Chapter 19 - Chapter Eighteen

I listened to my heart pounding in my ears, allowing it to calm me. Everything had gone silent and both Dallas and Hailey had disappeared. 𝘞𝘢𝘴 𝘐 𝘢𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘦? 𝘋𝘪𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘮𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘥? I let out a shaky breath, my chest tightening painfully as my hand gripped tightly around the blade of my sword. The sting cut through my haze, the warm blood dripping down my arm.

It didn't matter if they left me because either way, I had to get out of here. Was that another monster? The wounds on the druid didn't look like they could have been caused by a human and the brief glimpse I'd gotten of whatever attack us didn't look completely solid. It had to be some type of monster.

I gazed down at the cut in my hand, taking a deep breath.

A dark laugh echoed around the room, followed by light, barely audible footsteps. They sounded slow—almost lazy. "You might wanna get that checked..." a voice sung. The voice tickled the corners of my mind. It sounded so familiar.

My eyes widened. 𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘩𝘦 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘐 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘥? 𝘞𝘢𝘪𝘵, 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘢 𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘢𝘯? I shook my head. 𝘕𝘰, 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘪𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘬 𝘥𝘪𝘥𝘯'𝘵 𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘯 𝘪𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘢𝘯. I thought about the Keres. It'd seemed human in every aspect up until the very end. This had to be some type of monster.

𝘊'𝘮𝘰𝘯, 𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘵 𝘧𝘶𝘤𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥, 𝘪𝘧 𝘪𝘵 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶, 𝘺𝘰𝘶'𝘳𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘥. 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘰𝘧 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨. 𝘠𝘰𝘶'𝘳𝘦 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘒𝘪𝘯𝘨'𝘴 𝘎𝘶𝘢𝘳𝘥, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘱 𝘰𝘧 𝘴𝘰𝘭𝘥𝘪𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘥𝘰𝘮.

I dug a hand in my hair, pulling at the strands. I couldn't do anything with a sword. I'd barely learned the basics. There was no way I could do 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 with a sword. My eyes studied the weapon, imagining a trigger. If only this thing came with bullets and a trigger.

I squeezed my eyes shut, my chest tightening enough to cut off my breathing. That's it. I was going to die. I was suffocating.

Cold metal weighed my palms, heavier than it'd been seconds ago. I opened my eyes and started. The somehow familiar sight lessened the tension in my chest. My fingers brushed the metal, dipping in the crevices of the weapon. Slowly, I raised the weapon. It was already loaded.

𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘢 𝘨𝘶𝘯 𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘥 𝘶𝘱 𝘪𝘯 𝘮𝘺 𝘢𝘳𝘮𝘴? I searched the ground around me. 𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘮𝘺 𝘴𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘥 𝘨𝘰𝘯𝘦? My hands tingled as I allowed a warm haze to overcome me. I wiped my forehead, pulling my hood back into place as I raised into a crouch.

My eyes easily found their way down the sights as I lifted the gun, my blood marking the metal. I took a deep breath as I found my target.

Standing beside the druid's body was a person—or what looked like a human. My eyes narrowed. He was facing away, covered in a black cloak, and wore black gloves and boots to obscure any physical information about him. Everything about him seemed human, save for his weapons.

I allowed my sights to move down, studying the thick black chains he held that dragged across the floor. That must have been what he'd attacked us with in the first place because I was right, it didn't look solid. It looked made of mist—or shadow—but the sharp edges and the arrow-like edge were enough for me to know they did as much damage as anything solid could do. I was confused about the wounds on the druid's body but those chains explained them.

Slowly, I brought my sights back up to his head. His? When had I started referring to him like that? It sounded like a male but were monsters even referred to that way? I took a deep breath, placing my finger on the trigger. 𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘧 𝘩𝘦'𝘴 𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘢𝘯? 𝘞𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘱𝘶𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘨𝘦𝘳? I closed my eyes, hesitating.

I was curious about his intentions. It'd be better if I could capture him somehow—question him—but he was dangerous, there was no way. I glanced at his leg. If I could incapacitate him then maybe...

No, who knows what he could do even if he couldn't walk. I didn't know anything about monsters so this was the only call. He probably wouldn't talk anyway. I squeezed the trigger, the sharp gunshot ricocheting off the walls and echoing back to me.

I stood up, my finger releasing the trigger and lowering my gun just a hair. I sucked in a sharp breath. 𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘥𝘪𝘥 𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘰?

My fingers twitched, the hairs on the back of my neck rising. I slid to the ground, lying on my back, the chains rattling and flying across my vision. I squeezed the trigger as soon as he came into view but he was too quick, disappearing once again.

𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘧𝘢𝘴𝘵? 𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨?

I backed against the table, hugging the gun against my chest. With just a glance, the only thing I could tell was that it was an M16. Judging by how many rounds I'd shot already, the magazine was a basic one, holding thirty cartridges, I'd assume. That didn't leave me much ammo to just play around with since I had no means to reload. I guess I could just check the magazine itself but that'd leave me vulnerable at that moment and he could be watching—waiting for a chance. I took a deep breath and looked down at the drops of blood I'd left on the ground.

If I didn't get a shot on this guy soon, I'd be dead. I brushed off my hood and stood up completely. That meant I'd have to show myself, make him think I was panicking—getting sloppy. I scoffed, maybe I was.

"Get back!"

I was shoved to the ground, a golden glow igniting, followed by the sound of those chains striking something solid. I looked up, eyes wide.

Dallas was standing in front of me, one hand grasping his rapier, his other arm raised. About a foot away from his arm was a golden shield. It glimmered and flickered as the black chains struck them but it held true. 𝘏𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘣𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘺.

"Dallas?" I gasped.

He laughed. "What, did you think, I'd just leave you?" he asked as he lowered his shield. The enemy gracefully landed on a table, his feet placed perfectly so as not to knock anything over. That precision sent a chill through my entire body. He was in battle but took the time and focus not to knock anything over? A monster, no doubt.

Dallas gave a defensive stance but the enemy slowly lowered his chains, straightening from his cat-like crouch. His chains disappeared and he raised a hand. I jerked my gun up and he froze. Dallas glanced back at me, his eyes filled with confusion but could only spare a moment, returning his gaze back to the enemy.

"Oh, put the weapons down, I put mine away," he said and brushed off his hood, pulling down his bandana in the process. My eyes widened, dropping my gun. As soon as the gun left my hands, it morphed back into a shortsword but I didn't pay much attention to it as I met our attacker's amber eyes.

Dallas allowed his shield to disappear, letting his sword fall to his side.

"Keo!?" I asked, standing.

"Oh, hey, Ryker," he said, giving me a smile and a wave. "Glad to see you made it."

"How—what—"

"You two know each other?" Dallas asked.

"Cedric dropped me off at the real world when he went to get him," Keo said, pointing at me. "I returned about a week ago."

"Wait, you two know each other?" I asked. Keo laughed, stepping off the table and landing gracefully on the ground. His movements were so controlled. His bi-colored hair was tied back in a half bun, showing off black studs all along his ears. He wasn't wearing a cloak but, instead, a coat short-sleeved coat that buttoned at the top, leaving the rest open. Underneath, he wore lightly padded black pants and a long-sleeved shirt, along with knee-high boots that had about an inch thick sole. I wondered how he managed to stay so silent in them.

"I live at the castle," he said then scratched his chin, tilting his head and looking at the ground. "Well, in a house 𝘣𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦 the castle."

"He's basically the King's brother, they were raised together ever since the King was fifteen," Dallas said, sheathing his sword.

"I had a feeling you'd accept earlier than the others," Keo said. He pulled back his coat, stuffing his hands in his pockets. My eyes caught a glimmer of gold and were immediately drawn to it. He wore a pin just below his left collarbone. Was that...

"Is that a phoenix pin!?" I blurted. Dallas laughed, snapping his mouth shut almost immediately after and Keo gave me a raised eyebrow, a small smile curving his lips. I took a step back, rubbing the back of my neck. "I—I mean—you don't have to answer that. It was stupid. I'm sorry—"

"No, no," he said, laughing. "I'm guessing you've already heard then, huh?" He took a hand out of his pocket and unclipped the pin, holding it out in front of him, a soft look in his eyes. "Well, yeah, it's a phoenix pin, and it came from where you think it did, too." He looked up at me. "My name's Keo Corderoy, fourth son of the Cordery family of assassins. And this is our sigil." He tossed me the pin.

It was heavier than expected and tingled as it touched my fingers. It depicted a bird with its fiery wings spread, a blaze of fire running down its chest and back.

Dallas grabbed it from me. "Let me see," he said.

"You've seen it before," Keo said.

"Yeah, but it's still cool," he said, passing it back to him.

"Anyway, I'm not a member of that family anymore," Keo said, replacing the pin on his chest. "I was disowned awhile ago."

"Oh, I—I didn't know—I'm sorry," I said, ducking my head. I could feel both their gazes on me.

"I don't really care, it was so long ago. I'm glad I was," Keo assured.

Dallas cleared his throat, throwing an arm over my shoulder. "What was that thing with the gun? Where'd you get it?" he asked.

"I was wondering the same thing," Keo said, jumping back up on the table. He crouched, resting on his haunches and folding his arms on his knees, resting his chin on them. "I thought stuff like that was banned."

My eyes widened. Well, I knew they'd reverted back to the old ways but I didn't know stuff like that was 𝘣𝘢𝘯𝘯𝘦𝘥. I guess that's another reason why everything modern was kept inside the castle—because they were breaking their own rules.

"C'mon, dude, where'd you get the gun? I know you weren't carrying that around all this time," Dallas said, ruffling my hair.

I took a shaky breath. "Well, I—I don't—I don't actually know." I looked down at the sword. "It was a sword and then it was a gun, and now it's back to being a sword."

"Well, how did—"

"Did you go through the magic-injecting process already?" Keo asked, switching to rest his head on his hand. "It could be your ability manifesting."

Dallas shook his head as I let mine fall. "No, that's impossible," Dallas said.

Keo hummed questioningly but as we stayed silent, he sighed, letting his legs fall and swing over the table's edge. "Well, impossible or not, that was something only magic could have done."

"Look, let's just drop it, we have to get back up to Hailey," Dallas said, squeezing my shoulder as he began to walk back to the entrance. Keo glanced at me, narrowing his eyes, but I quickly looked away, following Dallas.

"Wait, did you say Hailey?" he asked.

"Yeah. What about it?" Dallas answered without looking back.

"You brought the Queen here? Do you know how much trouble you could get in?" Keo asked but he didn't sound accusatory, just genuinely curious. His tone was completely level.

"She followed us out of the castle, basically forced us to bring her along," Dallas said.

Keo laughed. "Well, I guess it's not really my problem."

"Speaking of your problem," Dallas said. "What are you doing here? And did you kill that druid?"

As we passed through the illusion, I was momentarily blinded by the sun. I hadn't realized how dark it'd actually been down there.

"Oh, you guys are alright!" Hailey said, running over and pulling us into a hug. Dallas stiffened, his face going red as he looked away. I smirked.

"Yeah, we're fine," I said.

She pulled away and opened her mouth to say something but then broke off when she looked behind us. Her lip curled in annoyance. "Keo!? What are you doing here?" she asked, glaring.

He smiled at her, waving. "Good to see you, too!" he said happily.

She crossed her arms, raising her chin and I suppressed the urge to take a step away from her. "Were you the one who attacked us!? You brat, I ought to have you—"

"Don't speak to me like I'm a child, I'm older than you," he said, walking up to her. My eyes widened.

"You're like a whole three inches shorter than her," I said and then bit my lip, turning away as my chest tightened. "I didn't mean to say that. I wasn't trying to be rude, it's just something that I noticed."

"Short or not, I had several chances to kill you back there," Keo said, jerking a thumb back to the entrance. "Speaking of, you should bandage that hand of yours."

I looked down at my wound, nodding.

"Hey, so are you going to answer my questions?" Dallas asked as Keo began to walk to the horses.

"No."

Dallas scoffed and Hailey put her hands on her hips, glaring.

"You can't just—"

"But I will answer Ryker's. He's the only one with a lick o' brains around here," he said. I cowered under both Hailey and Dallas's intense stares. Hailey's was more of a jealous glare, Dallas was just pressuring me to ask the questions.

"What do you mean by that?" I asked and Dallas threw his hands in the air, walking to his horse.

Keo laughed, reaching in his pocket and feeding my horse some type of seeds. "Well, you reacted pretty quickly back there. That first strike was meant to kill you. Luckily, it didn't, but the fact that you dodged it is amazing." He turned to me. "I'm not sure if it's because of your physical abilities or just that you're senses are that good. But even after, just before you shot at me, I couldn't sense you one bit. The only reason I knew you were in that area was because of your wound. You masked your presence with ease. Plus, not only that, but you were thinking the entire time, I could tell. You reacted not only based on where I was but based on where my chains would be. You did all that in the span of about two minutes. That's pretty incredible."

My eyes widened. I hadn't realized I'd done all that but I guess he was right. I knew his weapons were long-range in the beginning but once I found out they were chains, his second attack was almost predictable. If only I'd taken into account his speed...even then, I don't think I would have been able to beat him, much less restrain him. I snickered.

"Well, I couldn't beat you," I said. He shrugged.

"Yeah, well, don't put the bar that high. You'll only get yourself down," he said.

I shook my head. "Anyway, were you the one who killed the druid?" Keo turned back to my horse, running his hand along its cheek.

"No," he said.

"What?"

"He killed himself."

"Why were you there?"

"For information."

"About what?"

"The same information you went there for." He turned around, leaning his head against the horse's neck.

"How did you know what information we went there for?"

"I just connected the dots. With that rumor going around, Cedric probably put Tairen in a position where he had to send out someone to gain information since he wouldn't make the effort himself. Turns out, I was following the same lead you guys were," he said. His smile seemed a little too forced. 𝘞𝘢𝘴 𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨? 𝘞𝘩𝘺 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘭𝘪𝘦?

"Did you get anything from him before he died?" I asked.

"The druid?" Keo asked. I nodded and he pursed his lips, looking up thoughtfully. "Yeah, I got a few things. He was droning on about an uprising and something called '𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘸𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨' but it was so annoying I almost killed him myself."

"An uprising?" Hailey asked worriedly.

"That was something we considered from the start. It's not a surprise but do you know what this '𝘢𝘸𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨' is?" Dallas asked. Keo raised an eyebrow, turning to me. Dallas crossed his arms, turning away with a pout.

"Do you know what '𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘸𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨' is?" I asked.

"Nope," he said. "But I do know it's in the Dead Hills because he said something about the Giants. That's all I got. After that, he tore his own chest open with my chains."

"How'd he manage that?" I asked.

"Well, I was holding him down with them. I threatened him not to move or he'd die. I guess that didn't really scare him," he said. "He was probably under the influence of a spell of some sort. That's why he didn't give much detail."

"What are the Dead Hills? And the Giants?"

"The Giants are just legends," Dallas said, rolling his eyes. "Giant humanoid monstrosities. Nobody's ever seen one. They're just a folk tale, something to keep kids from sneaking out at night." I scrunched my eyebrow. Dallas leaned down. "Or maybe they're not. Maybe you'll wake up in the morning and find one staring down at you. Right before it eats you!"

"Haha," I said sarcastically. "Well, what are the Dead Hills?"

"That's where everyone says the Giants are but whenever anyone goes there, they either come back not having seen a thing or don't come back at all. Every encounter is on opposite ends of the spectrum," Dallas said. "Either way, still no proof of Giants."

"It couldn't hurt to check it out," Keo said.

"I'm not chasing a myth," Dallas said.

"Well, the druid said something about it. Even if it's not the Giants, it could be whatever organization the rumor is talking about," Keo argued.

Dallas went silent, his eyes falling. He was discouraged. "I really don't think there's any point in chasing Giants, especially with no proof to back up their existence," I said. Dallas's face lit up and Keo huffed. "But if we don't check out what the source provided us with, why did we come here in the first place? Best case scenario, we come across the organization and are able to take their location back to Cedric and Tairen, or worst case, there's nothing. There's no way we could lose here so why don't we check just to be safe?"

Keo smiled triumphantly, crossing his arms. Dallas sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"I agree with Ryker. We don't have any other leads. Might as well, right?" Hailey said.

Dallas looked up at me almost sadly. I wondered if he felt like he was targeted. I didn't want him to feel that way but we kind of put him in a corner. Maybe I should have just agreed with him in the first place.

"Fine, we'll go," Dallas said, sighing. I jumped on my horse as Keo whistled. A horse draped in some type of black cloth came bounding out of the trees. I recognized the horse as the appaloosa I'd seen the first time I'd gone to the stables. He tossed his head as Keo jumped on his back, patting its neck. I climbed on my own horse, pulling my hood up.

Dallas rode up to my side. "Hey, why don't you take the lead? We're just gonna head NorthEast and I might take a nap," he said, giving me a smile.

"Oh, okay. If you're sure?"

"Yeah, yeah, go ahead." He fell back into line, starting a hushed conversation with Hailey. Keo took his place beside me, his hood and mask back in place.

All I knew was that I was heading NorthEast. Did that mean Dallas was putting me in charge? No, he was just getting some rest. We'd been on the move for so long, he was bound to be tired. But, then, why did it feel like he'd just given me a heavy burden to carry?