CHAPTER 83: BOOK OF SEVEN KEYS

The meeting room sat on the second floor of the castle, tucked behind double doors carved with wolves chasing each other in an endless circle.

Raye and I pushed them open.

A single large table dominated the room. It was carved from dark gray stone, heavy enough that it must have taken a few people to set in place.

The men were already there. Rion sat at the head of the table. Ares lounged to his right, broad-shouldered and smirking as though the room itself bent to his humor, while Diaval sat opposite him, his lean frame draped across the chair with casual nonchalance.

My steps faltered when Rion’s gaze found me. His eyes held mine as though he’d been waiting for me to arrive, and for one disorienting heartbeat, I felt the same jolt I had the first time I touched the fire as a child.

I swallowed, forcing myself to look away. I shouldn’t feel guilty for the words I’d flung at him last night. I had spoken the truth.

And yet, the moment his eyes lingered on me, that guilt slithered back, unwanted and suffocating. I brushed it off and followed Raye inside.

"You two went shopping, didn’t you?" Ares leaned forward, grinning at us. "I can smell fabric dye and fried sweets clinging to you."

Raye let out an exasperated groan. "Not fried sweets but fruit drinks. And yes, we bought some things."

"What can you expect? Raye loves spending." Diaval’s smirk tilted lazily, his eyes glinting.

Raye shot him a glare sharp enough to slice. "We’re preparing for the Moon Festival, you miserable brute. Not that you’d know the importance of looking presentable."

That earned a low laugh from Ares. "Oh, the Moon Festival. Right. Diaval, are you going to embarrass yourself again this year in the duels? Or will you finally let someone else get beaten bloody in your place?"

Diaval bristled, leaning across the table. "I would’ve won last year if I weren’t distracted by you shouting insults from the sidelines."

"Excuses," Ares said, all teeth. "You’re obsessed with proving yourself and it still won’t save you from landing flat on your back."

I eased into my chair beside Raye, watching their bickering with faint amusement—until my gaze drifted back to the head of the table.

Rion had said nothing. His attention was fixed on me, his expression unreadable. No smirk. No sharp retort. Nothing of the playful mockery I had grown used to.

The absence of it unnerved me. I realized how accustomed I had become to his teasing—to his constant poking and prodding, the irritating remarks that I despised. Without them, I was left adrift, caught in the weight of his stare.

I dropped my eyes to the table, tracing the grooves in the stone with my fingertips.

Ares and Diaval carried on, sparring with words instead of blades, until Raye finally clapped her hands together.

"Enough! We’re not here to relive your defeats, Diaval. Let’s talk about what actually matters, shall we?"

Ares leaned back, grin fading.

Rion moved at last. He extended one long-fingered hand and nudged the book that sat at the center of the table, its cover thick with age, the edges of its pages frayed as though they had been turned a thousand times.

He then said to no one in particular, "Explain to her."

"So," Raye spoke first. She scooted closer, the warmth of her arm brushing mine as she pulled the book toward us.

"Vivien, this is the book of the keys. These are what we must gather to unseal the wards of the Undersea Tower."

The book was old, looked like it could be dusty at first glance but up close it looked clean. Its spine cracked like brittle bone, its pages etched in curling script that seemed to crawl beneath the chandelier.

"There are seven keys," Raye began. She traced her finger across the first page. "This is the Bone Light... then the Millow Shade, the relic we got from Arjan. And here..." she turned the page, "a poem. Not a relic. A woman. A she-wolf chained and unchained, a guide bound to stars unseen. We believe it speaks of you since the Alpha says he can sense a faint energy of the Celestial wolf in you."

The lines stared back at me, ink faded but clear enough to brand themselves into my mind.

"Where did you get this book?" I asked.

I had known about the stories of Celestial Wolf for as long as I could read. Every person in the continent knew its tale. But never, not once, had there been mention of a book like this.

And to find it here, of all places, in the Undercity? That thought scraped against everything I believed I knew.

Rion’s chair shifted. He rested one hand on the table, his fingers against the stone.

"Picked it up somewhere," he said, a flicker of playfulness in his voice, though his face betrayed nothing. No smirk. No curve of the lips I had come to expect.

"That’s not the answer I’m expecting."

His expression didn’t shift.

"There’s no need for you to know its origin." His words were quiet, yet they left no space for argument. "What matters is this—you will help us find the rest. We already hold three. And you," his gaze cut into me, "are one of them."

My jaw clenched. It was understandable they’d withhold information. I was living in their castle for now but I didn’t belong here. I just didn’t push it even when curiosity was killing me.

"And how exactly do you think I can help?"

Rion’s eyes didn’t leave mine. The room seemed to dim around his voice. "You can feel them. Each key carries a trace of the Celestial Wolf’s energy. Faint, but present. You can find them, Vivien, if you learn how to reach for it."

A flicker of disbelief must have betrayed me, because his gaze sharpened, as though he had plucked the thought straight from my skull.

"You will only be able to sense them once you master yourself. Your wolf’s power must be stabilized—tamed until it bends to your will. Once you hold full control, I can teach you how to reach for the Celestial Wolf’s energy."