The descent into the absolute dark took hours. Below the pristine marble hallways of the Capitol, beneath the ancient wine cellars, and far deeper than the lowest, forgotten dungeons, the stairs turned from carved stone to rough, jagged earth. The air grew heavy, thick with that smell of ozone and wet soil, like metal left in rain too long. Dante leaned hard on Liam’s shoulder with every step, his breathing rough, almost ragged. I walked ahead of them, actually, holding a high-powered UV flashlight to cut through the oppressive pitch-blackness. Every time Dante stumbled, my heart did that thing, like it cracked, split a little more each time. "We’re almost there," I whispered, flicking my eyes to the glowing blueprint on the datapad I had yanked from the Archives. Then, the entire cavern shook violently, like the world had just hiccuped. A massive, deafening BOOM rolled down from the surface, vibrating through the bedrock and dropping me onto my knees. Dust and loose gravel rain
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