Brute 284

Chapter 284 

Chapter 284 

Atasha’s POV 

I had so many questions. Things I wanted to drag out of the King about the Shadows, about what they truly wanted, about why the cave reacted to me like it recognized my blood 

The words stayed trapped behind my teeth when Cassian shifted closer and checked the narrow gap between the stones again, watching the darkness beyond like it was something that could blink. 

“We move,” Cassian said. 

The King did not argue. He reached down, crushed the fire with a sweep of dirt and stone, and the remaining glow died quickly. 

The pocket cave cooled immediately, the air turning thin and stale again. Cassian pulled the barricade apart just enough for us to slip through, then shoved the rocks back into place behind us so the opening looked like it had never existed. 

We did not return to hiding. 

The three of us moved through the tunnel in a tight line, Cassian in front, the King behind him, and me between them. My hand stayed near my short sword even though I knew it would not matter against the wrong thing. 

The pull returned as soon as we reached the chamber again. 

It was not a whisper this time. It hit my chest like a hand closing around my heart and dragging. My breath caught, my boots shifted without permission, angling left before I corrected myself and forced my body back into Cassian’s path. 

Cassian glanced over his shoulder. His eyes narrowed like he could see the change in my posture even if he could not feel what I felt. 

“We are already here,” the King said, voice rough as he stepped around a rock outcropping and looked down toward the cliff. “There is no point pretending the cave will let us rest.” 

Cassian made a sound of agreement and led us forward. 

When the cliff came into view again, the spring below looked the same from above, but the ground around it looked wrong in a new way. The stone had been disturbed, not by beasts this time, but by someone who had worked fast and with purpose. 

We climbed down. 

The smell hit first. It was a smell of a damp, mineral stink of freshly turned earth mixed with the faint tang of whatever the undead had been held together with. I stepped down the last drop and saw it clearly when the light shifted across the ground. 

Mounds. 

Small, uneven piles of stone and dirt, scattered around the spring like someone had buried pieces quickly and then tried to make the place look ordinary again. One pile near the edge had thread–like marks in the soil, as if something had been dragged there while still trying to crawl. 

My gaze moved to the King. 

He did not meet my eyes. He crouched beside one mound and pressed his palm down hard, compacting the dirt again, then stood as if that finished whatever needed to be done. 

1/4 

0.10 pm 

Chapter 284 

“You buried it,” I said, keeping my voice low. 

“It did not stop when it was cut apart,” the King replied. His tone stayed flat, but his hand remained near his sword, “Sol separated what I could and put it where it would take longer to find itself again.” 

Cassian’s jaw tightened. He scanned the chamber, eyes flicking to the walls, to the ceiling, to the dark gaps between rocks where the insects did not cling. 

The pull tightened again. 

I forced my breathing even and shifted my weight to stop my feet from drifting toward the darker corridor without me. 

Cassian noticed anyway. 

He took my wrist for a brief second, then slid his hand down and laced his fingers through mine like he was anchoring me to him. The contact steadied my balance more than it should have, but the pressure inside my chest did not ease. 

Then we started moving. 

The beasts were still present, but not in the numbers I had seen before. Smaller ones skittered near the edges of the spring, and one larger creature lifted its head from behind a rock and hissed when we approached. It did not get another chance. 

Cassian crossed the distance in two strides and drove his blade down, cutting through the base of its neck. 

The King followed immediately, striking another beast that lunged from the side, ending it before it even reached Cassian’s shoulder. Their movements were practiced, fast, and clean. The bodies hit stone and did not get back up. 

Soon enough, we left the spring behind. 

The corridor that had been calling me waited at the far end of the chamber, darker than the rest, the insects thinning until the walls looked wet and bare. 

As soon as we stepped into it, the pull surged again. My chest tightened, and my vision narrowed slightly at the edges as if the cave was trying to make everything else less important. 

Cassian kept my hand in his. 

The King walked close enough behind that I could feel his presence like a blade at my back. 

After a long stretch of walking, Cassian spoke without turning his head. “Do you feel anything strange?” 

The King answered first. “No.” 

Cassian’s gaze flicked to me. 

I swallowed and kept my steps steady. “Yes.” 

Cassian did not ask what it felt like. He just tightened his grip. 

We walked until the corridor opened into a smaller clearing. 

It was not as large as the chamber with the spring, but it was wide enough that the ceiling rose higher, and the air moved differently, warmer and heavier. 

Two pathways split ahead, one to the right, one to the left. The left side looked narrower, its entrance jagged, like it had been forced open rather than naturally carved. 

2/4 

5.16 pm PMM 

Chapter 284 

My body turned toward it before I finished thinking. 

I lifted my hand and pointed. “Left” 

Cassian’s eyes followed my gesture. He did not hesitate. He shifted his stance and led us into that path without questioning why The King followed, silent, his sword angled downward but ready. 

We had been walking for only a few minutes when the ground started shaking. 

The tremor was sudden enough that dust fell from the ceiling in a soft rain, and the stone beneath my boots vibrated like something massive had rolled over the cave from above. Cassian stopped sharply, head tilting as he listened beyond the sound of collapse. 

“That should not be happening yet,” the King muttered, his voice hard as he braced a hand against the wall. 

Cassian did not answer. His head lifted slightly, nostrils flaring once. 

Then he grabbed me. 

His arm hooked around my waist, pulled me tight against his chest, and he started running. 

It was deeper. 

We were not running back toward the spring. We were running forward, into a stretch of tunnel that narrowed and dipped, the shaking turning the stone into a shifting threat beneath our feet. Rocks cracked overhead. Something hit the ground behind us with a heavy crash that made the air jump. 

Cassian’s pace did not slow. 

He had heard something. 

His senses were sharper, and he was moving like he was chasing an opening before it closed. 

The tremor lasted too long, the cave groaning as if it was being forced to rearrange itself again. But this did not stop him. Cassian vaulted over a broken ridge in the floor, landed hard, and kept going until the tunnel spilled into another clearing. 

Then, Cassian stopped so abruptly I nearly slammed into his chest even though he was holding me. 

I turned and then… my mouth opened. 

Cassian’s hand covered it instantly, palm sealing over my lips as he dragged me down behind a rock formation and forced my body to still. 

I froze as I stared at what was before me. 

Rio was hanging from the ceiling. 

He was upside down, suspended by thick strands that looked like spider thread but stronger, tighter, wrapped around his ankles and torso in a twisted harness that held his weight. 

His shirt was torn. Blood ran in slow lines down his arms and dripped toward his hair, but the strands caught even that, sticking to him like the cave itself wanted to keep him in place. 

One side of his face was swollen, and his hands trembled weakly as if he had tried to cut himself free and failed. 

The King’s breath shifted behind me. I forced myself to look up. 

3/4 

5:16 pm 

P M M 

Chapter 284 

The ceiling was layered with webs. 

Not one nest. Not one cluster. 

55 vouchers 

The entire stone above us was thick with overlapping sheets of webbing, stretched across cracks and ridges, packed so densely it looked like a second ceiling. Shapes moved inside it, small at first, then larger as my eyes focused, bodies crawling in waves through the threads. 

Spiders. 

Too many of them.