Page 60 of Secrets of Ruin

After a few more minutes, Ryker and Brokk succeeded in disabling the trap, and Cole moved forward. They crept deeper into the bowels of the place she’d never wanted to see again.

When they made it to the dungeons, she threw her shoulders back and braced herself to enter the hell they’d fled. You’re not a prisoner anymore. They don’t have any control over you.

Ahead of her, Brokk and Ryker also tensed, but their steps didn’t slow as they walked through the doorway. Kaylia refused to let her step falter as she entered behind them.

The reek of fear, blood, and waste permeated the air. It engulfed her in a cloud of misery that threatened to sweep her back into nightmares.

Brokk dreamt of this place too. She’d sometimes wake to find him twitching in his sleep, and while she knew memories of the war he’d waged for the Lord and against him haunted his dreams, he’d told her it was the dungeon he dreamed of most.

In his nightmares, he lost her and spent much of the time calling into the darkness for her. Unable to break free of the bars, he remained trapped while screaming her name.

She understood that nightmare as it was one she often had too. When sleep finally came, she’d find herself back in the darkness, searching for him but unable to break free of the bars before the ophidians returned.

Then, she’d hear him scream, something she never heard when they tortured him in this place. Those screams would reverberate all around her as they came out of the darkness.

She’d often wake, unable to catch her breath and drenched in sweat. Sometimes, Brokk would also be awake and pull her into his arms while whispering reassurances.

Other times, he was trapped in his nightmare, and she would wrap herself around him in the hopes of easing his suffering. Sometimes, it worked; other times, he remained trapped until he woke.

The nightmares where she lost him in this place were far worse than the ones where she was back on the rack or standing helplessly by while the ophidians beat him. At least then, even if it was horrible to relive those moments, she knew where he was.

She felt Sahira’s gaze on her but didn’t look at her friend as Cole set the torch down, shifted back into a man, and rose to survey the dungeon. His clothes all tore off when he transformed into the wolf, and now his ciphers were on display as he reclaimed the torch to walk with Orin and Varo to the end of the dungeon.

Brokk and Ryker didn’t hesitate to enter the dungeon again but didn’t follow Cole as other army members did. Kaylia, Tucker, and Leland didn’t move either; they all knew this was an endless pit of desolation.

She couldn’t bring herself to look at her cell. Being here was bad enough; she couldn’t see inside that cage again. The torchlight didn’t reveal much of the cells from where she stood, but she knew every inch of those small confines.

When Cole returned, he didn’t speak as he rested his hand on Brokk’s shoulder and squeezed it. Brokk nodded to him, and Cole handed him the torch before, with a cracking of ligament and bone, he transformed into a wolf again.

Brokk gave the torch back to him when he finished. A hush hung heavily as they exited the dungeon to explore more of the deadly pyramid.

CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE

They spent the next hour exploring the rest of the pyramid, dismantling traps, and creeping through the too-narrow corridors before making their way into a cavernous space in the middle of the structure. The tables created a circle around the center of the vast room.

Brokk didn’t know what they used this room for, if it was a place for the ophidians to dine or a gathering spot, but nothing sat in the center of that circle. He saw no signs of plates or food here either.

The ophidians’ stench filled the air, and shed snakeskins clung to the backs of the chairs, the corners of the table, and streaked the stone floor. Brokk’s lips twitched toward a sneer before he suppressed it.

No one spoke while Cole carefully patrolled around the outside of the room and the tables. When he moved toward the center of the space, they crept up toward the tables.

Brokk tipped his head back to take in the point the walls around him formed. They were at the top of the pyramid; the eye was above them, looking over the land and probably aware they were beneath it.

Brokk searched for a place where the sun might enter but found none. Without the torches, darkness would encompass this place.

This cool, damp spot was where the ophidians could slither to avoid the jungle’s heat. What they did here, he didn’t know, but he doubted it was anything good.

Along the way, they’d discovered three other traps but no sign of the monsters they hunted. He’d realized this place wasn’t the ophidians’ home; it was where they kept the unfortunate souls they tortured and a gathering place for whatever foul deeds they planned to commit.

When Cole finished inspecting the room, he lowered the torch and transformed into a man. As he rose, he claimed the torch again before striding toward them.

“There’s nothing here,” he stated.

“Then let’s get out of this shithole,” Orin said, “and hunt these fuckers down.”

Brokk was more than happy to do exactly that as the army retreated from the room and filed back down the stairs toward the entry. The walls brushed against his arms and shoulders while he descended; he kept waiting for them to close in on him, squishing them all between the rocks.

He’d planned to return to Kaylia’s side, but she fell into line ahead of him; a few lycans, Sahira, Del, and Ryker, separated them. His skin itched with his compulsion to return to her, and he resisted his impulse to shove the others aside.