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The Secret Gallery
Fecha de publicación:
2026-09-10 20:51:06Chapter 5: The Secret Gallery
Five days passed inside the palace, each one more tense than the last.
The attacks against me started out small, but they quickly grew more dangerous. On Tuesday, my morning tea was laced with a sleeping draft that would have kept me unconscious for days if I hadn't noticed the strange metallic smell. On Thursday, a heavy iron chandelier in the grand hallway suddenly snapped its chains, crashing to the floor just three feet in front of me. Every time an 'accident' occurred, King Marcus ordered strict investigations, but no culprit was ever found. The noble court was a web of lies, and I was walking through it blindfolded. However, I noticed something even stranger happening inside the high tower. Every night, when I went to sleep in the chair beside James’s bed, small things shifted. Once, I woke up to find a heavy velvet blanket gently draped over my shoulders. Another time, the window latch that had been rattling in the cold wind was mysteriously locked tight. When I asked the tower guards if they had entered the room during the night, they swore on their lives that no one had passed through the heavy oak doors. On the sixth night, my anxiety reached a breaking point. Riley sent another message through the stable page, giving me an ultimatum: I had to steal the grand vault key from the King's private study tonight, or he would stop all potion deliveries to Noah immediately. I couldn't betray the King, but I couldn't let my little brother die either. I needed to find another way out of this nightmare. At midnight, when the palace was completely quiet and dark, I slipped out of my bedchambers wearing a dark wool cloak. My heart pounded furiously in my ears as I crept down the silent, carpeted hallways, avoiding the regular guard patrols. Instead of heading toward the King's study, I went straight to the main photography studio in the east wing. James was not just a warrior prince; before his curse, he was a world-famous artist and photographer who documented the entire realm. His private studio was rumored to hold detailed blueprints and records of the entire palace structure. If I could find a secret map, maybe I could help Noah escape the territory without Riley's help. The heavy studio door was unlocked. I slipped inside and closed the door quietly behind me. The room smelled of dark wood, old paper, and chemical photography fluids. Large wooden cameras on brass tripods stood around the room like silent sentinels. Canvas paintings and black-and-white photographs hung on every wall, depicting breathtaking landscapes, fierce mountain wolves, and grand city streets. I walked toward the back of the long room, looking through stacks of leather folders on his large oak desk. As I brushed my hand against a heavy bookcase near the back wall, my fingers caught on a small brass lever hidden behind a row of leather books. I pulled it down softly. A low click echoed through the quiet room. The entire heavy bookcase swung forward smoothly, revealing a dark, hidden hallway stretching deep into the stone wall. My breath caught in my throat. Holding a small oil lantern high, I stepped into the hidden passage. The air grew cooler as I walked down a short flight of stone steps. The passage opened up into a massive, secret underground gallery. I lifted my lantern, and the golden light illuminated the walls. My jaw dropped. My hand trembled so violently the oil lantern nearly slipped from my fingers. The entire secret gallery was filled with hundreds of high-definition photographs, detailed charcoal sketches, and written documents. Every single one of them was of me. There were pictures of me laughing in the tavern kitchen in Silver Creek three years ago. Sketches of me walking through the snowy village square carrying groceries. Close-up photographs of my face as I slept on the wooden porch of our small house. There were even medical reports detailing Noah’s illness, stamped with payments made to top-tier city specialists from an anonymous donor over the last four years. "What is this?" I whispered into the quiet room, my head spinning wildly. James hadn't just come across my name on a recruiter's list. He had been watching me for years. He had been tracking my life, paying for my brother's doctors in secret, and monitoring my every move long before he ever fell into his coma. "You were always terrible at hiding, little wolf," a deep, smooth velvet voice purred from the shadows behind me. I spun around so fast I nearly fell. Standing at the top of the stone stairs, illuminated by the moonlight streaming from the studio above, was Prince James. He was not in a coma. He was dressed in a dark black velvet coat, his golden eyes wide awake and burning with a fierce, possessive intensity as he stared straight down at me.
Último capítulo
MARKED BY THE UNBROKEN ALPHA THE EMPTY BED IN SILVER CREEK
Riley I rode into Silver Creek before dawn on the Voice's orders.The order had come the night before, tucked inside a potion wrapper the same way every order had reached me for two years. The handwriting was small and sharp."Retrieve the boy, bring him to the capital, and use him to keep the Luna obedient now that the Rite has made her untouchable," the letter said.I read it twice."Use him to keep the Luna obedient," I said out loud to my horse. "Now that the Rite has made her untouchable."The horse did not answer. I folded the letter and put it in my coat.I rode hard through the night. The road to Silver Creek was dark and empty. I told myself I was a soldier for the starving and that this was necessary. I told myself that the palace deserved every knife the rebels sent, and that the boy was a leash I needed."The boy is a leash," I said to myself as I rode. "That is what the Voice called him from the start. A leash for the girl."But the words felt wrong in my mouth now.I re
MARKED BY THE UNBROKEN ALPHA THE EMPTY BED IN SILVER CREEK
Riley I rode into Silver Creek before dawn on the Voice's orders.The order had come the night before, tucked inside a potion wrapper the same way every order had reached me for two years. The handwriting was small and sharp."Retrieve the boy, bring him to the capital, and use him to keep the Luna obedient now that the Rite has made her untouchable," the letter said.I read it twice."Use him to keep the Luna obedient," I said out loud to my horse. "Now that the Rite has made her untouchable."The horse did not answer. I folded the letter and put it in my coat.I rode hard through the night. The road to Silver Creek was dark and empty. I told myself I was a soldier for the starving and that this was necessary. I told myself that the palace deserved every knife the rebels sent, and that the boy was a leash I needed."The boy is a leash," I said to myself as I rode. "That is what the Voice called him from the start. A leash for the girl."But the words felt wrong in my mouth now.I re
MARKED BY THE UNBROKEN ALPHA THE MAN WHO SOLD ME
Isabella Under the King's guardianship, I was moved to a suite beside his wing, and my nightly vigil was cut to one hour under a priest's supervision, which made every minute with James more precious and more dangerous.The new suite was larger and the walls were thicker. A guard stood outside my door at all times."You will be safer here," King Marcus told me when he showed me the room. His voice was firm. "This wing is under my personal watch.""Am I safer, or am I more watched?" I asked."You are both," he said. "Under the old covenant, no charge can be brought against you without my assent while you are under my protection. That is the law.""And my nightly vigil?" I asked."You will keep one hour each night in the tower," he said. "Under a priest's supervision. That is all I can allow. The court is afraid of what happened in the cathedral.""I understand," I said, although I did not.The priest who supervised my hour in the tower stood near the door and never spoke. He watched m
MARKED BY THE UNBROKEN ALPHA THE VOICE IN THE CURSE
JamesI laid motionless while a healer kept vigil at my bedside, and through the bond I felt everything.The healer sat in a chair near the window. He did not look at me. He looked at the fire."Prince is still senseless," the healer said to the maid who brought tea. "No change.""No change for two months," the maid said."Keep the fire warm," the healer said.They thought I could not hear them. They were wrong.Through the bond, I felt what Isabella felt in the cathedral. I felt the taste of rain and iron on her tongue from the vial she drank before dawn. I felt the silver bloom opening in the cathedral hall. I felt her pulse racing and then steadying when the King spoke."Isabella?" I said inside my head, trying to reach her. "Can you hear me?"She could not hear me. The bond carried her feelings to me, but I could not send my words back. I lay still and I listened."Her pulse is fast," my wolf said inside my skull. He had been quiet for weeks, and now he was awake and alert. "She i
MARKED BY THE UNBROKEN ALPHA THE SECOND BRANCH
Isabella The cathedral was full of faces I knew and none I trusted.I stood at the center of the stone floor and I looked around the hall. Duke Vance smiled from the front pew and his smile did not reach his eyes. Cecilia sat beside him and she would not look at me. She stared down at her hands. King Marcus sat rigid on his stone chair at the front, his hands gripping the arms of the chair. Vanya stood to one side with her staff pressed to the floor. Her face was calm but her knuckles were white."Isabella of Silver Creek," the High Priest said loudly. His voice echoed against the stone walls. "Step forward for the Rite."I stepped forward. I let my hair fall loose over my collarbone, refusing to make the mark easier to find. I wanted to hide it until the last moment."The candidate will show her mark," the High Priest said."I will not," I said quietly."You must," the priest beside him said. "It is required."I kept my hair over my collarbone."Isabella, you must show your mark," K
MARKED BY THE UNBROKEN ALPHA THE NAME SHE ANSWERED TO
Isabella On the eve of the Rite, James and I spent our allotted answers on each other. We met in the tower chamber after midnight and we locked the door."You look tired," James said when I entered."I am tired," I said. "I did not sleep last night.""Did something happen after I saw you?" he asked."Yes," I said. "Matron Vanya came to my chamber. I need to tell you about Vanya's vial.""What vial?" James asked. He sat up straighter."She came three nights ago without warning," I said. "She dismissed the maids and closed the door. She told me how the Rite works. She said a temple sapling is rooted in ash and held against the candidate's mark, and if the line is Vine, it blooms silver before the entire court.""What else did she say?" James asked."She said the word Vine as though it burned her tongue," I said. "Then she offered me a small crystal vial. She said it would dim the mark until the sapling reads only a plain crescent.""Where is the vial now?" James asked."It is in my cha
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