The tunnel led me deeper into the ground.

  I walked, the sword held out before me, the flickering of the lanterns dancing with the flames that encircled my weapon. The flames hadn't actually made much of a difference against the guards, but they had distracted them. Made them fear me.

  Sometimes all you needed was a little edge over your enemy.

  I followed the tunnel until it came out in a large room similar to that of the basement. This one had four doors, including the one I'd just entered through. Only one of the doors was open. I turned toward it, peering through the open doorway into yet another long tunnel with lanterns hanging from the ceilings.

  This was a curious place. I'd known about The Slumbering Drake's basement, but these tunnels were new, or at least something that had been built well after I'd stopped coming to the inn hundreds of years ago. It seemed Brin had kept them up for the most part, and based off how they seemed to travel under and beyond the city wall—at least based on how far I'd traveled so far—I was willing to wager they were proper smuggling tunnels.

  That sent a bit of a thrill through my chest. I was already setting myself up nicely by taking over the inn. But if it came with these tunnels, too? Well, that would make working with Lilan and the rebels much easier, especially if the city remained on lockdown as it was.

  No discernible danger spotted down the tunnel, I pressed forward, careful to keep the flames on the sword from coming too close to my clothing. This tunnel continued straight and then twisted around an S-like turn. As I rounded the second part of the curve, I finally heard footsteps running ahead of me.

  "You think you can run all day?" I called out, my voice echoing down the tunnel.

  The footsteps stopped for a moment, then a little squeak echoed back down to me. I smiled at the ridiculousness of it all.

  "All you have to do is tell me where Irinda is and I'll let you walk away."

  "Go rot," Brin's voice called back.

  I picked up the pace, pushing myself into a rough jog as the sound of the footfalls ahead picked up once more. It didn't take me long to catch up to Brin, his large body took up most of the tunnel ahead of me, his legs carrying him as fast as they could in an awkward run.

  He glanced over his shoulder and stumbled, almost falling to the ground as panic enveloped his features.

  "Seven hells," he cried out.

  Ahead, moonlight pierced the end of the tunnel. Wherever he was running, it was outside, under the sky. I used [Swift Strike] on my feet and closed the rest of the distance to him, bringing my sword swinging downward toward his ankles.

  The arcing blade sliced through his boots with ease, cutting deep into the skin. He let out a satisfying scream, his body falling forward with a thud as he skidded to a stop against the stone floor.

  I approached him slowly, kicking one of his feet as I climbed over him. Blood leaked from his boots, coating the ground. He cried, in both pain and fear, as I reached down and rolled him over onto his back. He was heavy, even heavier than he looked.

  His eyes moved from me to my sword, tears streaking down his cheeks. "Please, please, please," he begged. "Anything. I'll do anything. Just please don't kill me."

  "Anything?" I asked, leaning down and bringing my still flaming sword close to his face. The flames licked at the air above him and he tried to cringe back from it.

  He nodded, thought better of it because of the fire, and then spoke again, his cries broken only by his sobs. "Anything. I swear it. The inn? Yours. My gold? Yours. Please. I don't want to die."

  "I want Irinda."

  "Okay. Okay. Sure. Irinda. She's yours. She's in the cabin outside the tunnel. It's a small place. She's there. Here, here," he pulled something from around his neck and held it out where I could see it in the flickering light.

  A key.

  I snatched it and then looked up at the end of the tunnel, where the moonlight beckoned me forward. I stepped over Brin, leaving him laying there, the tendons around his ankles severed. Even if he tried to leave, he wouldn't get far.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  The tunnel exited into a thick grove of trees. It was well hidden between two large rocks that were part of a much larger outcropping, and as I moved away from it, it even seemed to shimmer and conceal itself. Dragon magic, I guessed. Likely a deal struck with a dragon whenever the tunnel was built. Did that mean any of those living today knew about it? I hadn't.

  A small cabin rose up from the ground in the center of the grove, and two men were situated around a roaring campfire. They spotted the flickering of my sword and immediately stood, drawing their own weapons, eyes wide with fear.

  I offered them a smile and held up the key. "If you run I won't chase you." I promised. They took another look between me and my sword and then turned and ran into the trees. I let them go. There was a small part of me that thought about cutting them down. They could reveal you, a voice whispered in the back of my mind.

  But I didn't care. I only cared about one thing right then.

  Irinda.

  Walking to the door in the cabin's front wall, I dismissed the flames around my sword and then pressed the key into the lock and turned it. The door's hinges squealed as I pushed it open. The room inside was small and lit only by the moonlight flooding through the windows that lined each wall and the dancing flame within a small hearth, which sat situated in the wall across from the door.

  There was a bed against another wall, and then a few small pieces of furniture spread out throughout the rest of the room. Silence lay over the room, the only sound that broke it the soft sound of whimpers that were barely louder than the crackling of the wood in the fireplace. The fury within me finally faded, the [Lust of the Blood Dragon] satiated for the moment. Exhaustion poured into my body and I stumbled as I took another step into the cabin's singular room.

  "Please…" a soft voice said from the other side of the bed.

  My gaze snapped that direction and I took another step, the determination in my chest helping me walk straight. Irinda sat huddled against the wall on the other side of the bed. Her face was black and blue, and she looked like she'd been crying so long that the tears in her eyes had gone dry. Her eyes were squeezed closed and she held her arms tight around her, as if trying to protect herself from something.

  "He…" I began, struggling to get my lips to move. "He isn't coming, Irinda."

  At the sound of my voice, her bloodshot eyes opened, taking a long moment to focus on me before relief finally flooded them.

  "Oh, Aria," she cried out, loosening her arms around her body.

  I pushed my body forward, falling to the ground in front of her, and took her into a hard hug. She continued to weep, burying her face into my shoulder. "It's okay," I told her. "I'm here. He won't hurt you anymore. He can't."

  We stayed like that for a long while, until the sobs finally stopped racking her chest. When we had caught our breath, I helped her to her feet and looked her over again. Brin had really done a number on her, but it didn't look like she had any broken bones or open wounds, which was a blessing. One I said a brief prayer of thanks for.

  "Let's get you out of here," I told her, moving her toward the door.

  She stopped inside the threshold. once more turning to look back at the building. Her eyes met mine again. "Did you kill him?"

  The question carried a lot of other unspoken questions with it. I shook my head. "No. Not yet. I had to be sure."

  She nodded slowly. "Where?"

  "Come on," I told her, guiding her out of the cabin and into the clearing. I retraced my steps past the campfire and into the trees. I thought I might have to use [Insight] on the rocks to reveal the tunnel's entrance, but there was a trail of blood that led out of the shimmering concealment spell and into the trees to the left of the tunnel.

  I almost laughed, my eyes following the trail of blood to a large gathering of bushes.

  "I know you're in there," I said, my voice loud in the silence that had fallen over the area. Brin didn't respond.

  I released Irinda's arm and stepped forward, pulling my sword out once more. I drew upon my Mana, drawing [Dragon's Palm] into my hand. The flames crackled in the air. "I'll burn down this entire grove if I have to, Brin."

  Rustling to my right. I turned, pressing into the bushes, letting the flames die on my hand. The bluff had cost me, but even I wasn't wholly convinced that I'd been bluffing. If it meant killing him, I would have burned down the entire forest.

  I caught Brin trying to crawl away on the other side of the bushes. I let him scurry slowly through the dirt for a moment before I pressed my sword against the back of his neck, bringing him to a dead stop. Sweat and blood continued to leak from his body. I turned him over again, rolling him onto his back so that he had to look up at me as Irinda stepped up beside me. Her face had hardened with anger.

  "I hate you," she said, her voice a whisper. Then the damn broke and she began to kick him furiously in the side.

  He cried out in pain with every kick. She must have kicked him for at least two or three minutes straight. When she finally stopped, she was breathless. Her quick breaths brought white fog with them each time she exhaled. I offered her the sword, but she shook her head.

  "You do it." She said, stepping away.

  I turned back to Brin. His face was already growing pale. I leaned down, close enough to make sure his eyes were on me and not on Irinda.

  "I want you to know something before you go."

  His eyes widened. "But you said…"

  I smiled at him. "You already knew I had no intention of letting you live. Do you know why you were able to do the things you did for so long?"

  He didn't answer. I snapped my fingers at him, drawing his eyes back to mine when he tried to look to Irinda.

  "It's because I was blind to it. Blind to the monsters living beneath me, while I fought to protect your kind from the ones beyond the stars. I'm tired of being blind. Of protecting monsters."

  "Please…" he begged.

  I ignored him, pressing the blade of my sword into the dirt and pushing to my feet.

  "I don't know what's waiting on the other side," I said, stepping back from him. "Whatever it is, I'll make sure they see you coming."

  I drew upon [Dragon's Palm] once more and hurled the crackling flames at his body.