جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 50

The symbols faded slowly. Not completely. Just enough for the room to breathe again. The silver glow beneath the stone weakened until only thin cracks of light remained, flickering like dying embers beneath the floor. But the silence afterward— That silence felt wrong. Like the mountain was listening. Kael helped me back to my feet carefully. “You’re shaking.” I hadn’t noticed. But now that he said it, I realized my hands wouldn’t stop trembling. Not from fear alone. From exhaustion. Every time the power surged lately, it took something with it. Strength. Control. Pieces of me I wasn’t sure I could afford to lose. Ronan was still staring at the floor. At the fading symbols. At whatever memories were moving behind his eyes. “You knew this would happen,” I said quietly. His gaze lifted to mine immediately. “No.” The answer came too fast. Too defensive. I narrowed my eyes. “You knew something.” Silence. Which was answer enough. Kael looked between us sharply.

The storm worsened after midnight. Rain hammered against the keep like war drums, thunder shaking the mountain walls hard enough to rattle windows throughout Nightfall. No one slept. Not really. Too much tension filled the air. Too many whispers moved through the halls. And somewhere beneath all of it— That thing under the mountain remained awake. Watching. Waiting. Ronan led us through the lower levels of the keep in silence. Kael stayed close beside me, visibly irritated by the fact that we were being dragged through ancient underground corridors in the middle of a storm. “You know,” he muttered quietly, “normal packs deal with problems by talking.” Ronan didn’t even glance back. “This is me talking.” Kael looked deeply offended by that answer. The deeper we descended, the colder the air became. Not natural cold. Old cold. The kind that settled into your bones. Torches lined the stone walls, their flames flickering strangely as we passed. Like the air itself was

No one moved. The hidden doorway stood open in complete silence, darkness stretching beyond it like the mountain itself had split open to reveal something buried too long. Cold air drifted from inside. Ancient. Still. Wrong. Kael was the first to recover. “Absolutely not.” His voice echoed sharply through the archive. “We are not walking into the creepy secret death chamber that opened by itself.” Honestly? Fair. But I couldn’t stop staring at it. Because the moment the doorway opened— The pressure inside my chest changed. Not stronger. Clearer. Like something that had been calling from far away was suddenly standing directly in front of me. Waiting. Ronan stepped slowly toward the entrance. Careful. Controlled. But even he looked uneasy now. And if Ronan was uneasy— That meant this was far worse than any of us wanted to admit. “This chamber shouldn’t exist,” he said quietly. Kael blinked. “That is somehow not comforting.” Ronan ignored him. “These archive

The rain had not stopped. If anything, it had grown heavier—like the sky itself was warning them not to continue. Lucien stood at the edge of Nightfall territory, his cloak soaked, wind cutting sharply through the trees around him. Behind him, Blackwood escorts waited in tense silence. But Lucien didn’t look back. He only stared forward. Toward Nightfall. Toward her. The closer he got, the worse it became. Not pain. Not confusion. Awareness. A pressure behind his ribs that had no name. Like something inside him was responding to something inside her. Caius stepped beside him, lowering his voice. “You’re certain about this?” Lucien didn’t answer immediately. Because certainty wasn’t what drove him here anymore. It was inevitability. “She’s inside,” Lucien said finally. Caius exhaled sharply. “That’s not what I asked.” Lucien’s gaze remained fixed ahead. “I know.” A pause. Then— “And I’m going in.” The Nightfall border patrol appeared within minutes. Weapons

The mountain shook again. Hard enough this time to crack stone along the corridor walls. Council guards immediately shifted into formation. Nightfall warriors answered just as quickly. Steel slid free from sheaths. Instinct. Fear. Preparation. But no one attacked. Because everyone understood something terrifying: Whatever was happening beneath Nightfall mattered more than pack politics now. Lucien’s gaze remained locked on Varis. “What exactly rises with her?” Varis didn’t answer immediately. His expression had grown darker with every tremor beneath the mountain. Not angry. Resigned. Below the chamber— the throne pulsed again. Silver light spread violently across the floor, illuminating the underground chamber in waves. Kael stepped protectively closer to Althea. “I really need ancient magical disasters to stop escalating every five minutes.” Normally she might have answered. But right now— she could barely breathe. The name still echoed inside her head. Hous