ANMELDENAlready inside the house.The words from the child in Aira’s womb seemed to freeze the corridor in place. The black seam under their feet was still open, the hidden passage in the wall still breathing cold air, and the woman wearing her mother’s face was trembling now as if the truth had struck her harder than anyone else in the room. Aira could barely stand. Kael held her with both arms, his body rigid with fury, his crimson power pulsing around them in fierce protective waves, but even that was not enough to steady the terror rising through her. If the root gate was already inside the house, then nowhere was safe. Not the corridor. Not the chamber below. Not even the walls around them. Her blood felt too hot, then too cold, then hot again as the seal in her chest throbbed like a second heart trying to tear free. “What do you mean, inside the house?” she whispered, and her own voice sounded thin and broken in the dark. The thing in the floor wearing her face smiled with terrible calm
I know where the root gate is.The words came from inside Aira’s womb in that same impossible voice, and the corridor seemed to stop breathing all at once. Aira staggered as a violent pulse tore through her chest, through the bond, through the strange living seam that had opened inside her blood. Kael caught her before she could fall, both arms locking around her with desperate force, and she felt the heat of his power gathering around them like a shield that could not quite keep the dark out. Her mother in the seam below made a sound of pure grief, and the woman at the end of the hidden corridor wearing her face went still, as if the words had struck something ancient inside her too. Even Corvin had lost the last of his control. He stood frozen, pale and rigid, staring at Aira as if the child in her womb had just spoken a language he feared to hear.Aira could barely force air into her lungs. “What did you say?” she whispered, though she was not sure whether she was speaking to the c
Open the door.The words came out of Aira’s mouth in a voice that was hers and not hers at the same time. The corridor went silent around her. Kael froze so suddenly that she felt the shock of it through his arm around her waist. The black thread touching her skin burned once, then sank deeper, like something had finally found the place it had been searching for. Aira gasped and bent forward, one hand flying to her stomach. The child inside her was awake now, fully awake, and the presence inside it pulsed against her like a second heart trying to force its way to the surface. Her mother in the seam below went white with horror. “No,” she whispered. “Aira, do not let it speak through you.”But Aira could already feel the memory opening.It was not like remembering a moment. It was like being pulled into a room that had been sealed inside her skull for years and finding the air inside still warm with the breath of the past. The corridor around her blurred. The hidden passage behind the
Let me in.The words rippled through Aira’s mind like cold water pouring into a wound. The black seam beneath her feet widened at once, and the pressure inside her chest split into something sharper, something that felt less like pain and more like recognition. Kael grabbed her before she could stumble forward, his arms locking around her with desperate force as crimson power surged around him in a violent wave. The corridor lights flickered red and then dimmed to a trembling glow. Aira could barely breathe. The baby inside her had gone perfectly still, and that stillness terrified her more than movement ever had. It felt as if every living thing in the room was listening to the same voice, waiting for the same answer. Her mother strained against the seam below, tears streaking down her face as she shook her head hard. “Do not answer it,” she begged. “If you open that memory, it will take the rest of you with it.” The woman in the hidden corridor smiled with Aira’s face, and the sight
The words came from inside her child with a calm that made Aira’s blood run cold.Come in.Her whole body locked. Kael shoved himself in front of her at once, crimson power exploding around him in a wall of violent light, but the tiny hand reaching from the black ring did not stop. It stretched farther, thin fingers trembling as if it knew exactly where to go. Aira could feel her child moving inside her now, not with fear, but with a terrible, welcoming pull. The sensation hit her like a sickness. Her stomach tightened, her seal flared, and for one shaking second she saw the shape of the thing inside her womb not as a baby, but as a door opening from the inside out.“No,” Kael snarled, his voice rough with panic. “You do not touch her.” He struck the air between them with a burst of crimson force, and the corridor shook hard enough to rattle the walls. The hand from the ring jerked back for half a second, then came forward again, slower now, more certain. The child in the seam smiled
Aira went rigid as the words came out of her own mouth.Mother, choose.For one terrible second, no one moved. The corridor seemed to contract around her, the hidden passage behind the wall, the seam in the floor, and the cracked ceiling above all pressing in as if the house had decided it was finished waiting. Kael turned sharply toward her, his face draining of color so fast it made her stomach twist. “Aira,” he said, but his voice sounded far away, as if he were calling from the other side of deep water. She tried to answer him and found that her throat would not work. Her seal was burning again, hot and sharp, and the child inside her was no longer calm. It was awake, trembling, and somehow listening to the same voice that had just spoken through her lips.The woman in the hidden corridor smiled with Aira’s mother’s face, and the expression was so cruelly familiar that Aira felt tears sting her eyes. “There,” it whispered softly. “Now the line is speaking for itself.” The mother t
The ground didn’t just tremble.It answered.A low, grinding sound tore through the forest floor, deep and ancient, like something vast shifting after centuries of stillness. The cracks spreading beneath their feet widened, dark lines cutting through earth and roots alike.The battle stopped.Not b
The forest didn’t just erupt—It swallowed them.Sound fractured into chaos. Metal clashed, claws tore through flesh, bodies collided in a frenzy of motion that left no room for hesitation. The enemy pack moved like they belonged to the shadows themselves—fast, brutal, unpredictable.But Kael’s pac
They moved before the sun reached its peak.Not in chaos.Not in panic.But with a precision the pack hadn’t shown in a long time.This wasn’t just a pursuit.It was a response.Kael led.Of course he did.There was no question, no challenge to his authority—not now. Whatever fear had taken root in
The pack did not settle after the rival Alpha left. If anything, the tension deepened, stretching tight across every corner of the territory like a wire ready to snap. No one spoke openly, but the air carried too many questions, too many fears, and now—something worse. Suspicion. Kael stood at the







