Heartless Villains (Ruthless Villains Book 3)

This tunnel was brighter than any of the other spaces we had passed. Tilting my head up, I studied the mass of crystals in the ceiling.

They were packed so tightly together that I could barely even see the dark rock between them. Their sheer numbers illuminated the path so much that it felt like I was walking outside in broad daylight rather than deep inside a mountain. I wasn’t sure if that was a good sign or a bad one.

I walked along it while keeping an eye out for traps and giant insects until I had reached one hundred strides. Nothing crawled out to attack me, but the terrain looked like it changed up ahead. Standing in the middle of the brightly lit tunnel, I drummed my fingers against my thigh while considering.

Audrey had very presumptuously declared that we would turn back after a hundred steps, but I had technically never agreed to it. And besides, I wasn’t one for following orders.

With a smirk on my face, I continued forwards.

I had been right before. The terrain did change a short distance ahead. Stopping briefly at the bottom, I stared up at what almost looked like a massive staircase.

A series of flat blocks of stone had been positioned like steps. Each one reached roughly up to my waist, but there were only five of them in total so it wouldn’t be too hard to get to the top. The only problem was of course that I had no idea what waited above them.

Realization shot through me. What if this was it? What if the Enhancer was actually waiting up there? Then I could just grab it right now, and we could get the hell out of here before something else happened that put Audrey’s life in danger. Or mine, for that matter.

Bracing my palms on the stone in front of me, I climbed up on it before moving over to the next one. While I made my way up, my thoughts drifted back to the dangers we had faced up until now.

I had to admit that Audrey was certainly capable of handling things on her own. During our war these past five years, I hadn’t really understood just how skilled Audrey actually was. But watching her up close during these missions together had made me realize how dangerous she really was, and how she had managed to survive this long. That massive poison cloud she had used against the insects alone was impressive as hell.

With effort, I pushed the thoughts of Audrey aside as I reached the final stone. Skulking up to it, I peered over the edge.

Surprise blew through me.

There was another cavern up there. It was much smaller than the one we had just left, but as opposed to everything else in here, this one wasn’t empty. A mass of trees grew all over the cramped space. The thin gray trunks were twisted and gnarly, but all of them bloomed with red and golden flowers that glittered in the bright light from the crystals above.

I already had a bad feeling about this.

Staying there on the step below, I scanned the entire area. Or as much of it as I could see. Based on where the ceiling sloped downwards, it wasn’t far to the other side, but there were so many trees in the way that I couldn’t make out anything over there.

But nothing moved. And if the Enhancer was in there, I should be able to see it by just going a few steps in. It would just be a quick in and out.

After climbing up the final step, I snuck between the trees until I reached the middle of the small space. Turning in a slow circle, I studied it.

Only gray tree trunks and glittering flowers stared back at me.

I swept my gaze over the cavern a few more times to make sure that I hadn’t missed anything. Once I was certain that there was no Enhancer in there, and no other doorway either, I shrugged and started back towards the stone steps. It had been worth a shot.

A faint whistling noise came from behind me.

Panic crackled through my veins as I whirled around to find a section of the wall falling straight towards me. I was already calling up a force wall, but it wouldn’t make it in time so I also dove sideways while I threw it.

It hit the side of the flat block of stone and managed to tip it in the air. Dull pain pulsed through my shoulder as I landed on the hard ground and rolled away while the block slammed into the floor only a few strides from me.

Dust and wood splinters and crushed flowers shot up on impact and whirled through the air around me.

My heart pounded in my chest as I leaped to my feet and called up another force wall while whipping my head from side to side. But nothing else flew towards me. I dragged my gaze back to the block of stone while drawing in a deep breath to steady my thrumming pulse. It immediately made me cough from all the dust that the stone had stirred up. I stared at it for a few seconds.

The only reason that it hadn’t hit me was because I had managed to tip it so that it landed on its narrow side instead. If I hadn’t thrown that force wall, I would be crushed underneath it right now.

Embarrassment surged up inside me. Fuck. That would have been such a shitty way to die.

After shaking my head at the absurdity of it, I darted over to the steps and hurried back down to the tunnel. As I jogged back towards the cavern where we would sleep tonight, I could almost hear Henry’s voice in my head telling me how much of an idiot I was for having gone inside such a suspicious-looking place on my own. And he would beat me up thoroughly during our next sparring session if he ever found out that I had almost died in such an embarrassing way. Which was why I would never tell him. Or Audrey, for that matter.

A smile blew across my lips as I drew closer to the large cavern. I wondered how Henry was holding up with only Paige and Lance for company. Lance was insufferable on the best of days, and Henry had even less patience than I had. Though, unfortunately, we still needed the Binder, so I hoped that Henry had managed to refrain from snapping his neck. Paige was another matter.

I still wasn’t entirely sure what I thought about her. She was… strange. There was no other way to describe her. She laughed easily and, even though she had lived her whole life inside the walls of Eldar, she didn’t seem at all fazed by the cruel and violent things that Audrey and I did. Well, apart from the fact that she threw up almost every time I cut someone in half. That was a bit annoying. But she never seemed horrified by us. She always just shrugged and took it in stride with a sort of easy casualness that I had almost never encountered before. She also threw Henry off his game, and even made him smile from time to time. And that was an accomplishment on its own.

Another huff of amusement escaped my lips while I slowed down and walked the final distance to the cavern. I couldn’t wait to see how flustered she had managed to make Henry by the time we returned.

Striding back into the cavern, I got ready for a fight with Audrey about me not following her ridiculous orders. But as I made it out onto the vast stone floor, I trailed to a halt while dread raked its icy fingers down my spine.

Audrey wasn’t there.

With my detour up to those odd trees adding some time to my investigation, she should already have been standing here waiting for me. Even though I had jogged back, I should have arrived later than her. So why wasn’t she here?

My heart started up a furious beat in my chest as I hurried over to the doorway she had gone through. The crystals in that one weren’t nearly as bright as they had been in my tunnel, so I could only see a short distance ahead. And all that stared back at me was dark stone.

I took off into the tunnel.

What if something had happened to her?

Hell damn it, we shouldn’t have split up. We should have stayed together and searched the tunnels one at a time instead. I had wanted to tell her that when she suggested it, but she had been in such a weird mood that I had just gone along with her plan instead of arguing. Shit. I should have listened to my instincts.

Terror washed over me.

What if there was a similar cavern at the end of her tunnel? She didn’t have force magic, or anything that could push things away, so what if she was now lying broken and bleeding underneath a block of stone?

I picked up the pace.

Damn. Hell fucking damn it all. We should have stayed together.

A figure suddenly became visible up ahead.

Intense relief washed over me as my gaze found Audrey’s gorgeous face. She scrunched up her dark brows as she looked back at me.

“Where have you been?” I demanded before she could say anything.

“In here,” she sniped back while striding towards me. “Where else would I have been?”

“You should have been back in that cavern by now.”

She just shrugged and tried to breeze past me.

My hand shot out. Grabbing her by the throat, I slammed her up against the wall and locked hard eyes on her. “Answer the damn question. Why were you late?”

“Aww.” Tilting her chin up, she flashed me a mocking smirk. “Were you worried about me?”

Yes, I was, you vicious little poisoner. But I couldn’t tell her that, so instead I ground out, “We agreed on a hundred steps.”

The fact that I hadn’t stuck to that either was entirely beside the point.

“Yes, but my steps are shorter than yours, so I decided to take a few more.” She shot a pointed look at the hand I was using to pin her to the wall. “Now, are you going to take that hand off my throat willingly or would you like me to make you?”

“As if you could,” I scoffed, but I did release her and let my arm drop back down.

She rolled her shoulders back and then started towards the cavern without another word. I took two long steps to catch up before we walked back together.

“Mine was a dead end,” I said eventually.

“I see. Any other issues?”

“Nope,” I lied. There really was no point in telling her that I had almost gotten crushed by a falling block of stone. “You?”

“It leads to three more doorways.”

“So it has to be one of those.”

“Yeah.”

“We’ll check them out after we’ve gotten a few hours of sleep then. But we’ll do it together.”

Glancing up at me, she raised a dark brow. “Why?”

Since I couldn’t very well tell her the real reason, I shot her a sharp smile while meeting her gaze and said, “Because I don’t trust you. If yours leads to the Enhancer, you might just grab it and get out alone.”

“Huh.” A matching grin spread across her own lips. “So there is a brain somewhere inside that thick head of yours after all.”

“Careful now.”

She let out a huff of amusement and shot me a pointed look. “Careful is for the weak, darling.”

I was about to retort when I noticed the mischievous glint to her eyes. Shaking my head, I just blew out a short laugh instead and said, “We’re still searching the other tunnels together.”

“Yes, we are.” She flashed me a villainous smile. “Because I don’t trust you either.”

“Smart move, sweetheart. Smart move.”

We walked the rest of the way back in silence. Since we couldn’t bring our tents with us, we would just be sleeping on the ground with our packs for pillows.

I would have to do it with one eye open, though.

Or she might actually decide to poison me in my sleep.