Villain's Last Chance
Chapter 41: Second Piece

Chapter 41: Second Piece

I tightened my grip on the leather reins, my fingers stiff from the cold air that cut through the dense forest. The rhythmic pounding of hooves against damp earth filled the silence between Cairon and me, the tension between us a thread stretched too thin. I knew why—our departure from the city hadn’t been easy, and the weight of expectations pressed down on my shoulders with every passing mile.

Master the Codex. That was the council’s command, spoken with absolute finality. As if it were something I could simply unlock like a chest of gold.

Cairon rode slightly ahead, his gaze sweeping the darkened path ahead. His presence was steady, but I could sense the guarded edge beneath his calm exterior. He had been the one to push for us to leave sooner rather than later, and now, away from the walls of the city, I could no longer ignore the truth.

I wasn’t just running toward power. I was running away from something, too.

The Codex was a mystery I had yet to fully unravel. It held knowledge of immense power, secrets buried so deep they might as well have been written in blood. The council feared what it could do in the wrong hands. And I feared what it could do in mine.

As night began to settle, the forest thickened, the trees pressing closer together. The sounds of the city had long since faded, replaced by the rustling of unseen creatures, the distant howl of the wind through the branches. I exhaled sharply, trying to steady the restless energy within me.

"We need to stop soon," Cairon said without turning back. "The horses won’t last much longer without rest."

I nodded, though he couldn’t see me. I knew he was right, but I also knew what stopping meant. More silence. More thoughts I didn’t want to face.

We eventually found a clearing near a slow-moving stream. The air was damp, carrying the scent of pine and earth. Cairon dismounted first, and I followed, feeling the strain in my muscles from hours of riding. He led the horses toward the water, giving them a chance to drink, while I busied myself gathering firewood.

The fire crackled to life a few minutes later, its glow casting long shadows across the forest floor. I sat on a fallen log, watching the flames dance, their movements erratic yet mesmerizing.

Cairon sat across from me, his expression unreadable. "You’re quiet."

I huffed a short laugh. "You say that like it’s unusual."

"It is," he countered, leaning forward slightly. "Your mind is too loud for silence to suit you."

I poked at the fire with a stick, watching embers rise into the night. "I’m just thinking."

"About the Codex?"

"And everything else."

He didn’t push, which I was grateful for. But his gaze remained steady, as if he was waiting for me to say more. And maybe I should. Maybe I should tell him that the weight of everything—the prophecy, the expectations, the shadows that followed us—was beginning to sink its claws into me.

Instead, I changed the subject. "Do you ever wonder if we’re making the right choices?"

Cairon tilted his head slightly. "Every day."

I met his gaze across the fire. "And how do you deal with that?"

He was silent for a moment, then leaned back against the log behind him, eyes flickering with something unreadable. "You move forward anyway."

The simplicity of his answer should have annoyed me, but it didn’t. Because I understood it.

For all the uncertainty, for all the weight pressing down on me, there was only one direction left to go.

Forward.

----

Sleep never came.

I lay on my side, curled beneath the thin blanket, staring into the dying embers of the fire. The forest stretched around us, dark and vast, its silence broken only by the occasional rustling of unseen creatures. The night air carried the crisp scent of pine, damp earth, and the faintest traces of smoke, but it did nothing to soothe the restlessness twisting in my chest.

Cairon was awake too.

He hadn’t moved in a while, but I knew. His breathing was too even, too controlled. He was lying on his back, one arm resting over his chest, his gaze likely fixed on the sky beyond the canopy of trees. He had always been good at hiding his thoughts, masking his emotions behind sharp words and sharper instincts. But I had spent enough time with him to recognize when his mind was tangled in something deeper.

And I knew exactly what it was.

The Codex.

Even now, just thinking of it sent a ripple of unease through me. The weight of the council’s command still pressed against my skin, their words echoing in my mind.

"Master the Codex, or be consumed by it."

The book was unlike anything I had ever known. Ancient, enigmatic, a relic of power that pulsed with something I couldn’t fully grasp. The first time I had touched it, a piece of me had shifted. It had felt as though my very essence had stirred—like something long buried was stretching, waking.

The experience had left me breathless. Terrified.

But also... curious.

That was what scared me the most.

"Elara."

Cairon’s voice was low, breaking the quiet. I turned my head slightly, watching as he sat up. His silhouette was outlined against the embers, his silver hair catching the faint glow.

"You’re still awake," I murmured.

"So are you," he countered.

I pushed myself up, drawing my blanket around my shoulders as I mirrored his position. "Couldn’t sleep."

He studied me, his gaze unreadable. "Because of the Codex?"

I hesitated before nodding. There was no point in lying.

He exhaled, running a hand through his hair. "I figured."

The tension in the air was subtle but undeniable. Neither of us spoke for a moment, letting the silence settle. Then, finally, I asked the question that had been gnawing at me since we left the city.

"Do you think they were right?"

Cairon’s gaze flickered. "About what?"

I swallowed. "About the Codex being dangerous. About it... changing me."

His jaw tightened, and for a long moment, he didn’t answer. When he finally did, his voice was quiet.

"I think..." He trailed off, choosing his words carefully. "I think it’s not the Codex itself that’s dangerous. It’s what it might reveal."

I frowned. "What do you mean?"

Cairon’s eyes darkened, his expression unreadable. "Power like that doesn’t just exist without purpose, Elara. If the council fears what it can do, it means they don’t understand it either. And when people don’t understand something, they try to control it."

A shiver ran down my spine. "So you think they’re afraid of what I might become?"

"Maybe," he admitted. "Or maybe they’re afraid of what’s already inside you."

A lump formed in my throat. I didn’t know what unsettled me more—the idea that the Codex was awakening something in me, or the possibility that it had always been there, waiting.

Cairon must have sensed the shift in my thoughts because his expression softened, his voice dropping lower. "We’ll figure it out. You won’t face this alone."

I let out a slow breath, nodding. But deep down, I wasn’t sure if this was something either of us could control.

The Codex wasn’t just a book. It was a key. A door to something vast and unknowable.

And I had already started to unlock it.

---

Hours Later

The morning came in streaks of gray and gold, sunlight filtering through the trees as the air remained cool and damp. We had packed up camp quickly, neither of us speaking much. There was an unspoken urgency between us, an understanding that time was slipping through our fingers faster than we could grasp it.

The council hadn’t told me much about the Codex’s origins, only that the ruins held pieces of its history—fragments of lost knowledge that might help me understand what I had been tasked to master. But if the council wanted me to find it, that meant we weren’t the only ones looking.

And I wasn’t sure who would be more dangerous: the ones who sought to destroy the Codex... or the ones who wanted to use it.

The journey was grueling. The terrain shifted from dense forests to steep inclines, the paths uneven and treacherous. Hours passed in near silence, broken only by the crunch of our boots and the occasional murmurs of wildlife.

At some point, Cairon glanced at me. "You need to eat."

I hadn’t even realized how long it had been since we last stopped. My stomach ached dully, but the hunger felt distant, overshadowed by the thoughts swirling in my head.

"I’m fine," I muttered.

He sighed, pulling something from his bag and tossing it toward me. "Eat."

I caught it—a small bundle of dried fruit and bread. My lips pressed together, but I took a bite without arguing.

Cairon watched me for a moment before shaking his head. "You always do this."

"Do what?"

"Push yourself until you break."

I stiffened. "I’m not breaking."

"Not yet," he said simply. "But if you don’t start taking care of yourself, you will."

I wanted to argue. To snap that I wasn’t his responsibility, that I could take care of myself. But the words stuck in my throat, because part of me knew he was right.

I had spent so long fighting, so long trying to prove that I could handle this—handle everything—that I had stopped listening to my own body.

Cairon didn’t press further, but his gaze lingered on me for a moment longer before he turned forward again.

The rest of the journey was spent in silence, but something between us had shifted.

By the time we reached the outskirts of the ruins, the sun was dipping lower in the sky. The air felt charged, thick with something unseen but felt.

And in the distance, past the broken stone archways and crumbling pillars, I saw it.

A single book, untouched by time, resting on an altar of worn marble.

The second piece of the Codex.

And the moment my eyes locked onto it, a whisper curled through my mind.

"You were never meant to find me."

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