Varia must’ve stopped, because my feet come to a grinding halt.

“Your Highness,” a celeon voice says. “We were unaware you were coming so soon. Yorl is on the observation level, taking measurements of the beast. I can call him if—”

“There will be no need just yet,” Varia interrupts her smoothly. “At ease. I will inform you when I need you.”

Another clanking shuffle echoes from all directions, like all the celeon are doing something at once. Bowing?

“As you wish, Your Highness.”

There’s more clanking as footsteps pad past me, away from me. I feel a sudden grasp on my wrist as Varia’s voice hovers just above my shoulder, a singsong tone to it.

“You haven’t answered my question, Zera. What could possibly have driven the humans and witches to work together to form Old Vetris all those years ago?”

My brain thunders in my skull, mirrored by that heavy, sonorous rhythm lathing the darkness. This is no contraption. It’s too big. It sounds too…alive. The celeon mentioned a “beast.” Varia’s question, a beast in the dark. But there’s no possible way—

Varia’s voice seems faint, far away, as she barks to someone, “Open the gates.”

“Begging your pardon, Your Highness—but are you sure?” another celeon voice asks nervously. “It just woke up, and it’s very hungry.”

“Do as I say,” Varia bites. “Open the gate.”

The screech of metal as something heavy starts to lift makes me jump out of my own skin. Every hair on my arm stands straight up, my entire body covered in gooseflesh. Something huge shakes the ground suddenly, vibrating my very bones, and if I wasn’t immortal, this would be the point where I would’ve most definitely pissed myself. The smell hits me all at once—a wave of putrid death, like rotting blood, carried on a moist sheaf of air. The sound of scales raking across stone.

I understand suddenly, too late and in one horrible swoop—the rhythmic sound is breathing, and it’s so loud it’s like a waterfall’s roar in my ears. No, it’s not possible by any reach of the imagination. But a tiny, terrified voice rings in my mind: if Gavik kept one in the pipe below the East River Tower for years…