roughened.
“Now it never sleeps.”
Matt looked at him. “So you’ve been fighting it alone this entire time.”
Theron didn’t answer.
He didn’t have to.
Another dark vein spread from the shard toward Theron’s throat.
Matt reached toward it more carefully this time. “Whatever happens when the King wakes, leaving this inside you is making it worse. I need to remove it.”
Theron’s eyes sharpened. “Dangerous.”
“So is becoming a feral cave cryptid.”
Theron was quiet for a moment. “If the shard is removed too quickly, the corruption will fight.”
Matt checked the knife in his medical kit before meeting his gaze steadily. “Good thing I’m very stubborn.”
For several seconds Theron simply watched him. Then, “Matt.”
The way he said the name felt different this time. Softer. Careful in a way that made the connection pulse warmly in Matt’s chest again.
“If this fails,” Theron said, “you leave without me.”
Matt shook his head. “Absolutely not.”
“You do not understand.”
“No,” Matt interrupted softly. “I understand perfectly.”
The chamber fell quiet around them after that except for the distant groaning of the mountain. Then Matt reached for the shard. And this time, Theron let him.
The shard did not want to come out.
The moment he pressed the blade carefully beneath the exposed edge, the black stone reacted violently beneath Theron’s skin. Dark veins flared outward across his shoulder and neck while a deep growl tore from Theron’s chest hard enough to vibrate through the chamber walls.
Matt froze instinctively. “Okay,” he said carefully, “that feels medically significant.”
Theron’s claws slammed against the stone floor hard enough to crack it.
“Do not stop,” he ground out.
The words barely sounded human anymore.
Matt’s pulse spiked hard enough that he felt it in his throat, but he forced himself to stay focused. The chamber around them had gone unnervingly quiet except for Theron’s uneven breathing and the persistent groaning of the mountain somewhere far below.
