Evaline:
For a long mont, I couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t blink. Couldn’t even fully comprehend what my eyes were taking in. My feet felt fused to the stone beneath them, as if the place itself had decided I wasn’t allowed to move forward... or backward.
Then I felt Kieran shift beside .
His shoulder brushed mine as he stepped closer, his presence solid and grounding, and I knew the exact mont his gaze finally landed on it. His entire body went rigid, the hand that had been resting at my waist tightening ever so slightly.
Before either of us could speak, warmth wrapped around my hand.
Oscar.
His fingers slid into mine, firm and steady, and without a word he began guiding down the remaining stairs. I let him pull forward, my legs moving on instinct rather than conscious command. Kieran followed imdiately behind us, close enough that I could feel the heat of him at my back.
Within seconds, the three of us were standing beside River at the bottom of the stairway.
Silence pressed in around us... thick, reverent, almost fearful.
It was Oscar who finally broke it.
"It looks like Marcus didn’t lie," he said quietly.
My voice followed, barely more than a whisper. "And neither did Carson."
None of us looked at each other as we spoke. Because all four of us were staring at the sa thing.
The tree.
It stood at the center of the clearing the stairs had led us to, rooted into stone as if the earth itself had cracked open just to give it space to exist. The cavern wasn’t large... just wide enough to hold the tree comfortably... but the mont you stepped into it, everything else felt... insignificant.
The tree was massive.
And dead.
Not just with the quiet, natural death of age or decay... but sothing far more wrong.
Every single inch of it was black.
Not dark brown. Not charred gray.
But black.
Its trunk, its branches, even the smallest twigs that stretched outward like skeletal fingers were soaked in a pitch so deep it seed to swallow the moonstone light rather than reflect it.
If it weren’t for the golden glow illuminating the clearing, the tree would have vanished entirely into the darkness, indistinguishable from the shadows themselves.
But the light from our moonstones revealed it. And that sohow made it worse.
A tree this deep underground was unnatural enough.
A black tree, devoid of any life, standing alone in a hidden chamber beneath the Academy?
That wasn’t coincidence.
That was intent.
Danger humd beneath my skin, a low, warning thrum that had nothing to do with fear and everything to do with instinct.
This place shouldn’t exist.
River was the first to move, his posture shifting into sothing sharper, more commanding.
"No one touches anything," he said firmly. "I’m calling the warriors down."
I watched as his expression shifted and I knew he was talking to Jasper through the mindlink he shared with his beta.
My gaze shifted to the tree again, and without even realizing, I stepped forward only for three hands to stop instantly.
River’s grip closed around my right arm. Oscar’s fingers tightened around my left hand... the one he still hadn’t let go of. And Kieran’s palm settled firmly against my shoulder, anchoring in place.
I turned to look at them.
They didn’t need to say a word. Their expressions said everything... worry, protectiveness, restraint. The unspoken plea for to stay close. To stay safe.
The pull toward the tree was undeniable, but so was my understanding of them.
I nodded slowly.
The tension in their bodies eased, just a fraction.
River released my arm, though his eyes never left . Oscar loosened his grip slightly but didn’t let go. Kieran’s hand slid away from my shoulder, though he stayed close enough that I could feel him there.
Minutes later, footsteps echoed down the stairs.
Five elite warriors erged into the clearing, alert and cautious, followed closely by Rowan and Jasper. Another group was still outside the West Tower under Mark’s supervision, exactly as planned.
The mont they saw the tree, they froze.
Every single one of them.
Rowan didn’t speak right away. He just stared.
An entire minute passed before his gaze finally shifted to .
"Is this...," he hesitated, then asked quietly, "linked to that so-called Great Evil?"
I swallowed.
"I don’t know," I admitted honestly.
And that was the worst part.
River wasted no ti.
"No one touches anything here with their bare hands," he ordered sharply. "Especially the tree."
Kieran stepped forward imdiately, slipping seamlessly into command beside his brother.
"Photograph everything," he instructed the warriors. "The tree, the walls, the floor. Take soil and rock samples. Anything that looks even remotely out of place. Run energy readings across the entire place. Scan the walls thoroughly - look for runes, markings, spells, carvings. Anything."
The warriors moved at once, forming teams and spreading out with professional efficiency.
Oscar’s hand was still in mine as he began to walk, gently pulling along as he surveyed the clearing. Rowan stayed close to us, his presence steady and familiar.
But my gaze never left the tree.
It was like sothing unseen was tugging at , drawing my attention back no matter how hard I tried to focus elsewhere.
And Oscar noticed.
He slowed, then stopped entirely when I tugged lightly on his hand.
"I won’t touch it," I promised quietly. "But I need to look closer."
He studied my face for a long mont, then nodded. Instead of letting go, he walked with .
We stopped a safe distance away, close enough to observe but far enough to remain cautious. Rowan joined us, his moonstone flaring brighter as he lifted it higher.
Between Oscar’s and Rowan’s moonstones, the tree was bathed in golden light.
I took it in slowly.
The branches twisted unnaturally, as though frozen mid-scream. The bark wasn’t rough like a normal tree’s... it looked almost smooth in places, cracked deeply in others. Those cracks caught my attention imdiately.
They ran along the trunk like fractures in bone.
Large. Old.
Intentional.
"This thing..." Rowan muttered, shaking his head. "It doesn’t feel real."
Two warriors nearby adjusted their equipnt.
"Alphas, there are no energy readings," one of them announced. "Nothing at all."
That should have been reassuring.
But it wasn’t.
There was no magic here. No ward. No spell. No residual power of any known or unknown kind.
And yet...
My chest tightened.
Because even as the monitors showed nothing, sothing inside stirred.
Though there was no active energy here, there was sothing else.
Sothing faint.
Sothing lingering.
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