Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 11 - Chapitre 20

Ava didn’t remember falling to her knees.She didn’t remember reaching for the keychain or how the cold metal stung her fingers.All she remembered was the number.33As if it meant something she used to know.Something she should remember.Something that hurt.“Ava,” Jace whispered.His voice felt far away.She stared at the keychain—scratched, worn, unmistakably hers. Her father’s. The one he’d carried every day.“This can’t be real,” she said, barely audible. “It was lost. I looked everywhere. It—it disappeared right after he—”She couldn’t finish the sentence.She didn’t need to.Jace crouched in front of her, careful, slow, like he was approaching something breakable.“Ava.”He gently placed his hand on hers, steadying her grip around the key.His touch should’ve grounded her.Instead it felt like the world was tipping.“You don’t have to look at it right now,” he murmured. “We can put it away. We can—”“What does thirty-three open?” she asked.Jace’s breath faltered.He didn’t a

The door clicked shut behind them, and the air changed again.It was no longer just heavy. No longer just alive.It felt hungry.Ava’s chest tightened. The key burned in her hand. She realized she hadn’t let go of it since stepping inside. Somehow, the tarnished metal felt like a lifeline—but also like a tether to something she couldn’t yet name.Jace moved closer. His presence was a shield, a warning, and a temptation all at once. “Stay near me,” he said, low and urgent.“I’m not going anywhere,” Ava murmured, voice shaking. But even she noticed how small and fragile it sounded.The room shifted again, walls rippling like water. Shadows curled into shapes, shapes that twisted and coiled into memories she shouldn’t have seen.Her father appeared first.Not alive, not quite. His eyes were hollow, his movements jerky, as though he were puppeted by grief.“Ava…” the echo whispered. “You shouldn’t be here. Not alone. Not yet…”Ava’s fingers ached for him. For his presence. For a

The air was thick—so thick that every breath felt like drawing smoke into her lungs.Ava’s fingers remained intertwined with Jace’s, and she realized she hadn’t let go since entering Room Thirty-Three. Not because she needed him to anchor her—it was more than that. She needed him because without him, the room would swallow her whole.It was already starting.The shadows stretched across the walls, curling around them, shifting shapes with every heartbeat. Whispers threaded through the air: faint, haunting, impossible to ignore.“You left him behind…”“You can’t save him…”“You’ll fail…”Ava’s stomach churned. The words weren’t just echoes—they were accusations, memories, possibilities all mashed together into a single, suffocating entity.She pressed against Jace. “It’s too much,” she whispered.“No,” he said, voice low, gravelly. “It’s not too much. It’s just… showing us the truth. We face it together.”She nodded, though her hands shook. And then it happened—the first true confessio

The hallway to the west wing stretched before them like a dark wound in the house. Every step Ava took made the polished floorboards groan as if the house itself were breathing under her feet. Shadows pooled along the corners, thick and restless, moving when she wasn’t looking directly at them.Jace walked beside her, hands casually in his pockets, but his posture was taut. Every so often, he glanced at her, eyes like coiled wires, alert, protective, almost feral.“You really want to do this?” he asked, voice low.Ava’s pulse pounded in her ears. Her chest tightened, the memory of Room Thirty-Three still hot against her skin. “I have to,” she whispered. “I need to know… what happened to him.”Jace exhaled sharply, a quiet sound that she felt more than heard. “I warned you. This isn’t just curiosity. This isn’t just a hallway. It’s… it’s the part of the house that keeps what it wants.”Ava stepped closer to him without thinking. Their shoulders brushed, and the heat from his body wrapp

The west wing had grown silent, but it wasn’t calm.It was waiting.Ava could feel it in her bones, in the pulse of the walls, in the low hum that vibrated through the floorboards. Every shadow, every warped corner, every echo of memory lingered like a predator, watching, calculating, biding its time.Jace’s hand was still in hers, firm, grounding, but even he was tense, muscles coiled, eyes scanning every inch of the chamber like a sentinel guarding against invisible predators.“You feel that?” Ava whispered.He didn’t answer immediately. His jaw was tight, lips pressed into a thin line. Then he said, low and measured, “It’s the final trap. Whatever the west wing wanted… it’s coming for us.”Ava’s pulse spiked. Fear laced every nerve in her body, but beneath it, there was something else—something dangerous and irresistible. Her proximity to Jace, the heat of his body pressed against hers, the intensity of his gaze—it made the fear almost bearable. Almost intoxicating.“We need