Semua Bab The Bear's Revenge: Bab 61 - Bab 70

Ronan wasn’t prepared for the smell.The deeper he ran into the tunnel after Kiera, the more the air thickened, damp stone, old electricity, rust, mould, and beneath it something far worse.Sterile chemicals.Cold metal.The faint sting of burned skin.Kiera’s scent was tangled between it all, thin as a thread.It pulled him forward like a hook in his ribs.“Kiera, answer me. Where are you?” He pushed the words through the bond as gently as he could, terrified of worsening her panic.Only static answeredNot resistanceNot rejectionStatic, like something was interferingHe sprinted faster.The tunnel opened suddenly, widening into a cavern gouged out of the mountain’s bones. Ancient stone met sharper, artificial cuts, walls sheared open by machines, floor panels half-buried under collapsed rock. Emergency lights flickered overhead, weak and dying, casting the space in a blood-red pulse.The remnants of a facility sprawled in front of him.Cabled dangled like veins torn from a corpse

The footsteps stopped just beyond the threshold.For a heartbeat, nothing moved.The hum deepened, a vibration that crawled up the bones of the room and rattled her teeth. The chair shuddered again, restraints tightening with a sharp click that felt far too eager. Light pulsed along cables embedded in the floor, racing toward the platform like veins filling with blood.Ronan planted himself between Kiera and the machinery, feet braced, shoulders squared. He was aware of everything at once—the angles of the doors, the weight of the air, the way Kiera’s panic clawed along the bond like a trapped animal. He could feel the mark on her skin burning as if it were trying to crawl free.Stay with me, he sent, packing the words with iron and warmth. Look at me. Breathe.She tried.Her eyes kept sliding away—to the chair, to the lights, to the outlines burned into her memory. Her hands trembled so badly she had to lock them together, nails biting into her palms. The room smelled like cold metal

The girl on the other side of the glass was crying.Not sobbing—worse. Silent tears dragged down her cheeks as she pressed her palm flat to the window, fingers splayed in a gesture Kiera had made a thousand times in rooms just like this one.Same dark hair. Same hollowed eyes. Same thin scar at the left temple.Her own face stared back at her.“No,” Kiera thought, the word a splinter that tore itself apart the moment it formed. No. That’s not— that’s not real.The chair hummed, pleased.Hale leaned closer to the glass, studying the figure behind it like a puzzle piece finally slotted into place. “Remarkable, isn’t she?” he murmured. “We didn’t expect the stabilization to persist so cleanly.”Ronan slammed into the barrier again. The impact rang through the chamber, setting alarms chirping in protest. He snarled, a sound so feral Kiera felt it in her chest. He’s lying. Don’t look—She couldn’t stop.The girl lifted her head.Their eyes met.And the bond—thin and frayed but still al

The chamber breathed.That was the only way Kiera could describe it.A low, rhythmic hum pulsed through the stone beneath her feet, not sound exactly, but pressure—like a heartbeat pressing against her skin from all directions at once. The cables overhead swayed, though the air was still. Dust lifted from the floor and hung, suspended, as if gravity itself had hesitated.The pull tightened.It wasn’t dragging her forward.It was drawing something out.Kiera gasped, fingers clutching at Ronan’s sleeve as the sensation hit her chest—a slow, steady tension, as if invisible hands had wrapped around her ribs and were testing how much give there was.No— The thought fractured before it fully formed.Ronan felt it immediately. The shift in her breathing. The spike of static through the bond. The way her body leaned forward without meaning to.“Kiera,” he said, voice firm but calm. “Look at me.”Her gaze flickered, unfocused, pupils blown wide. The white glow from the chamber reflected in h

They fell.Not fast. Not at first.The stone beneath Ronan’s feet split with a scream that tore through the chamber, a jagged wound opening directly under them. The floor didn’t collapse so much as peel away, layers of ancient construction falling back like skin.Kiera’s weight vanished.Ronan reacted on instinct.He wrapped his arms around her and turned, taking the brunt of the drop as they plunged through dust and shattered light. The world spun—white glare snapping into black—his shoulder slamming hard against something solid before gravity stole them again.Down.Air tore past them, thick with grit and the smell of old metal.Kiera clung to him, fingers locked in his shirt, her mind shrieking as the pull—the chamber’s pull—followed them, stretching like a hook sunk deep into her chest.It’s still connected, she sent, panic sharp and jagged. It didn’t let go.Ronan grit his teeth, rolling midair as best he could, angling his body beneath hers. He felt the impact before he heard it