bChapter /bb69 /b

“I think we need to organise a dinner with Alpha Marcus. Maybe under the pretence of us wanting to thank him for raising our mate. Something that will gain us ess to bthe /bTris pack without suspicionb, /bso we can sniff around.” Noah thinks out loud, and the others all agree. I’m a little too lost in my own thoughts to be able to contribute to their conversation until bLevi /btouches my arm gently, pulling me back to reality. “What would you like to do with Marius, doll? We can keep him in the waiting room a while longer or even in the hotel in case we need him furtherb./b”

?

“No… He deserves to move on.” I give my old friend a weak smile. “Can you assess him now, please?” As much as I want to stay and hopefully see him ascend, I really can’t stand to know if he’s doomed his soul the hell, so I give him onest smile and thank him for his time before I leave. I opened a portal and stepped through without really thinking, and I find myself in the Tris packnds. I stay on the side bof /bthe veil where no one can see me as I make my way through the pack house and straight into Alpha Marcus‘ office. He sits with his feet on the desk, ba /bss of alcohol in his hand, and his shirt untucked and messyb, /bsuch a stark difference to how I always viewed him growing up. He was never bcruel /bto me, but he wasn’t overly warm either. He was just…I don’t know. He was consistent. I stand over his shoulder, watching himzily sort through paperwork bas /bhe sighs deeplyb, /btossing a few to the floor. I look over the few in my line of view, bills with overdue stamps on them. Tris is… broke? I don’t understand how Tris could be broke? They have profitablends, a steady ie from their crop trades with humans, and business deals with other packs. It’s nearly impossible for them to be broke, but there it is, in big red letters. I stand around watching Alpha Marcus for at least an hourb, /bbut he doesn’t do much besides drink, smoke, and shuffle papers. I decide to leave him there and venture up to my old room, wondering what has been made of it now. Materialising through doorways and walls along the wayb, /bbI /bspot nothing out of the ordinary, the pack his how it always was, just ordinary, if you don’t include the basement full of dead children…How did he know I was different? What did he want with me? Did he get something out of keeping me here, or does he still need me for something? Is Felix in on it, too? The questions just keep spewing out with no possible answer that I can see. When I get to my old room, I see it’s just as empty as it always was, bexcept /bmy pillow and nket are goneb, /bprobably stripped, washed, and stored somewhere.

With nothing else to do, I decide bI /bshould probably head home, but I catch movement. A shadow slips beneath the door of my old roomb, /bso quick I almost think I imagined it. But the chill crawling up my spine tells me otherwise.

I back into the corner, eyes narrowing. There’s no scent, of course not. I’m technically not here, not in a way anyone in the mortal realm can detect. I’m still cloaked by the Underworld’s veil, existing just outside their perceptionb. /bBut they shouldn’t be able to move like that either. I step out through the door and into the hall. Empty. But there it is again, a flicker at the end of the corridor, right before the stairwell. I follow, down, past the rooms that once housed warriors and guards, past the floor where Marcus kept his private offices, all the way to a part of the house that was supposed to be closed off. Boarded up for as long as I can remember. I remember the warning: Never go down thereb, /bEnvy. It’s unstable. Dangerous. But it’s not…bThe /bstairs are solid, and the deeper I descend, the colder it gets. By the time bI /breach the bottom, frost crawls over the stone walls, glittering in thin sheets across the floor. The light is dim, flickering with a faint blue hue like moonlight filtered through ice. That’s when I hear it…Whispers. Not wordsb, /bnot exactly, but the sound of something… ancient.

Not the Underworld. Not divine. Something in betweenb. /bI move toward the whispering, each bstep /blike pushing through msses. The veil starts to bend, reacting. My power res instinctively to hold it steady, and that’s when I see it. A door. No knob. No hinges. bJust /bckenedb, /brune–covered stone and ba /bsingle handprint etched into bthe /bcentre. The shape bis /bsmallb. /bFamiliar. My hand. I raise my palm before bI /beven realize I’m doing it. The second I touch it, everything changes. Light explodes outward, knocking me back into the opposite wall. I blink away the daze just in time to see the door melt into the stone and bdisappear /bentirely, revealing a spiral staircase that leads… down even deeper. The air is thick now. Humid. Charged with something primal. Old magic. The kind that clings to byour /bbones and whispers bsecrets /bto your blood. And I know, I know that whatever Marcus was doing with those children… whatever he was nning for me… the answers are down there.

A voice breaks through the air behind me. “You shouldn’t be here.” bI /bspin around, eyes wide. Felix stands there, his usual calm reced with something darker. His eyes bare /bshadowed. Older somehow.

“Felix…” My voice wavers. “You see meb?/bb” /b

He frowns, then nods onceb. /b

“I always could.”

The silence stretches between us like a wire drawn tight, and then, almost too softly, he adds, “He was never meant to find out what you are.”

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