All Chapters of Marked in the Middle: Chapter 121 - Chapter 130

The next morning it dawned gray and silent.Mist clung to the forest floor, curling around the roots like pale fingers. By the time they reached the ridge overlooking the eastern horizon, the Deadline Mountains loomed in the distance, a jagged wall of obsidian peaks splitting the sky like broken teeth.They’d been walking since dawn, but the mountains never seemed to get closer.Lira noticed first. “We’ve been traveling six hours,” she muttered, checking her compass. “But the readings keep looping. The sun hasn’t moved.”Grayson frowned. “Another illusion field?”“No,” Nora said quietly, scanning the sky. “This is something else. The Rift’s influence, time distortion.”The air around them shimmered faintly, and for a second, she thought she saw something, a flash of herself and Lira ahead on the trail, faint and ghostlike, walking the same path. Then they were gone.Lira caught the look on her face. “You saw it too, didn’t you?”Nora nodded slowly. “We’re crossing a fold.”“Meaning?”

The mountain breathed.That was the only way Nora could describe it. Each gust of wind that swept down the jagged slopes carried heat and ash, pulsing like an exhale from something alive. The trail ahead glowed faintly underfoot, runes shifting every few seconds, rearranging themselves like words rewriting mid-sentence.Grayson scanned the cliffs with wary eyes. “I don’t like this. Feels like the whole mountain’s watching us.”“It is,” Lira said grimly, tightening the strap of her blade. “Mountains don’t hum unless they’ve been cursed.”Nora said nothing. Her gaze stayed fixed on the faintly shimmering trail ahead the one the pendant had revealed. It pulsed gently against her chest, almost in rhythm with the faint vibration running through the ground.Every step forward made her heartbeat sync a little closer with that hum.They climbed for hours. The air thinned, sharp and electric with static.The higher they went, the more reality seemed to warp.Pebbles drifted upward like they’d

The air thinned as they climbed higher. Frost bit through Kael’s gloves, and the wind carried the faint scent of ash and something older, something that didn’t belong to this age of men or wolves. The Deadline Mountains loomed ahead, veiled in perpetual mist, their peaks like jagged fangs tearing through the pale sky.Lira walked ahead, her cloak drawn tight, silver hair streaked with grime and blood from the last ambush. Her silence had grown heavier since they left the ruins of the Hollow Court. Kael didn’t press her; he knew what it meant to carry ghosts too close to the surface.Behind them, the others, Ronan, Mira, and Jarek, trudged through snow that reached their knees. Their breaths came in ragged clouds. The cold gnawed at bone and thought alike.“Tell me again,” Mira said between shivers, “why the hell are we walking into the place even though the stars have been abandoned?”Kael adjusted the straps on his pack. “Because if Evelyn was right, the Crown’s true heart lies somew

The wind howled through the hollow long after the flames died. The ashes of Kellen shimmered faintly, silver motes rising and vanishing into the dark. Kael hadn’t moved in what felt like hours. He just stood there, silent, still, and hollow-eyed, staring at the place where his brother had vanished. Lira crouched nearby, tending to the gash on her temple with a torn strip of cloth. Every few minutes, her gaze drifted toward him, but she didn’t speak. There were no words sharp enough to cut through grief like this. Finally, Kael stirred. “We bury what’s left.” Lira’s voice was low. “There’s nothing to bury.” Kael’s eyes lifted to her, and for a heartbeat she saw the storm behind them, rage, sorrow, guilt, all tangled together. “There’s always something.” He gathered the ashes with his hands, ignoring the sting of heat that licked at his palms. When the last of the silver dust was gone from the stone, he dug into the earth beside the cliff, his movements mechanical, unrelenting. Lira

Dawn came gray and hollow.The fires had burned out, but the smoke still hung over Viremont like a veil of mourning. The city had gone silent, too silent for a place that once never slept. No cries, no bells, no merchants calling out across the square. Just wind pushing through broken glass and empty streets.Kael stood on the Temple’s balcony, watching the light creep over the rooftops. The seal Nora had carved still pulsed faintly below, golden lines threading through the cracked stone like veins of fragile sunlight. It had worked, at least, for now.Behind him, Lira leaned against one of the columns, cleaning blood off her blades. She hadn’t spoken since the night before. Her eyes were distant, heavy with what they’d lost.Nora was still inside, lying on one of the pews near the altar, wrapped in Kael’s coat. Her breathing was shallow but steady. Whatever she had done to seal the Warden’s power had taken a toll on her blood, her strength, maybe even her soul.Kael’s hands gripped t