Chapter 131: The Market

Remi POV"You're going to get us killed.""I haven't done anything yet.""Exactly." Bram didn't slow down. "You're already walking like you're looking for something. Chin up, shoulders tight, eyes moving too fast." He glanced at me sideways. "You look like someone who lost something and wants it back.""I did lose something. My husband.""I know. The entire market doesn't need to."I forced my shoulders down. Slowed my pace to match his. Tried to look like someone who came to a rogue market in the free lands every week and found it completely unremarkable.You look constipated, Parrot said."I'm trying to look relaxed.""Don't try," Bram said. "Trying looks like trying. Just — walk.""You and Nero would get along terribly," I said. "You both give instructions that make no sense.""Walk, Remi."I walked.The market swallowed us whole the second we stepped in.Noise from every direction — merchants yelling over each other, two men arguing about coin value near the entrance, a child scr

Last Updated : 2026-05-29

Chapter 132 — The Weight Of The Chains

Nero POV"Your wife?"The clearing went silent.Even Drift stopped smiling.Nero immediately knew he'd made a mistake.Not because he had spoken. Because he had reacted.Drift stepped closer."Interesting."Nero said nothing.Drift folded his arms."So you have a wife."Nero leaned back against the center stone inside the circle."I said nothing.""You said plenty."Drift crouched."A wife means someone might be looking for you."No answer.Drift's smile widened."And now you're suddenly interested in where we've been."Still nothing."What does she look like?"Nero stared."What does she smell like?"Nothing.Drift laughed."There she is."Nero realized then.He had already lost.The moment he reacted.The scent on Drift wasn't accidental.It was recent.Too recent.And Drift knew it.Maybe not who.Maybe not why.But enough.Enough to start digging.Which meant Remi was in danger.Nero looked away.Shrugged."I was wrong."Drift blinked."What?""I smelled somebody similar.""You sm

Last Updated : 2026-06-07

Chapter 133 — Not The Monster

At first he thought it was just another bone.There were plenty of bones down here.Animal bones.Crawler bones.Things he preferred not identifying.This one was different.It sat on a stone altar near the back chamber.Protected by nothing.Just sitting there.Waiting.Nero frowned.It looked...Ordinary.About the length of his forearm.Dark ivory.Old.Very old.Carvings spiraled around its surface.Tiny symbols.Thousands of them.Not decorative.Intentional.Like a story carved into bone.He picked it up.Cold.Unexpectedly heavy.The second his fingers touched it he felt something strange.Not power.Memory.Like holding something that had belonged to a lot of people.For a very long time.Nero stared at it.Then shrugged.People were weird.Maybe rich collectors liked bones.When he emerged from the ruins the Rabid Saints were waiting.Drift immediately stood."Finally."Nero tossed the object.Drift nearly dropped it."What the hell.""You wanted the relic."Drift looked down

Last Updated : 2026-06-08

Chapter 134 — Don’t judge Me

Remi POV"About damn time."Gemma's voice reached them before the cabin did.The old woman was standing outside with a lantern in one hand and a shawl wrapped around her shoulders. The lantern light painted everything gold; the clearing, the porch, the wrinkles around her eyes, the deep line between her brows that only appeared when she worried.Which meant it had been there all day.Remi stopped at the edge of the yard."You've been waiting out here?"Gemma scoffed."What do you think?""It's freezing.""And whose fault is that?""Ours?""Good. At least you're smart enough to know."Bram snorted.Gemma rounded on him immediately."And don't you start. Come inside. I'll heat something." "For a second Remi just stood there watching them bicker.Normal.The whole scene felt strangely normal.After the day she'd had, after the market, after the man with the chain and the smell of binding magic, after hearing Nero's name whispered between strangers, seeing Gemma standing outside waiting

Last Updated : 2026-06-11

Chapter 135 — Dark Hero

Nero POV"This is it?"Drift had stopped his horse at the tree line and was looking at the settlement ahead with the expression of a man who had been promised something and had received something significantly less.Nero looked.A clearing. Small. Maybe fifteen structures — not houses, shelters, the kind built to last a season and repaired enough times that the repairs had become the structure. A fire pit in the center. Cooking smells. Somewhere a child laughing.Twenty people. Maybe less.Drift turned in his saddle."Are you serious?"Nobody answered."We rode a full day for this." He wasn't angry yet. Still in the phase before anger where everything was just deeply, personally offensive. "Twenty people. Maybe. Half of them are children and the other half look like they're held together with hope." He looked at Nero. "You turned us around for this."."Drift," Sable said quietly."Don't Drift me — we lost three hundred coin and a full day's ride for a settlement that clearly cannot pa

Last Updated : 2026-06-13

Chapter 136 — Follow The Chain

Remi POVThe morning started with Gemma yelling at the fire.Remi stepped out of Bram’s borrowed bed half-awake and still carrying the weight of a night she hadn’t properly slept through.Gemma stood in front of the hearth with a pot in one hand and a wooden spoon in the other, speaking to it like it had personally offended her.The smell of something thick and herbal filled the cabin, warm enough to cut through the cold leaking in through the gaps in the wood.“You’re either going to boil properly,” Gemma muttered, giving the pot a shake.Remi paused at the doorway, still wrapped in her blanket.“Are you arguing with breakfast?”Gemma didn’t even look back.“I argue with everything that refuses to behave.”Bram was already awake, sitting near the table, cleaning his blade like it was a habit he didn’t think about anymore. Mordor was on the floor behind him, half lying on a rug like he had fallen there mid-thought and decided it was too much effort to correct it. He was snoring softly

Last Updated : 2026-06-16