Chapter 154 Bound by blood
Chapter 154 Bound by blood
KAI'S POV
The fall knocks the air out of me.
I hit stone hard. White flashes behind my eyes. Pain shoots up my side. Above us the hole caves in. Dirt and roots and broken stone rain down. Damien lands a few feet away, cursing. The only light is a sickly glow on the walls. Old serum, maybe. Everything looks wrong in it....
"You alive?" I growl.
"Unfortunately." He pushes up, wincing. "You?"
"Good enough."
The tunnel slopes down, narrow. Black metal spikes stick out of the walls and floor. Some are broken. Some look sharp enough to take a leg off. It smells like wet stone, rust, and something dead a long time ago.
No choice now. Move or die here.
The first trap almost gets Damien's knee. A plate shifts under his boot. A spike swings out of the wall, fast, with a hard metal thunk. I grab his jacket and yank him back. We slam into the wall behind us. The spike buries in the dirt where his leg was a second ago.
He looks at it. "Thanks."
"Don't mention it."
We keep going. We don't like each other but that doesn't matter down here. He sees a trigger plate before I do and shoves me out of the way. I do the same when the floor starts to give under him. Every close call wears down some of the anger between us.
After the fourth trap, Damien talks without looking at me.
"I know what I am to her."
I don't say anything.
"I'm not stupid." His voice goes quiet. "She's yours. The bond. The way she looks at you. I saw it the first time, after the fortress. I won't lie, it hurts. But I respect it. If it comes to it, I'll die so you keep breathing for her. That's the oath I made. I meant it."
The words hang there in the tunnel.
I look at him. No challenge on his face. Just acceptance. Maybe resignation too.
"I still don't like you," I say.
A rough sound comes out of him, almost a laugh. "Feeling's mutual."
We go deeper.
The tunnel opens into a bigger room. The glow is stronger here. Against the far wall, half buried in stone and old chains, are skeletons. More than one. Elite guard armor. Elias's crest still on a rusted shoulder plate. One skeleton still holds a broken blade. Another has a silver collar locked around its neck bones.
My stomach turns.
"They died here." My voice comes out flat. "My mother's betrayal. It didn't happen at the fortress. It happened right here."
Damien crouches by one of the bodies. He studies the armor without touching it. "Elias's personal unit. They were either guarding her or hunting her. Either way, they never made it out."
The proof sits in my chest like cold lead. Everything the elders told me keeps falling apart.
A low growl rolls through the room.
We both freeze.
Something big moves in the shadows at the back. Stone and old bone scrape as it stands up. It's a Lycan. But wrong. Too big. Its spine ridged with bone that shouldn't be there. Fur patchy, matted. Its eyes burn bright purple. Serum flame.
It smells us.
The Lycan opens its jaws and comes at us.