“Oh gods,” I said, stepping back from the window.

  I couldn’t see the dragon outside, but I recognized the fear that washed over me.

  I twisted to see Sil moving toward the door, his eyes wide. I rushed forward, grabbing him by the arm.

  “Focus,” I said, snapping in front of his eyes. “Look at me. That’s right. Focus right here.”

  His eyes slowly returned to normal. “Is that what you felt in the street that day?”

  I nodded. “His name is Cordrak. He has some kind of skill that instills fear in those he targets.”

  “Do you think he knows we’re here?”

  “No,” I said, shaking my head. “I don’t think so. They’d be swarming us if he did. He’s here for something else.”

  I moved toward the door, opening it slightly so that I could look into the hall. Footsteps sounded somewhere down the way, but I couldn’t see where from my current vantage point.

  Whatever was happening here, it couldn’t be good. Not if he was here.

  “We need to get out of here,” I told Sil. I moved back to the desk, grabbing the map with the grids on it.

  “I thought—”

  “I don’t think anyone is going to notice. Not right away, at least. Come on.” I brushed past him as I folded it up and tucked it into my satchel. I wanted to take a closer look at that map. See how we could use the information against the guard.

  The hallway was empty, but I could still hear pounding footsteps down toward the stairs. I turned the opposite direction, looking for another way to reach the lower levels.

  Sil followed me as I hurried toward the end of the building. A large window filled most of the wall at the end, letting sunlight stream into the narrow space. I reached it and looked at the doors on either side.

  I grabbed the handle on the left one and twisted it open. The room beyond was small, nothing more than a closet. I turned away from it and reached for the other handle.

  It was locked.

  I cursed and glanced down the hall, where the sound of running footsteps was getting louder, yells accompanying them.

  I pulled out a lockpick and jammed it into the keyhole above the door handle. It clicked after a moment and the handle turned with ease as I pushed the door open.

  This one led to another set of stairs. Instead of going down, they went up.

  That was the opposite of what I needed right now. I started to turn away from the, but noticed Sil brushed past me.

  “What are you doing?” I demanded, grabbing him by the arm.

  His eyes met mine briefly and then he tugged away. “I can feel something…”

  He started up the stairs, leaving me standing at the doorway, gaping up at him. Of all the idiotic things to do in this moment, he was the last person I would have expected to go the opposite direction we needed to go.

  Huffing, I started up the stairs after him.

  They led to a small doorway which I assumed was the fifth floor—the newly constructed one. The doorway itself was filled with a murky blackness. Sil stepped through it, and the air shimmered where his body touched the darkness.

  A brief flicker of light appeared around the edges of his silhouette and then he was gone.

  “Sil! What the hells,” I climbed the rest of the way to the opening. As I grew closer, the darkness seemed to move, like the surface of a lake rippling gently in the wind.

  Unease settled within my chest, a fist that clutched tightly at my heart. I didn’t know how I knew, but I knew that whatever awaited us on the other side of this door wasn’t good.

  I pushed through it; the blackness slithering across me like ice-cold slime. My body revolted at the feeling and I almost stumbled back into the stairwell. But I forced myself forward, each step like I was walking with anvils tied to my legs.

  The room beyond wasn’t nearly as large as the top of the floor suggested, but it was open, with shackles situated along the walls. Blood stains surrounded some of them, but others were unmarked.

  My eyes traced the room, looking for Sil. I found him in the center of the room, walking toward a large metal door at the other end. An inhuman screech filled the air and my eyes snapped to the right, where a massive creature almost as tall as the room was standing over a woman who hung from a pair of shackles.

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  The creature’s face was sunken in around the eyes, black holes staring out as if the eyes themselves had rotted away. Its mouth curved into a wide, gaping maw filled with sharp teeth, and a narrow tongue that reached down to its chest flicked through the air. Long arms stretched down the side of its body, congregating at stubby hands that featured three curved claws that gleamed with red.

  The creature’s head turned, following Sil as he moved closer to the massive door. It’s tongue flicked out again, motioning toward him. And then it began to move.

  Sil didn’t seem to notice, his back still to me, his head facing forward. I whipped one of the daggers from my belt and rushed forward, using [Swift Strike] to lunge toward the creature. It wasn’t going to make it.

  I eyed the creature’s movements. The way it shambled on its long legs, which dragged against the stone floor. I drew my hand back and then sent the dagger flying through the air, the blade whistling through the room.

  It connected with a wet smack; the weapon digging hilt-deep into the side of the monster’s cheek. The momentum of the dagger threw the monster’s movement off, and it stumbled past Sil, who continued walking forward as if the thing didn’t exist.

  “Godsdammit,” I muttered as I drew my other dagger. My next few steps brought me to the creature as it turned to face Sil again. It’s long tongue flicked through the air, this time in my direction, and it turned its head, those black eyeholes staring at me as if they could see me somehow.

  Gods it was so ugly. I jabbed my dagger forward, using [Swift Strike] to add some force to the attack. The blade slipped through the skin of its neck, and dark purple blood spurted against my face.

  I activated [Dragon’s Flame] and fire erupted down the exposed edge of the blade, rushing up the creature’s face and down its body as its arms tried to reach for me.

  I dodged backward, using another [Swift Strike] to give myself some space.

  The flames covered the creature in seconds, its cries piercing the air as it shriveled up and collapsed to the ground, a pile of burning flesh.

  Now that the creature was dead, I could finally take in the rest of the room. The woman that it had been standing over was slumped in her shackles and blood leaked down the front of her clothes. She wasn’t moving.

  Strange runes surrounded her, and they glowed softly with red light. There were similar runes around the other shackles, though they all appeared to be dim.

  The door that Sil approached was made of the same dark metal as the weapons and armor I’d found below. Runes similar to those aroun the woman’s body covered the stone around the doorway, creating a half-circle of symbols and letters that appeared to have been written in blood.

  Like the symbols around the woman, they also glowed softly.

  There were no windows on the walls, and the room was lit by two lanterns situated on either side of the room’s center. The light flickered across the rest of the room, painting the bloodstains that littered the wall and floor around the shackles.

  The unease that had settled within my chest spiked and I rushed forward, grabbing Sil before he could reach out and touch the doorway.

  “What the hells are you doing?” I yelled as I pushed him back.

  His eyes were clouded over and they stared almost sightlessly ahead of him.

  “Sil?” I demanded, smacking the side of his face lightly.

  “It calls to me.” The words were barely a whisper as they left his lips.

  “We need to leave.,” I told him, trying to drive him back more. He pressed against me, trying to continue forward.

  “I don’t think we should go near that.” I used [Swift Strike] and shoved him hard. His body slid backwards several steps and his eyes unclouded, settling on me.

  “What are you doing?” he asked, as if taken aback by my assault.

  “What are you doing?” I demanded in return. I pointed a finger at the monster, its flesh still sizzling beneath the flames. The smell of rotted flesh clung heavy to the air.

  His eyes met mine and then looked back at the creature, concern marring his features. “I… I don’t know. It just…” He turned back to the door, his eyes almost clouding over again. “We used to have doors like this in my world. I remember it now. I was meant to open it.”

  The haze returned fully, and he took a step forward. Panic ripped through me once more.

  “I need to open the door.” His steps brought him before me again.

  “No, you do not.” I shoved him again, this time sending him stumbling backward again.

  His face contorted in anger for a moment, and then music erupted through the room. I felt something grab me, like the surrounding air had turned into a vice. It jerked me to the side, sending me flying hard into one of the room’s walls.

  I landed with a thud, my head smacking into the wall and my body crumbling against the floor.

  Stars danced across my vision.

  We never should have come here. The thought echoed in my mind as I tried to stand up. I peered up at Sil with blurry vision, the bright flashes obscuring him as he moved.

  He reached the door, his hands running along the elaborate pattern etched into it. There were swirls and circles that ended in sharp points—almost like snakes with spearheads for their tails.

  In the center of the door, connected across both sections, was a large triangle-like etching. It glowed softly as he touched it, and I felt the air in the room grow denser.

  My breath caught.

  There were no handles on the door that I could see. Nothing that outwardly said you needed to interact with it to open them. The fact that they were here, that this room didn’t seem to run the full length of the building at all, was troubling enough.

  Something like a warning spiked in my mind. I wasn’t sure if it was a product of my own paranoia or perhaps something from the System. No message came, but I suddenly knew that we needed to get Sil out of this room.

  “Something isn’t right here. We need to go. Right now,” I pleaded with him, forcing myself to my feet. My body moved slowly, my mind still trying to recover from the crash into the wall.

  The runes grew brighter as his fingers rubbed across them.

  “Sil, don’t touc—” My words were cut off as his hand smacked against the wall where the runes were.

  Bright, red light flashed out from the wall, momentarily blinding me as a gust of air rushed out, slamming into me and sending me flying backwards.

  I groaned as I hit the wall hard again, something within my torso cracking.

  Pain erupted through my body.

  I looked up, my vision returning in blinks, bright shapes danced across my sight. Sil was standing in front of the door still, his back to me, and a bright, orange glow had started to emanate from the corners of the door.

  I watched in horror as the light spread upward and sideways, tracing the outline of the strange doorway in an otherworldly hue.