Brute 282

Chapter 282 

Atasha’s POV 

73 

55 youchers 

Voices cut through the dark before my eyes even opened, sharp enough that my body reacted first. My fingers twitched against stone, my shoulders tensing as if I was about to roll and grab a weapon I did not have in my hand. 

“You should shut your trap.” 

Cassian’s voice was low, 

A second voice answered, rougher with strain. “Do not speak to me like that.” 

“I will speak to you however I want when you keep repeating the same mistake,” Cassian said, and there was movement close by, the scrape of boots shifting in cramped space. “We are in this situation because we chose to go in. We chose to keep walking deeper. We chose to ignore how wrong it felt. That was not Atasha’s choice, and it was not Nicho’s choice either.” 

Silence held for a beat, thick enough that I could track the crackle of fire somewhere nearby. 

Then the King spoke again, quieter. “I could not stop blaming myself.” 

Cassian let out a sound that was not a laugh. “You never can. You can hold a blade steady but you cannot hold your mouth. You have always been careless.” 

Slowly, I opened my eyes. 

The first thing I saw was stone close to my face, a low ceiling that forced anyone taller than me to hunch. The second thing I saw was Cassian’s profile in the firelight, his jaw tight, his eyes hard as he faced the King. He looked… furious. 

Cassian’s gaze snapped to me the moment my eyes fully focused. 

He moved immediately, stepping into my space and crouching, one hand bracing my shoulder. “Easy,” he said, and he pulled me upright before I could push myself up too fast and tip over again. 

My head swam once, then steadied. 

I took in the pocket cave around us in quick pieces. It was small and uneven, stone walls closing tight, the floor scraped clear in the center. 

The entrance was blocked by stacked rocks and larger stones wedged into place like a barricade, leaving only a narrow gap near the bottom where air and faint light slipped through. 

A fire burned low in a shallow pit, its heat trapped against the walls, and beside it lay strips of cooked meat and a bundle of supplies that looked like they had been pulled from someone’s pack. 

I turned my head slightly, searching. 

10:23 Mon, Feb 9 

Chapter 282 

55 vouchers! 

The King sat opposite the fire, shoulders squared even in the cramped space. His armor was scuffed and dusted with dried blood, but he was upright. His sword lay within reach. 

“What happened?” I asked, and my own voice sounded rougher than I expected. 

Cassian’s hand stayed firm at my back. “You lost consciousness,” he said. 

My memory snapped in fragments. Nicho’s body rising again. The headless movement. The pressure in my chest. The figure behind it. 

My posture tightened, and my gaze locked on the King. 

Cassian caught the shift instantly. “I checked him,” he said before I could speak. His eyes flicked to his brother, then back to me. “He is alive.” 

I held the King’s gaze for a moment longer, then nodded once. “Your Majesty,” I said, voice controlled. “I apologize. I have to be cautious in this place.” 

The King’s expression did not change much. He gave a small nod that accepted it without argument, then lifted a piece of meat and extended it slightly in my direction. “Eat,” he said. “These are supplies I had on me. You will not stand properly if you keep running on nothing.” 

I accepted the meat without wasting time pretending I was not hungry. The first bite grounded me more than I wanted to admit, salt and smoke and rough texture, something real in a place that kept turning the dead into 

weapons. 

As I chewed, my eyes moved again, scanning the blocked entrance, the gap, the shadows beyond. My fingers flexed as if they were looking for my sword. 

Then my attention snapped back to what mattered. 

“Nicho,” I said, and the word came out flat. “Did either of you see his body after… after it moved again?” 

Cassian’s expression tightened, the anger from earlier shifting into something harder to read. He did not answer immediately. His gaze slid toward the small gap in the stones as if he could still see the clearing through solid rock, then returned to me. 

“The last time I saw it,” he said, voice low. “It did not stay down.” 

The King’s jaw clenched. His eyes dropped briefly to the fire, then lifted again as if he was forcing himself to look at the problem directly. “It’s gone. I took care of it.” 

I nodded. I wanted to say something that might comfort the King but ended up saying nothing. Nicho is the King’s friend, Him taking care of it meant… 

A sigh left my lips. 

Cassian’s hand pressed against my back, steadying me. For a moment, silence wrapped around us like a 

blanket. 

“The undead…” The King started. “I have never seen one but I have read about them when I was younger.” 

10:23 Mon, Feb 0 

Chapter 282 

“Were they created by witches?” I asked. 

Cassian answered before the King could. 

“They are not created by witches.” 

0 vouchers 

The words cut through the space between us, and they pulled my attention back to him immediately. 

My fingers tightened slightly around the strip of meat. “That is not what the books say” 

“That is what people say,” Cassian replied. “Because it is easier to blame witches than to accept what actually made them.” 

I turned fully toward him. Firelight caught the edge of his face, sharpening the line of his cheek, the tension under his eyes. “Then what do you mean?” 

The King shifted where he sat, the movement slow. “Most of what is written about undead comes from fragmented records,” he said. “Legends copied and re–copied until the source blurred. They are not considered reliable.” 

Cassian did not look at him. “Legends do not exist without a reason,” he said. “There is no smoke if there is no fire.” 

The words landed heavier than the space could comfortably hold. 

I watched him closely now. 

“When the North still catalogued everything instead of burying it,” Cassian continued. “There were records that never made it into public libraries. They were sealed, hidden under classifications that only commanders and researchers could access.” 

My pulse ticked faster. “About what?” 

Cassian’s eyes lifted to mine. “About the Shadows.” 

My breath caught, my grip finally loosened enough that the meat rested forgotten in my hand. “You mean… the Shadows created them?” 

The King’s expression tightened, but he did not interrupt. 

Cassian leaned back slightly against the stone wall, one knee drawn up. “The Shadows wanted to drain supernaturals completely. They wanted to strip power, not kill. They believed it could be refined, reused, and transferred.” 

My stomach twisted. 

“They failed,” Cassian went on. “Every attempt to siphon power from a living supernatural ended in collapse. Bodies could not hold it. What they wanted burned through its host too fast.” 

I stared at him, the pieces beginning to align in ways I did not like. 

10:23 Mon, Feb 9 

Chapter 282 

“So they adjusted,” he said. “They stopped working with the living 

The fire crackled softly. 

55 vouchers 

“They took those who had already died,” Cassian continued. “Bodies that no longer fought back. Bodies that could be reinforced, stitched, bound, and emptied without resistance. They stripped what little remained and replaced it with something weaker, something obedient.” 

My chest felt tight. 

“They created lesser versions of supernaturals,” he said. “Imitations that could move, track, endure damage, and follow commands without collapsing. They called them successful failures.” 

Undead, 

The word settled into place without being spoken. 

“They could not replicate true power,” Cassian finished. “But they could create something that refused to stop,” 

The King finally spoke. “Those records were never meant to leave the vaults.” 

Cassian met his gaze. “Yet here we are.” 

I swallowed and forced my attention back to the present, to the stone around us, the blocked entrance, the narrow gap where air slid through. “If that is true,” I said. “Then are you telling me that a Shadow… might be inside this cave?” 

田