LOGIN"Welcome to where you belong," the driver said, stretching out his hand. His eyes were golden, more like a pure wolf from birth.
"Where I belong?" His words echoed again in my mind like I’d missed something important.
I shifted my gaze to Ethan, hoping to hear from him, but he kept quiet.
"This is not where I belong," I said sharply, still staring at Ethan who was avoiding my eyes.
My gaze shifted back to the driver. I took a quick glance at his lean build, expecting a clue from him too. But there was none.
"Actually, I’m Andrew. People call me Andy," he said, shifting his hands closer, still hoping I’d reach out.
My eyes scanned him from head to toe. He wasn’t very tall, just about up to Ethan’s height, but darker, with thick eyebrows.
"Looks like we’ve got a newbie around!"
A girl walked elegantly out of the house.
Her Curly brown hair danced around her beautiful face as she looked up at me.
She looked beautiful, but fierce.
"Let’s go in," Ethan said softly, stretching his hand for me to take.
Two hands were now in front of me… asking me to pick one.
I didn’t want to choose either.
I moved out of control, grabbing Ethan’s hand.
Andy coughed, his eyes filled with a little bit of disappointment. He chuckled slightly.
We walked in, passing a girl at the entrance. Ethan ignored her presence on purpose.
I guess they held grudges against each other?
“Ethan,” Someone who looked exactly like Andy walked up to us, smiling.
Are they twins? I wondered, looking for any difference.
He was only an inch taller.
Ethan released my hand gently, not bothering to say hello or offer any explanation.
Then he led me upstairs.
Ethan’s gaze was careful, avoiding Andy, his twin, and the girl beside him.
He didn’t acknowledge them, not even a glance.
Cold.
Distant.
Maybe even intentional.
Then he turned to me, his voice low but firm.
“My room’s down the hall, last door on the left. You’ll know it’s mine.”
He didn’t wait for a response.
With that, he climbed the stairs, his steps steady and unreadable.
“Wow… it seems someone’s special,” the girl announced.
She smiled, walking around me slowly, examining my figure.
I turned my face away, uncomfortable under her stare, but she didn’t stop. She circled me, looking me up and down like I was on display.
“I wonder what Ethan sees in you,” she finally said, locking eyes with me.
Her gaze was filled with disappointment, like she’d expected Ethan to bring someone more… impressive. Someone truly special.
“I’m Tally, by the way.”
She reached out and grabbed my hand for a shake without asking. Her palm was thick, and her grip was tight, too tight.
She looks older than she did at first glance.
“Hello, Tally,” I forced a polite smile and gently pulled my hand away.
Then I turned toward Andy’s twin, curiosity and nerves written all over my face.
“You must be Andy’s twin,” I said softly.
He took two slow steps toward me, eyes narrowing as he scanned me like I was something he already liked.
Desire was written all over his face.
“You guessed correctly, princess,” he said with a bright smile, staring directly into my eyes.
But I didn’t fall for it.
“I’m Matthias, by the way. And I must say...” he paused, eyeing me again, this time more deliberately.
“You’re beautiful.” He said softly.
Andy quickly cut in between us, shielding me from his brother with a strong, stern look.
It seemed they didn’t get along.
"She’s for Ethan. Don’t try to mess with her," he warned Matthew, then turned gently to me.
"Mind if I show you to your room?" he asked softly, smiling with a change of demeanor.
"Sure," I replied, moving my right cheek slightly, biting my lip.
Andy led the way. I followed immediately, leaving Matthew and Tally behind, both still staring at each other.
Andy was leading me to my room.
The house was more elegant than I imagined. Every corner whispered wealth and mystery.
After climbing the stairs, we stopped in front of a sleek door, with a glowing arrow pointing down.
Ethan’s words echoed in my mind:
"My room is down the hall."
But how could this door lead us down again?
This place was beginning to feel full of riddles.
Andy pressed a small red button beside the door and, to my surprise, it slid open.
It was an elevator disguised as a door.
I blinked.
My lips parted slightly.
I parted my lips slightly but said nothing.
For now, I felt safe or at least I hoped so.
We stepped in, and the elevator began descending slowly and smoothly.
The deeper we went, the heavier my curiosity became.
"Ethan said we're going down?" I asked, my eyes searching Andy’s face.
Andy chuckled softly.
There was a gentleness to him, so unlike the tension I’d sensed between him and Matthew.
It made me wonder what history lay between them.
"This place is weirder than you think," he said, voice calm, almost secretive.
The elevator finally opened with a quiet chime.
We stepped out into a wide hall, larger and more breathtaking than the level above.
My eyes lifted to the high ceiling, then to the elevator as it silently rose again.
"Wow,"I breathed.
"Follow me," Andy said, already walking through the grand hall toward a corridor of rooms.
There were so many doors.
But my eyes locked on one. The last on the left.
I knew it immediately.
Ethan’s room.
We stopped.
“This is it,” Andy said quietly.
“This is Ethan’s room...” I repeated, confused.
My fingers brushed over the sleek, beautiful door.
I turned back to ask Andy something, but he was gone.
The days that followed carried a fragile, careful happiness, something I hadn't allowed myself to fully believe possible only weeks before, watching Ethan slowly relearn me, watching myself fall for this new, evolving version of him in return, all of it unfolding against the ticking clock of the resealing ceremony still looming three weeks out."The perimeter readings held steady again this morning," Andy reported during our regular gathering, a routine that had become almost comforting despite the danger still underlying everything. "Whatever we're doing, it's holding.""Any word on Darius or the Warden," Ethan asked, his hand finding mine beneath the table with the easy familiarity that had grown between us over the past two weeks."Nothing concrete," Matthias said, frustration evident in his voice. "They've gone completely dark. No movement, no communication, nothing our contacts have been able to track.""That worries me more than open aggression would," my father said, his own ex
The days that followed settled into a strange, fragile rhythm, urgent research into the resealing ceremony filling most of our waking hours, punctuated by small, careful moments between Ethan and me that felt like rebuilding a house one brick at a time, uncertain but steady.We relocated to a secure property Ethan's household maintained closer to the Hollow, easier to monitor the readings from, and easier, I suspected, for Ethan to justify keeping his own people close while still allowing Mira, my father, and me to remain nearby without the awkwardness of us all crowding under one roof."The readings held steady again overnight," Andy reported one morning, nearly a week into our new routine, everyone gathered around the same makeshift command table that had become the center of our days. "Whatever you and Mira did, it's proving more durable than we initially hoped.""That's good news," Ethan said, though the careful relief in his voice carried an edge of wariness that had become famil
We regrouped at the perimeter camp as dawn broke pale and gray over the tree line, exhaustion settling heavy over everyone who'd survived the night's desperate ritual. Andy and Matthias met us with visible relief, helping distribute blankets and hot coffee while Greta, who'd arrived sometime during our absence, moved quickly to tend the wound across my palm properly."The readings have stabilized completely," Andy reported, checking the monitor one final time before finally allowing himself to relax. "Whatever you did in there, it worked.""For now," Mira said, accepting a blanket gratefully, her own exhaustion evident in the slight tremor still visible in her hands. "The seal's reinforced, but it's not permanent. We bought time, not a solution.""Time is enough for tonight," my father said, settling heavily onto a folding chair near the small fire someone had built. "We'll face tomorrow's problems tomorrow."I found myself sitting slightly apart
The hours that followed passed in a blur of frantic research, Mira and my father poring over every fragment of guardian text they could access while Andy and Matthias coordinated the perimeter defenses with Ethan's guards, everyone working against a clock that felt, with every passing minute, more impossibly short.I found myself standing near the tent's entrance sometime past midnight, staring out at the darkened tree line separating us from the Hollow, the distant hum of generators and hushed, urgent voices the only sound accompanying the fear coiled tight in my chest."You should rest," Ethan's voice came from behind me, and I turned to find him standing a careful distance away, his expression still guarded, though something in the late hour seemed to have worn down some of the earlier hardness."I can't," I admitted. "Not with all of this hanging over us."He didn't leave, though he didn't move closer either, simply standing there in the cool night air, his eyes fixed on the same
We reached the perimeter Andy had established just as the sun began sinking low behind the tree line, the small convoy of vehicles pulling to a stop at a checkpoint marked only by a hastily strung line of orange tape and two guards I didn't recognize, their expressions tight with barely controlled tension. "Selene." Andy appeared from behind one of the parked SUVs, relief flickering across his face at the sight of us despite the grim circumstances drawing us all back together. "You shouldn't have come. You're still healing." "I wasn't going to sit in that farmhouse while everyone else faced this," I said, climbing out carefully, my father close behind me, his own wounded arm still bound tight against his chest. "What's the situation." "Worse than an hour ago," Andy said, guiding us toward a small command tent erected near the tree line, monitors and equipment crowded inside on folding tables. "The readings keep spiking. Irregular now, not the steady climb we saw before." Inside th
I stared at the screen, the faint, pulsing glow captured in the photograph seeming to burn itself into my vision despite the safety of the quiet farmhouse kitchen around me. "How do you know," I asked, my voice unsteady. "How do you have eyes on that chamber at all.""I left a tracking device," Mira admitted, "the night we first discovered the location. A precaution, in case things went badly. I never expected to actually need it." She rubbed her eyes, exhaustion evident in every line of her face. "It's been transmitting low-level readings for the past two days. I only just noticed the pattern shifting overnight.""Shifting how," I pressed."Energy readings climbing," Mira said. "Slowly, but steadily. Whatever's happening in that chamber, it's not simply residual magic settling after a failed ritual. It's active. Growing."My father appeared in the kitchen doorway then, his arm still bound in a sling from the wound he'd taken protecting me at the







