The heavy oak double doors of the abandoned slate mill closed with a dense, hollow thud that cut off the desperate shouting from the Lower Wards alleyways.Inside, the structure smelled of crushed rock, ancient grease, and damp river silt. Massive, rusted cutting wheels, once used to split the mountain’s dark slate sheets for the stronghold’s grand roofs, hung from thick iron chains in the shadows overhead. Outside the dirty glass windows, the massive curtain of silver-blue fire cast a trembling, static light across the stone floorboards, making the dust motes look like falling needles of ice.Lucien Varkas dropped the thick iron locking bar into its brackets. He did not look back at the room, his massive chest rising and falling in ragged, shallow cycles. The deep crimson gashes across his bare collarbone were still weeping, his primitive Lycan heat radiating off his skin to combat the unnatural winter dropping through the roof."The perimeter line is tightening," Lucien said, his ro
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