Jane stared at the cage, the words dying somewhere between her throat and her lips.
The cavern swallowed sound too easily, its vast hollow stretching above them like the ribcage of something ancient and long dead. And there, set deep within its shadows, stood the cage.
It was far too large.
No harmless creature needed iron bars that thick, nor locks that heavy. The metal itself looked worn, not from age alone, but from strain, as though something inside had tested its limits more than once… and failed.
A cold thread of realization slipped down Jane's spine.
Whatever lived in there was not something meant to be cared for.
It was something meant to be contained.
She swallowed, her throat suddenly dry, as a sheen of cold sweat gathered at the nape of her neck. Slowly, almost instinctively, her head turned toward Victor. Her expression softened into something pleading, even though she knew those unseeing eyes would never truly catch it.
