“We got him!” Chris cries triumphantly as the Beast Lord’s body becomes part of the same smoke that’s funneling into Psi’s amulet.

“That’s it, right?” I demand. “He’s safe now?”

“Assuming we can get him out of here. His code is no longer stored in the skull, but if the amulet gets destroyed, he’s still gone,” Psi answers, looking further down the tunnel. The hellhound’s death shriek is too close for comfort, so I know we’re on borrowed time before the other treasure seekers get to us. It won’t take them long to realize that the skull is a dud.

“Let’s move,” Chris says, turning to Whiskey. “Call up your shadow cloak.”

Whiskey just stares at him for a second, before shifting his gaze to the amulet. I can hear the others closing in on all sides. There’s no way in hell we’re getting out of here without that cloak, but something in our guide’s demeanor has me on edge.

“You heard the man,” Psi says, frowning. “Let’s go already.”

“We will,” says Whiskey, holding out a huge, callused hand. “Give me the amulet first.”

Psi frowns, clutching the still-glowing stone to her chest. “Why?”

I trust her even less than I trust Whiskey, but the suspicion in her tone seems genuine, and it’s a point in her favor. Something is definitely wrong, and we don’t have the time to sort it out.

“We’re not leaving until you give me that amulet, kid.”

There’s something in his voice that flips a switch in the back of my head. I know what it’s like to think you know someone only to have them betray you in the worst possible way. It’s a feeling I never wanted to live through twice, but I’d recognize it anywhere.

“Then we’re not leaving at all,” I growl, charging at him to block his path to Psi and the amulet. My blade clashes with his, and I’m physically no match for the giant, but he’s weak to magic, so I push every ounce of the Morrigan’s Wrath I have left into the blade and he staggers back.

The shock is enough to give me time to catch my breath, but it pushes me back as well. I collide with Psi, pushing her up against the wall hard enough that she drops the skull, which turns out not to be the lifeless artifact we all thought.

The lingering black energy trapped inside the skull is released as soon as it shatters, and while Whiskey is getting back to his feet, the energy hovers in the air for a moment before locking on its new target:

Me.

I gasp as the black smoke pours down my throat and up my nostrils, choking out all the breath in my lungs. My lungs expand to the point where they feel like they’re going to explode, and I collapse once again as Psi and Whiskey go toe to toe. This time, she’s prepared with her mace in her hands, and Chris doesn’t seem to know who to trust, but he stands at her side.

I try to get up, but the energy is tearing through me from the inside, rewiring my DNA. It feels like it’s going to tear me apart, and when I see the smoke rising from the bare skin on my arms, I realize that’s more than just a hallucination.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” Psi seethes. For the moment, they’re too distracted by the betrayal to notice what’s happening to me. Not that I have a damn clue what it is myself. I just know the energy from the skull is poisoning me somehow, and I feel the change from within like a coming storm.

“Me?” Whiskey laughs. “We took this gig because that chick paid us ten-K. You realize we could get ten times that for the amulet, right?”

My stomach churns with rage, and even though I should only be feeling terror right now, it’s like this power vying for control is feeding off my anger.

“That wasn’t the deal,” Psi says through gritted teeth. “We complete the mission. Those are the rules.”

“Rules,” Whiskey scoffs. “Your rules. I’m in it for the kicks and the cash, and I thought we were on the same page. Are you with me or not?”

Psi hesitates for a moment, and I know we’re screwed. There’s no way she’s going to turn down the chance to strand us here and make a killing in the real world. To her, it’s just a game. She made that clear.

“I’m not,” she says firmly, raising her weapon. “Get the hell out of here while you still can, asshole. We’re done.”

Whiskey’s face falls, and even though his features are dramatically different as a giant, there’s just enough left of that smug expression he wears in the real world to make me feel like an idiot for ever trusting him.

“Then you leave me no choice,” he says flatly, raising his sword. Her mace’s weight swings around the blade, constricting it to give her a better grip as she snaps the weapon out of his hands. Chris lets out a cry as he attacks with his own blade, but the giant hits him out of the air in one strike.

“Chris!” My voice doesn’t sound like it’s coming from me. It’s a guttural sound that draws the attention of everyone else in the cove. The footfalls of the other treasure hunters are coming closer, and somehow, I can feel them. I can feel everything in the Catacombs, from the bones in the hollows within the walls to the rumbling earth deep below.

All at once, the rage boils over and the threat of being torn apart becomes all too real. The power that breaks through my flesh and turns my form to dust takes on a physical shape that replaces my own without displacing my consciousness, even if my human thoughts take a back seat to the beast.

I’m no longer a five-foot-nine elf, but rather a bipedal beast whose head brushes the low ceiling of the cavern. Dread sets in as soon as the shock does. If I’ve somehow taken on the power of the Beast Lord, what does that mean for Lucas?

Before I’m able to answer that question, my body seems to move with a will of its own, barreling after Whiskey on all fours. The look on his face would probably be satisfying, if I was in the right frame of mind, but all I can think about is the insatiable thirst for blood and hunger for flesh that seems to have replaced every thought in my head.

Psi and Chris scream as they dodge out of the way, and while I don’t want to believe I’d hurt them—well, not Chris at any rate —I don’t trust myself to find out once I’ve reached my intended target. My fangs close down on Whiskey’s shoulder and he lets out a pained, guttural cry before he throws me off. He manages to get to his blade, but before he can get back on his feet, four others fill the tunnel, three of them elves and one a giant-orc paladin who looks like he crawled out of the bowels of hell itself.

Even in my wildest dreams, I’d never try to take on a maxed-out beast like that, but I lunge for him instinctively and the bloodlust is too intense to hold back. To my amazement, his body crumples beneath me and I tear out his throat with such ease that it sends a thrill of exhilaration all throughout my foreign vessel, and fuels the rage that’s overtaken everything.

I’m barely aware of Whiskey running like the rat he is, scurrying through the anterior tunnels to escape a battle he knows he can’t win. I can’t see him, focused on the challengers ahead of me, but I can sense the tension of Psi’s feet on the cave floor, as if she’s torn between where to run.

She finally settles on fending off the incursion and takes a swing at the elf to my right just as he’s gearing up for an arcane power attack. The second elf’s blue electricity meets me an instant later and I roar as the energy surges through me, causing intense pain that makes it even more impossible to think rationally.

Not being in control of a vehicle I have no idea how to pilot proves to be an advantage, because my wild flailing sends the nearest elf into the cave wall and his body disappears in a puff of smoke from the unintentional surprise attack. The half-orc snarls and plunges his blade into my side. A deep burn spreads throughout me as I feel the holy silver cut into an organ, but my body heals fast enough that it’s starting to close around the metal itself.

With a roar of rage, I tear the weapon out and slice off the monster’s head. Now there are only the two elves left, and it doesn’t take them long to retreat. The shrieks from further down the tunnel tell me the hellhounds have rendered further pursuit unnecessary.

Of course, there are plenty more where that came from. Twenty-three, if the strange extrasensory perception that gives me a mind’s eye view of the entire subterranean labyrinth is any indication. I feel every stone, every cove, every guarding beast as if they’re all a part of me, and this newfound power is as exhilarating as it is overwhelming.

I realize Chris and Psi are both staring at me, their weapons poised and ready, as if they’re not sure if they’re next on the menu. I’m not sure either, at first, but while the monster in my head is still hungry for blood, I’m in control of it enough to redirect its need to more appropriate targets.

“Maizey?” Chris croaks, forgetting my code name. Not that it matters much now. We’ve definitely attracted attention to ourselves, and I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before Kade Endry realizes the skull has been destroyed.

Psi looks down at the bone dust and frowns. “We have to get them both out of here.

“How?” Chris cries, looking down the tunnel the next wave is approaching from. “There’s gotta be at least a dozen enemies on the way, and they all think she’s what they have to kill.”

“Thirty,” I correct him in a growl that seems about half-telepathic, half-actual speech.

Psi and Chris both jump, but she recovers from the shock quickly enough. “This way,” she orders, rushing down the same tunnel Whiskey fled through.

I follow her with Chris close behind, even though he seems about as afraid of me as he is of the horde. I follow Psi down another tunnel to a dead end and start to wonder if she’s had second thoughts about betraying us when she turns to face me.

“You control the Catacombs,” she says firmly, like that isn’t the most ridiculous thing in the world. Control the Catacombs? How exactly does she figure that? “Open another portal, like the gnomes did.”

“Gnomes?” I snarl. The word is barely intelligible in my inhuman voice. I can’t even fully control this body and she expects me to open up a new exit in a dungeon I’ve never even been to before.

“Just do it,” she orders impatiently as the mob draws nearer.

I hesitate, staring at the wall. It looks pretty dang solid from where I’m standing, but I reluctantly approach and touch the stone. Nothing happens, like I figured.

“Try imagining a door,” Chris says hopefully.

Psi and I both glare at him, but as stupid as the suggestion seems, my mind follows it subconsciously. Sure enough, the stone groans and shifts, crumbling away to form a domed exit before us.

I can’t believe my luck, but there’s not much time to dwell on it. I push Chris through the new exit and I’m more than a bit surprised and relieved when I’m able to pass the threshold myself. Part of me was afraid that in taking on the Beast Lord’s power, I’d end up stuck as the Catacombs’ new guard, but I guess that wouldn’t be much of a grand prize.

All I can do is hope that I don’t have this power because Lucas is really gone. I look back and realize Psi is lagging behind, and it won’t be long before the others realize their quarry is now free to roam Al’Goryth, so I snatch her into my arms and keep running.

“Hey!” she hisses indignantly as I sling her over my shoulder.

“Get over it, princess,” I growl. If she thinks I’m carrying her in my arms all the way to safety, she’s wrong. For the moment, she’s wearing something around her neck that’s too important to risk, and she did stick with us when she could have easily betrayed us for a tidy profit. As much as it irks me, we’re stuck with each other for the time being, and it’s up to me to make sure everyone gets out of this alive.