The Hidden Place Novels & Stories

My lips curve slightly. “You really didn’t trust anyone, did you?” No answer. Of course not. But I don’t need one. I already found what she hid. And now I’m going to use it. The location isn’t marked. Not on any map. Not in any system. It exists between things. A place carved out of shadows and secrets. Exactly where something like this would be kept. I step inside. The air shifts instantly. That means it’s still here. The chamber is dark and in the center breathes slowly.

If she wanted you to follow, she’d have told you where. And I realize something that makes my chest ache. This place—this village—was never meant to be hidden forever. It was meant to be obscure. A difference that matters. Hidden implies secrecy. Obscure implies selectivity. Only the right people are meant to find it. I glance at my phone again. Still nothing. No messages from Leah’s doctors. No updates. No emergencies. Silence stretches like a held breath. I imagine calling Leah. The image is immediate and painful. Her voice, fragile but steady. The way she would listen too closely now, searching for what I’m not saying. The way fear would spike if she heard the ocean in my voice.

The final chamber was not hidden because it was empty. It was hidden because it was the truth no one had survived cleanly enough to carry back. The foundation beneath the sanctuary peeled apart beneath my hand, and below the lattice of bones and roots I saw a vast round chamber lined in black stone veined with silver. Old water circled its edges in silent channels. At its centre stood not a throne, not an altar, but a cradle of iron and root grown together around a hollow large enough to hold a body.

Bryan asked, getting closer. “What other choice do we have? With Lukas’ forces as they are and us being completely outnumbered? We need all the help we can get.” Bryan huffed but said nothing else. Neither did his subordinate. We trudged on. Grey led us deeper into the heart of the forest until we reached a hidden settlement concealed from the prying eyes of the outside world. The shadows felt deeper here, and though I knew that we hadn’t walked that far from the river, I could barely hear the sound of it. Was that how they hid for so long? Wrapping their dwelling in shadows? I looked up. The canopy of trees seemed to be thicker here as well. Perhaps this place was the darkest part of the fo

Well, I'm the fucking Devil, and I will make people roar in fear of me. I'll be the dark fog engulfing the room, with nothing to lose and so much to gain. Like smoke, destroying everything it comes into contact with, until, all that remains is the aberrant odour of my contamination. My name is Sandro Peker, and you can read about my mission in the upcoming instalment of... Hidden Secrets: Forbidden Heirs.

He would say she did fully her promise to him and he’d learned more than enough to have his love stronger than theirs and conquered all foes. “This is the place I wanted to show you..” he removed the blindfold from her eyes. A gasp escaped her mouth. This place did exist. The beautiful place she’d been trapped in and where everything had happened. She thought it only existed in her subconscious. But then, she was here. With Zyair and Zane. “You like it here? Look at the tree, there’s something about it. It’s had been the oldest tree ever and the most treasured tree we’d. And this place is our fortune. Not every wolf is allowed in here and it’s been protected.”

For five long years, Declan Gibson and I kept our relationship hidden. I had tried to seduce him more times than I could count. Yet, one month before our wedding ceremony, he quietly organized the city's grandest fireworks display for his childhood sweetheart's birthday. After they embraced in public, they shared a slice of cake. They even checked into a hotel together later that night. … I watched them leave the hotel, side by side. That was when the truth hit me—Declan wasn't showing restraint. He just didn't love me.

Confirmations of their suspicions. My secret, the one I’d buried so deep, was about to rise with the moon. I wanted to vanish. Run. Run. Suddenly, a memory struck me, so vivid it was like I’d stepped into it. Hyde's words to me that night. “This place,” he’d said, “no one comes here but me. It’s quiet and safe, you're officially the second person that knows about it.” The stream. The little hidden place just beyond the ridge, tucked behind the brambles and the stones shaped like crescent moons. No one else knew about it.

"But if Esther’s hiding here, we can’t afford to turn back." Hours passed as we followed the lead given to us by the man we’d interrogated. He had spoken of a cave system, a place where Esther supposedly kept her wolves. We found the entrance exactly where he’d said it would be—a jagged opening in the side of a rocky hill, partially concealed by overgrown foliage. Jake raised a hand, signaling for everyone to stop. The group fell silent, the tension palpable as we gathered around the entrance. "This is it," Jake said, his voice barely above a whisper. "Be ready for anything."

playing on mute. She started out the window, the side of her head pressed to the cold glass as her eyes followed the men patrol the ground, their footsteps leaving a trail in the snow, and she knew they would disappear in the next few hours with the constant snowfall. She watched some men play fighting, others checking their guns, some smoking at the edge of the evergreen forest surrounding the estate. Her brother's estate was on a hill, surrounded by forest and almost an hour's drive from civilization. Sometimes she had to wonder whether this isolation was the cause of the way her brother turned out to be: sick and twisted.