Semua Bab MOON OF ASHES: Bab 31 - Bab 40

The archway sealed with a final hiss of silver. The light faded but the runes remained, faint and spider-thin across the old stones. Outside, claws scraped again — slow, testing — then a low growl rolled through the clearing.Inside, the tower was little more than a hollow cylinder of damp rock. Moonlight leaked through cracks high above. Ivy hung down like ropes from the broken roof. Dust stirred at their arrival.Ava leaned against the wall, palms braced on the cold stone. Her whole body trembled with leftover magic and exertion. The knot in her hand throbbed, as though it had a heartbeat of its own.Silas crouched by the sealed archway, fingers hovering over the glowing runes, lips moving soundlessly as he reinforced them. Lyra prowled the circumference of the room, checking for hidden exits. Caleb dropped Eron Vey unceremoniously against a pillar and straightened, wiping sweat from his brow.“You dragged us into a tomb,” Caleb muttered.“It’s defensible,” Silas said without lookin

The stairwell pitched and shook under their boots. Dust rained from the ceiling as they descended, the roar of the pack below rising into a single furious sound. Silas’s silver flare still burned at the base of the stairs, a sheet of blinding light that forced the first wave of trackers back, but it wouldn’t last.“Keep moving!” Lyra shouted over her shoulder. Her blade dripped silver sparks from the flare’s residue.Caleb’s shoulder slammed into the stone as he wrestled Eron Vey down the last flight. The bound Alpha laughed once — low and breathless — as if he were watching some ancient prophecy finally unfold.Ava stumbled but kept her grip on the token. Her arm burned with silver light, every step syncing with the pulse in her palm. She felt the ward like a weight behind her, tugging, but she forced herself forward. “North,” she whispered again.They burst out of the stairwell into the tower’s ground floor. The runes on the archway had shattered completely, leaving only splintered

They moved fast, slipping from shadow to shadow beneath the towering pines. The forest north of the marker felt different: older, darker, the air heavy with damp earth and the faint tang of metal. Every so often a tremor passed through the ground, subtle enough that only Ava seemed to notice, but she saw Silas flinch each time too.Mist swirled between the trunks. In the dim light, moss glimmered like wet fur. Birds had gone silent. Only their own footfalls and the steady rush of the river somewhere behind them broke the hush.“Another mile and we’ll see the ridge,” Lyra said over her shoulder. Her voice was low but steady. “It’s high ground. We can rest there.”Caleb snorted softly. “If the pack lets us.”“They’re not pressing,” Mara observed. “Not like before. Almost like they’re waiting.”Ava hugged her coat tighter. The token pulsed faintly against her ribs, each beat answered by a deeper pulse under the earth. The whisper hadn’t returned, but she felt its presence like a hand jus

The platform circled the base of the spire like a ring of black glass. Up close the “stone” didn’t feel like stone at all; it was too smooth, too cold, and the sigils running through it pulsed like veins. Every so often the surface shuddered under their boots, as if something enormous shifted far below.Ava walked the perimeter slowly, palm hovering just above the surface. Each time she passed one of the larger runes, the token at her chest flared and her pulse jumped to match. “There’s a seam here,” she murmured. “I can feel it. Like a heartbeat.”Silas crouched, tracing one of the spirals with a finger just shy of touching it. “It’s a lock,” he said. “Not mechanical. Not even purely magical. It’s… responsive. It’s waiting for you.”Caleb gave a humorless laugh. “Wonderful. So we knock and hope it’s friendly?”“No,” Ava said, voice low. “We ask.”She laid her hand flat against the seam. The stone was ice-cold; a vibration rose up her arm, then up her spine. In her mind she saw again

The platform felt larger without Silas and Mara. The black stone stretched away like a cold sea, the glowing seams dimmer now but pulsing steadily beneath Ava’s boots. She stood near the edge of the circle Silas had drawn, fingers curled around the token. The wolves below had stopped their restless pacing; they sat as still as statues, their eyes fixed upward, unblinking.Caleb leaned against one of the low pillars that ringed the platform, twirling his knife between his fingers. “I hate waiting,” he muttered. “Feels like we’re sitting on a bomb and praying it doesn’t go off.”Lyra sat cross-legged on the stone, sword across her knees, eyes closed as if listening for something beyond the wind. “It’s not a bomb,” she said quietly. “It’s a heartbeat.”“That’s supposed to make me feel better?” Caleb shot back.Eron Vey paced the inner edge of the circle, his long coat brushing the glowing lines. He tilted his head like a bird, listening. “The pulse is slowing,” he murmured. “It’s listeni