Holy fuck.
Even Smudge freezes beside me.
The cavern opens wide, and there, in the centre…
Chains. Thick iron, biting deep into stone walls on either side, a collar glinting dully in the firelight. And beneath it.
Julien.
Chained, bloodied.
On his knees. arms yanked high and shackled, his head bowed so low his chin rests against his bare chest. His dark skin is a ruin of bruises, cuts, old wounds layered with fresh blood.
He’s breathing, barely. But he’s here.
Help him.
I step closer.
Heal him.
Another step, and he makes a sound—half a groan, half snarl. Half man, half beast. It rakes over my skin.
He needs us.
I take another small step, slower this time, and his head snaps up.
There’s still so much space between us. Enough that I could flee this room quicker than I could ever reach him.
But I don’t.
Those eyes hold me where I stand.
Deep red, black, maroon—colours shifting, fighting, bleeding together like fire straining beneath dark ice. Not a trace of white.
My heart thumps so loud, so fast. My gaze races all over him, taking in every chain, every line of strain in his body, trying to see the man I know inside this caged thing.
His fingers curl around the chains binding his wrists. A slow flex, testing, then with one brutal yank, the left one tears free of the wall.
My blood runs cold. This, coming here, suddenly feels like an awful idea.
I step back. Julien’s eyes track the movement. Unblinking.
Then the right arm wrenches loose with the same terrifying ease.
Ohfuck.
Why did I come here?
Why the fuck did I do this?
I call to my darkness, begging it to shield me, but nothing stirs. Nothing comes. My power stays still, silent, as if it knows something I don’t. Fuck. I don’t have time to fight it, I just need to move.
I stumble back faster, refusing to turn my back, refusing to look anywhere but him.
Not even when his fingers grip the final chain—the one sunk into the ground, locking the collar tight around his throat.
Not even when he rips it up with a monstrous pull, the sound like stone screaming as he plucks it from the earth like a weed. The black floor splinters, sickening cracks racing out from him to me, stopping just before my feet.
