Chapter 187 PIPER

Warrick’s voice hung in the air, filled with emotion I never knew he possessed… redemption.

I looked up at him, the darkness casting his face into shadow, but his voice was absolutely sincere. For a moment, the calculated man I knew seemed to melt away into something, someone completely… different. But there was no time for reflection.

“Alright,” I said finally in that low, even tone, “let’s see if you’re a man of your word.” The slightest smirk teased at the edge of his lips, but he said absolutely nothing.

We were deep in the forest now, trees wrapping us round like we were in some sort of living cage. The air chilled, and a heavy atmosphere wrapped its noose around my chest. Every step felt heavier; each shadow was alive, pulsing, watching, and waiting. I could feel the realm of the Nameless pulling us in, testing our resolve as we were entering his territory.

Warrick continued on his path, sure of his destination. He said nothing, and I did not press him.

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My mind was still with Aurora. Was she alive? Or had my journey brought me full circle to relieve a broken past?

A low growl from the darkness froze me in my tracks. Warrick raised a hand, his tense form demanding silence.

“What was that?” I whispered, my grip tight on the hilt of my dagger.

“Dark creatures,” he muttered. “They’re everywhere here. Stick with me.”

I really didn’t like taking orders from him, but I didn’t argue either. Warrick might have been a slimy opportunist, but one thing he’d heard right – I had no idea what I was dealing with.

We walked scared, slipping between twisted trees, avoiding open paths. Even the forest seemed to pulse with some weird energy, darker with every step taken.

“Do you at all know where we’re headed?” I said in a low tone of voice.

Warrick half-turned back to me, like it was nothing. “I’ve been here before,” he said. “There is a way into the Nameless’s fortress, if you go in on the candid side. It’s not as guarded, but it’s not exactly easy, either.”

“And you’re just now telling me this?”

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“Would you have believed me if I told you earlier?”

I swallowed my words and kept my attention on what had to be done. Then, from nowhere, or so it seemed, the faintest of sounds of rushing water somewhere and Warrick was gesturing for me to follow him in that direction.

We came to a small stream, black, really – black – inky and looking very much like oil where it shined on its way with apparent round, wandering loops through the trees. Warrick dropped to one knee where it was at its verge, brushing leaves away to show a hidden path of stepping stones laid across it. “This way,” he said, picking his way with caution.

I followed, my heart pounding at every precarious step. The stream was harmless enough, but impossible to shake was the thought that in its depths something lay and watched and waited.

When at last we gained the far side, Warrick straightened and pointed ahead to a clump of jagged boulders. “The entrance is just beyond there."

The air clung to us like paste as we drew closer to it – heavy, weighed down by the weight of oppression in the Nameless’s domain. I was breathing weirdly now, my hold tight on the dagger.

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“You can feel it, can’t you?” Warrick said low.

I nodded. “It’s like the air is alive."

“Thick with fear,” he supplied. “It’s his way of keeping intruders at bay.”

We squeezed between the huge boulders into a small, narrow tunnel chiseled in the side of the cliff. The walls glimmered with a dark substance; the atmosphere was heavy, thick. “Keep quiet,” Warrick whispered.

We made our way deeper into the tunnel, having to be careful, as the only real sound was that of our footsteps amidst the constant steady drip of water from the ceiling. A sense of keen awareness had hold of me, and my body was telling me we were walking into trouble.

And then I saw it, and I yanked Warrick to a stop.

“What is it?” he whispered.

I nodded ahead, where a dark shape against the wall bulked at some distance from us.

“They’re close,” I whispered.

Warrick nodded, his hand resting on the hilt of his blade. “We’ll have to move fast. Follow me.”

We sprang into a cautious run, twisting and turning through the

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tunnel as if the darkness themselves were coming to life around us. The faint growls of the shadow creatures grew louder, echoing through the space like a chorus of nightmares.

Eventually, we made our way into a larger chamber and the dim light of the runes cast a little glow over the room. In the middle of it all was a cell.

“Aurora,” I breathed, as my heart hit my chest with her in sight.

She was leaning with her back against the wall, sparkling chains binding her wrists. As soon as she heard my voice, she looked up and her eyes went round in surprise.

“Piper?” she rasped.

I began to run towards her, but Warrick grasped my arm to pull me back.

“Just wait,” he said harshly. “It’s very possibly an ambush of some sort.”

I forced my arm out of his and turned up the steps, a bubble rising in my chest. “I don’t care.”

But before I could take another step, a figure emerged from the shadows, his face twisted in anger.

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It was Holden.

“Who are you?” he snarled, fixing his gaze back and forth between me and Warrick. “Which side are you on?”

I gripped my dagger firmly, trying to come up with an answer.

“We’re here to help Aurora,” I said firmly, while my voice didn’t carry one shred of the fear actually tearing through my chest.

Holden’s laugh came sharp and cold. “Help her? You mean defy the Nameless? You’re even more foolish than I thought."

Warrick stepped forward, hands up in a weird gesture. “Holden, listen. We aren’t here to cause problems. We are just trying…”

“Save it,” he snarled, cutting him off. He turned to me in an instant; his eyes blazed with malice. “You think you can just walk up into his space and take what’s his? That’s an assumption that’s gonna cost you."

He lifted his hand, and the darkness closing in on us surged forward.

I moved myself for the attack, but suddenly something unexpected happened. Warrick stepped in front of me and, in an instant, was a different man.

“Holden,” he said, though his tone didn’t yield. “You know me. You know I wouldn’t be here unless it was important.”

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There was hesitation from Holden, reflected in his narrowed gaze. “What’s that supposed to mean?"

Warrick turned to me, and something in his eyes ran a shiver down my spine.

“I’m saying I’m not here for her,” he said, coldly.

My heart fell. “Warrick, what is going on?”

He didn’t answer; he turned back to Holden, where he stood, cool and unshakeable.

“I am here in service to the Nameless,” he said.

Holden’s face twisted in a sadistic smile.

“Now that’s more like it.”

I shot a glare at Warrick, the sting of betrayal coiled in my chest.

“You… you lied to me.”

He cast a careless glance my way.

“It’s nothing personal, Piper. Just business.”

The closing darkness didn’t leave me any choice.

“No, Warrick!”