Page 135 of Unveiled

“Stop,” Connor growled. “This is a lie.”

The cavern hummed. The pillars whispered. Connor’s heart jolted.

He is dying. You are too late. You will fail him. As you failed others.

Connor roared and smashed another pillar, then another, and another. Bone dust filled the air like ash. The cavern shook with each blow, but the illusions didn’t stop.

Adrian appeared again. Kneeling, trembling, blood dripping from his nose.

“Connor,” the illusion gasped. “Help me. Why didn’t you—”

Connor’s rage snapped. He lunged forward, shattering the pillar into dust. “You are not him.”

The cavern fell silent. Slowly, the remaining pillars melted into the floor like ice in sunlight. A path opened.

Connor wiped stone dust from his face and whispered, his voice shaking, “I’m coming, Adrian. Hold on.”

He ran deeper into the Underspan. The corridor twisted into a long, narrow throat of stone. The walls vibrated with an eerie hum. A familiar voice whispered from the darkness.

“Connor.”

He froze. The voice came again, broken, hoarse, weak.

“Connor. I’m here.”

Connor sprinted. He turned a corner and found Adrian curled on the ground. Wounded, bleeding, his eyes glassy with pain.

“Adrian.” Connor dropped to his knees. “Gods, Adrian.”

He reached for him, and Adrian flinched away. Connor froze. It wasn’t his posture, his fear, or his eyes.

Connor leaned close, his voice soft. “You’re not him.”

Adrian’s illusion blinked.

Connor stood. “Adrian may be hurting. But he would never flinch from me.”

The illusion melted into shadow.

Connor growled, his voice low and lethal. “Try harder.”

The shadow laughed softly. Then it retreated.

Connor pressed on.

He ran for what felt like an hour.

The tunnels bent impossibly, defying direction and logic. Some narrowed so tightly he had to turn sideways. Others widened into vast caverns with ceilings too high to see.

Sometimes his footprints vanished behind him. Sometimes they walked ahead of him.

Sometimes he heard two sets of footsteps: his own, and one that mirrored his a moment later.

It was Adrian’s shadow echo. He followed it. The ground began to glow beneath him: gold, violet, and white.

Connor stopped. The resonance felt like Adrian, but twisted, strained, and thinned. His mark was screaming. He pressed a hand to it.

Adrian’s voice whispered from deep below. Connor, I’m here.