Chapter 50: The Woman in the CloudsThe road ended at a gate.Iron. Tall. Wrought into shapes that looked like vines and thorns and something else. Something that might have been faces if you stared long enough. The mountains rose on either side, their peaks lost in mist, their slopes carpeted with trees that had stood for centuries.Lucien killed the engine.We sat in the silence. The gray sedan—Margaret's car, now our car—hummed as it cooled. Somewhere, a bird called out. Somewhere else, water dripped from leaves heavy with the morning's rain."She's in there," I said."She's been in there for twenty years," Lucien replied. "Hiding. Waiting. Watching.""Watching us?""Watching everything."He opened his door. The cold air rushed in, thin and sharp, smelling of pine and earth and the kind of loneliness that only mountains could hold.I followed him out.The gate had no handle. No lock. Just a keypad on the right side, glowing red in the gray light.Lucien stared at it."Birthdate," h
Last Updated : 2026-04-27 Read more