A Man Like None Other (Jared Chance) novel Chapter 6051

"The… Ghost… Clan… is… calling…"

The words scraped out of him, shredded and foreign, as though spoken through broken glass.

"What?" The single word hammered against Jared's ribs.

Luther burst forward, his outline smearing into a black streak that knifed toward the forest’s heart.

The speed dwarfed anything he had ever shown.

"Wait!" Jared shot after him, worry and confusion tangling in his chest.

For roughly an hour they darted through the thickets, one ahead, one behind.

Gradually the gap closed as Luther’s pace faltered.

His legs wobbled.

At last he slumped against the trunk of a colossal tree, and the abyss in his eyes faded back to normal black and white.

"M-Mr. Jared…"

Luther’s voice shook.

"I can feel… our people’s aura… close—so close."

"Are you sure?" Jared caught him before he slipped.

Luther nodded hard, then pointed past the massive trunk.

"There… a passage leading down… many, many clansmen…"

Jared followed the direction.

At the tree’s base yawned a plain, three-foot-wide hole, black as ink, its bottom nowhere in sight.

Without Luther’s warning, Jared doubted he would have noticed the opening at all.

He steadied Luther against the gnarled root, gray torchlight flickering across the wound-spotted face.

"Can you make the descent in your condition?" Jared asked, his voice low and rough, more strain than sound.

Luther drew a shaky breath. "We have to go," he said, every syllable rasping. "Only the clan below can save me." The words fell between them like stones, final and irrevocable.

Teeth bared against the pain, he forced out, "My Ghost Clan source is breaking apart. If I don't reach nether aura within three days, death is certain."

Sweat beaded along his hairline, each drop proof of the clock grinding down.

Jared quit debating. He slipped an arm beneath Luther's knees, another behind the back, and rose.

Gray light unfurled around them, forming a humming shell. With one breath for courage he sprang into the black mouth of the hole.

At first the shaft pinched their shoulders, shale scraping armor. After sinking a few dozen feet, the passage suddenly widened, tilting downward in a natural ramp that drank their footsteps.

Pale moss clung to the walls, each patch pulsing a soft blue-green glow. The faint light slid over wet stone, enough to keep the path and the drop ahead from vanishing into total night.

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