CHAPTER 6: THE THINGS HE HIDES

I did not sleep.

The room was quiet, but my mind refused to rest. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw the guards falling to their knees. I heard their frightened voices calling me cursed.

Then I saw Cassian.

His eyes when he noticed my mark. His reaction to the rogue. The way he had protected me without explaining anything.

He knew something.

That thought kept repeating until I could no longer bear lying in bed.

I sat up and looked at the locked door.

Cassian had told me not to leave his wing without informing him. He had said it like an order, but there had been something else beneath his voice.

Fear.

I pushed the blanket aside.

The corridor was silent when I stepped outside. Two guards stood near the staircase, watching me carefully. Neither of them tried to stop me.

Perhaps they were afraid of my mark.

Or perhaps Cassian had warned them not to touch me.

I walked quietly through the corridor. The faint smell of smoke still clung to the walls from the library attack. Somewhere below, voices murmured behind closed doors.

Cassian’s study was at the far end of the hallway.

A thin line of light escaped beneath the door.

I stopped.

Had he returned?

I placed my hand on the handle and slowly pushed it open.

The room smelled of old books, ash and cold wood. A small fire burned in the fireplace, spreading weak light across the walls.

Maps covered the large desk near the window.

I stepped closer.

They showed Blackwood territory, the forbidden woods, the mountains beyond our borders and a river that twisted towards places I had never visited.

Several locations had been circled in red ink.

Black lines connected them.

This was not ordinary pack planning.

It looked like a search.

My eyes moved across the papers until one word caught my attention.

HOLLOW.

It had been written across the top of a torn parchment.

My heart began to pound.

Beneath the title were broken sentences.

The bloodline was not destroyed.

The mark appears when—

The rest of the page had been ripped away.

I picked it up carefully.

The symbol drawn beneath the words was the same one that had burned into my skin during the ceremony.

A cold shiver passed through me.

Why did Cassian have this?

Why had he been studying it before the rogue attacked?

I searched through the other papers.

There were old clan names, dates, drawings of strange symbols and several pages covered in black ink. Some names had been crossed out so violently that the paper was torn.

Then I saw another name.

Veyne.

My fingers tightened around the page.

My surname.

I looked closer, but the rest of the sentence had been covered by a dark stain.

A floorboard creaked behind me.

I froze.

“Looking for something?”

Cassian’s voice was low.

I turned slowly.

He stood in the doorway, his injured shoulder hidden beneath a dark shirt. His hair was slightly damp, and his face looked tired.

But his eyes were wide awake.

They moved from my face to the papers in my hand.

His expression changed.

Not surprise.

Recognition.

“What are you doing here?” he asked.

I lifted the parchment. “You tell me.”

“Elara.”

“You knew about this.”

His jaw tightened.

“You knew about the mark before the ceremony. You knew about the Hollow Clan. And now I find my name on your desk.”

“You shouldn't have come here.”

“That is not an answer.”

He walked into the room.

I stepped back, holding the parchment against my chest.

“Tell me the truth.”

His gaze stayed on mine.

“You are not ready.”

A bitter laugh escaped me. “Everyone keeps saying that. The elders. The guards. You. But I am the one carrying this mark. I am the one who cannot shift. I am the one everyone wants dead.”

Something flickered in his eyes.

“You think I don't know that?”

“Then explain it.”

He glanced at the parchment.

For a moment, silence filled the room.

Then a faint clicking sound came from behind me.

I turned.

A section of the bookshelf had shifted open.

A dark passage waited behind it.

Cassian crossed the room quickly and caught my wrist before I could move closer.

“Don't.”

His fingers were warm against my skin.

The mark beneath my sleeve began to burn.

Cassian felt the change and looked down.

The symbol glowed faintly beneath my skin, pulsing like a second heartbeat.

Cold air slipped from the hidden passage and brushed against my face.

Then a whisper came from the darkness.

Remember.

My blood turned cold.

Cassian pulled me away from the opening, but I could not stop staring at it.

The whisper came again.

He knows.

I looked at Cassian.

He was watching the passage like a man facing something he had spent years trying to escape.

And suddenly, I understood.

The file had not been warning me about the Hollow.

It was warning me about the man standing in front of me.