Mag-log inThe roar didn't stop.It rolled through the underground city like an earthquake given sound.The streets trembled.The towers shook.Dust poured from rooftops and ancient stone cracked in every direction.For one horrifying moment, I thought the entire mountain was about to collapse on top of us.Then the roar came again.Louder.Closer.Every instinct inside me screamed to run.Not fight.Not investigate.Run.The smiling creature standing before us felt it too.I saw genuine fear in its eyes.Not concern.Not caution.Fear.That terrified me more than the roar itself.Because until now, nothing had frightened these things.Not swords.Not fire.Not death.Yet whatever had awakened below had frightened them.The creature slowly stepped backward.Then another step.Its smile never returned."What have you done?" Renn whispered.The thing turned toward him.For the first time, its voice sounded uncertain."We didn't do this."The scholar's eyes narrowed."Liar.""No."The creature look
The staircase seemed endless.Each step carried us farther beneath the fortress.Farther beneath the world I knew.The sounds of battle gradually faded behind us.The screams.The alarms.The clash of steel.All of it disappeared.Replaced by silence.A terrible silence.The kind that made every footstep sound wrong.Scholar Renn walked ahead with the lantern.Its small flame cast trembling shadows against ancient stone walls.The staircase spiraled downward for what felt like miles.Neither of us spoke.There didn't seem to be anything worth saying.The fortress above us was burning.People were dying.And we were descending toward whatever nightmare had been sleeping beneath the kingdom for a thousand years.Eventually the stairs ended.I almost wished they hadn't.Because what waited below was worse.The tunnel opened into a vast underground corridor.Ancient pillars stretched into darkness.The ceiling rose so high that the lantern couldn't reach it.The architecture didn't resemb
The words seemed to suck the warmth from the burning courtyard.Something buried beneath the fortress had finally awakened.For several seconds, nobody moved.Nobody breathed.Even the crackling flames sounded distant.Commander Vane's grip tightened around his sword."The catacombs," he said quietly.Captain Merrick's smile widened."You gave it many names."The thing wearing Merrick's face took a slow step forward."Catacombs. Foundations. The Deep Chambers."Another step."The Prison."The last word echoed strangely.As though spoken by a hundred mouths hidden in the darkness.Around him, the other infected soldiers remained perfectly still.Watching.Waiting.Their smiles never faltering.I felt a chill crawl down my spine.Commander Vane's face had gone pale.For the first time since I'd known him, the veteran commander looked genuinely afraid.He knew something.Something he hadn't told us."Merrick died three days ago, didn't he?" Vane asked.The creature laughed.A wet, unnatu
The alarm bells didn't stop.Their frantic ringing rolled across the fortress like waves crashing against stone.Every tower answered.Every wall echoed.The entire citadel had transformed from a place of order into a hive of controlled panic.Below us, soldiers sprinted across the courtyard.Archers rushed toward firing positions.Officers shouted commands over one another.Yet despite all the movement, all the noise, my eyes remained fixed on the figures emerging from the forest.There were hundreds of them.Maybe more.The distance made counting impossible.They came from between the trees in neat, silent lines.No banners.No weapons.No war cries.Just people walking.That somehow terrified me more than an army.Armies made sense.Armies followed rules.This didn't.Commander Vane turned sharply."Seal the gate."The massive iron mechanism groaned immediately.Chains rattled.Wood and steel shifted.The northern gate began closing.No one argued.No one hesitated.The soldiers ha
Nobody moved.The entire northern gate stood frozen beneath the gray morning sky.The soldiers lining the walls stared down at the figure beyond the gate.Some looked confused.Others looked frightened.A few looked ready to run.I couldn't blame them.My own legs felt rooted to the stone.Sergeant Halden stood exactly as I remembered him.The same broad shoulders.The same scar across his left cheek.The same weathered cloak he had worn during the Battle of Black Ridge.Six years ago.Six years dead.Yet there he was.Watching us.Waiting.Smiling.The smile bothered me most.Because Halden had never smiled like that.Not once.Not in life.Not even after victories.He had always been a grim man.Serious.Quiet.Disciplined.The thing standing outside the gate wore his face, but something behind the eyes felt wrong.Like a predator pretending to be human.Beside me, Jaron slowly rested a hand on the hilt of his sword.Commander Vane noticed immediately."Don't."The warning came quie
I barely slept.Not because of the storm.Not because of the Commander’s warning.And not because an entire watchtower had somehow vanished from the face of the kingdom.It was because of the look I had seen in Vane's eyes.Fear.Real fear.The kind that only appeared when a person finally encountered something they didn't understand.I had served under Commander Vane for seven years.I had watched him stand in the middle of burning battlefields while arrows rained from the sky.I had seen him receive reports that entire companies had been slaughtered.I had watched him order men he respected to their deaths because strategy demanded sacrifice.Never once had I seen fear.Until tonight.The realization followed me into the darkness of my room.Sleep came eventually, but it was shallow and broken.I woke before dawn.The fortress was still asleep.Or at least pretending to be.Outside my window, the storm clouds still hung low over the mountains, turning the sky a dull shade of charcoa
The word love didn’t echo. It didn’t thunder. It simply existed between us, quiet, undeniable, and terrifying in its honesty.Kahlia took a sharp step back, as though the air itself had burned her.“No,” she said immediately. Too quickly. Her voice cracked on the single syllable. “You can’t say tha
Her name left my mouth like a wound.The moment I said it, Alpha Ethan, I knew I had crossed a line.Kahlia went still.Not frozen in fear. Not startled.Still, the way a lake goes quiet right before it freezes.“Don’t,” she said quietly.That single word carried more weight than her earlier plea.
Alpha Jaron's POV"Daniel, stop the car." I commanded. He shot me a look, one eyebrow lifting in question, but years of serving as my beta had trained him not to argue. The car slowed, gravel crunching beneath the tires, and the scent of ripe oranges and apples drifted in through the open window.
KAHLIA'S POVThe room smelled faintly of antiseptic and chamomile.Morning light slipped through the half-drawn curtains, soft and pale, settling gently over my mother’s face. She slept better today, her breathing steady, no longer shallow or strained the way it had been in the days immediately fol







