Chương 55: Betrayal

The stairs continued upward. Andy hated them. He remembered stairs, what he hadn't remembered was how much it sucked to walk up a lot of them. Who built an evil underground lair and then put the most important room at the top? He guessed it made sense since the Harness was supposed to be the equivalent of a Lord, and so any barracks he ran should look like a normal barracks. He reached the top of the stairwell.

"Barnacle. Just be glad you don't walk buddy. This was rough. Oh, I should have left you with Reggie." Barnacle filtered. Andy pretended that meant, 'No it's fine. I enjoy being along for the ride.'

"In either case. I'm glad you're here." Barnacle filtered. The sounds of fighting weren't really still ongoing. Andy wasn't sure whether that was a good thing, or a very bad thing. But he could only handle one bad thing at a time and currently he had like five going on, so instead he continued toward the closest bad thing. He didn't like that it was so quiet up here. He especially didn't like that Auri was up here. She'd probably been experimented on, tortured, drained of her magical energy.

She'd say something like, 'I warned them not to touch me' followed by biting. A lot of biting. The thought almost made him smile. Almost. The stairwell ended at a pair of enormous double doors. Unlike everything else in the facility these were not plain, industrial doors. The doors were ornately carved, stained and polished wood, with gold hinges and adornments. Decorative carvings lined the edges and each corner was complete with a spiraling horn. Andy frowned.

If he was going to design a boss room for an evil lair, this is exactly what it would look like. Of course this would be the boss room. What else could he possibly expect for the ending of his book. Step one: Defeat the boss. Step two: save the girl. Step three: Go home a hero. Step four: Profit? He took a deep breath and then pushed the doors open. The room beyond looked nothing at all like the prison he'd been expecting. It was more akin to a noble's private quarters.

Or what he assumed a noble's private quarters would look like. (His assumptions were purely based on his Netflix binge of Bridgerton) The floor was covered in a plush burgundy carpet. Walls held a multitude of paintings, ornate masks, and other decor. There was a fireplace, a sitting area, and standing next to a large window with his back toward the entrance was a man. The Harness. At least Andy assumed it was. The man seemed relatively tall, well dressed. His dark coat looked expensive.

His long blue black hair was tied back at the nape of his neck. His hands were clasped behind his back. The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. He didn't turn or acknowledge Andy at all.

"Lady Auriana, I really think you're being unreasonable." Andy furrowed his eyebrows. The fox, his fox, was currently sitting in a chair in her human form. She had one leg crossed over the other and she was wearing…a dress? Her expression suggested she'd considered murder several times and may have even attempted it once or twice.

"You kidnapped me."

"Yes, but see you're focusing on the negative. I invited you here first."

"You chained me to a wall."

"I told you that was a miscommunication and the soldiers who did that were reprimanded." Andy slowly looked around again. There were indeed chains hanging from the wall. There was a broken table off on the left side of the room. There was… a bloodstain on the ceiling, clawmarks on the furniture, and was that a chunk missing from the fireplace? He looked back at Auri.

"You've been causing problems," the Harness said. Auri smiled. The man rubbed at his face, "Lady Auriana. I have spent the entire day attempting to reason with you."

"You kidnapped me."

"So we've been over. I asked you here first."

"You chained me to a wall."

"Still a misunderstanding."

"You stole my horse." He seemed genuinely confused.

"I did no such thing."

"You stole me from my horse." The Harness paused. Andy felt himself smile in spite of everything that had gone on.

"Lady Auriana. You are very much who I'd like to spend the rest of my days with. I'll get you all the horses you could ever want."

"I don't want those horses."

"Well, I think we can still work something out."

"I doubt it," Auri shot. Andy snorted. Both heads snapped toward him. Auri's eyes widened.

"Andy?" Andy nodded and relief flashed across her face. But Andy was only able to see it momentarily. His horn began screeching very loudly the moment the Harness turned around. The sound ripped through his skull. Andy's brain decided to process it in chunks. The Harness. He had a head, a jawling, a nose, a smile. His stomach dropped as Auri looked back and forth between them, confusion spreading across her face. His horn screamed louder. The room seemed to tilt. The Harness finished his turn.

Golden eyes met Andy's. The same eyes he'd seen in Sessaly's water. The man smiled.

"Hello, Andrew." Andy froze.

"No." The man frowned.

"No?"

"No."

"This is really quite the surprise for me as well. Auriana never mentioned her friend's name. Fancy us having the same taste in women." The man chuckled.

"Nope."

"I thought I'd found all of the…well… mistakes out there. I suppose we all make mistakes now and then. I'm dying to know, do you Attenborough? Some do, some don't It's wild how different they all end up being, you know? The world stopped spinning because staring back at him—was himself.