"Did you hear that?"
Rivo stopped, glancing back at the others, his expression worried.
Pearl, usually such a stalwart and level-headed presence now, looked frightened. She thought she had seen it all. But it wasn't true. There were many horrors yet to be seen in her lifetime, and she feared she would have the misfortune of witnessing them all.
Whatever had caused that sound -- that deep, uncanny snarl, a low groan as if the world itself were being ripped in two -- was not something of this world. Of that she was certain.
The ground shook. The air seemed to shimmer. A heavy, oppressive feeling like heat pressed down around them, the magical energies as unbearably tactile as a magnetic field.
Bula pressed in close to the others, shivering.
They did not see the tear that began to form in the fabric of the world. But they knew, on a deep level, that it was happening -- and that, in some twisted way, Pascale had been right about everything.
Somewhere, out of sight but agonizingly close, reality tore open.
And an ancient and terrible beast stepped out.