The hidden door creaked open behind Astrid Voss’s desk, revealing a yawning black space that slled of dust and secrets.
I turned to Kieran, my heart racing.
He t my eyes, and there was no need for words. Just one glance. That was all it took.
He grabbed my hand and pulled with him through the narrow passage. The mont we stepped inside, the door slid shut behind us with a final-sounding click, sealing us in darkness.
I sucked in a breath.
I couldn’t see a thing, but Kieran seed perfectly calm, his steps confident even in the dark. His grip on my hand was steady as he moved ahead, guiding through the pitch-black space like it was nothing.
"Wait here," he murmured under his breath.
He let go and slipped away into the shadows.
I stood still, ears straining, heart pounding. I could hear his soft steps brushing over stone... and then a faint click.
A small bulb overhead flickered to life.
The light was dim and yellow, barely enough to illuminate the small, windowless room we had just entered, but it was enough.
My eyes swept the space. It was empty except for the thick layer of dust on the ground and the strange carvings etched deep into the stone walls
Symbols. Spirals. Lines like veins spreading across the walls. And in between them, scribbles, like writing,, but not in any language I recognized. It looked old. Ancient.
"What is this place?" I breathed, stepping closer to one of the walls.
Kieran was already examining the carvings, his brows furrowed as he studied the markings.
"Do you know what it says?" I asked.
He shook his head slowly, which surprised more than it should have. "No," he said, voice lower now. "I don’t. And I’m not sure anyone alive does."
That unsettled more than the darkness ever could.
Kieran was Lycan. He’d probably been taught every important dialect and tongue from the old world. If he didn’t know it... then it was very old.
I moved beside him and traced my fingers just beneath one of the carvings, this one depicted two figures standing in front of a grand, dod structure that looked like a temple or fortress.
The figures were etched with precision, one male, tall with a staff in hand, the other female with a glowing mark on her forehead. Sothing about the way they were drawn made them feel important.
"Who are they?" I whispered, the air around suddenly feeling heavier.
Kieran leaned in, brushing dust off the base of the carving. There was a line written underneath it, this ti, not in the strange symbols, but in a script we could actually read.
He read it aloud slowly.
"Avelar, and Maeryn"
I shivered.
The nas sounded powerful, ancient, like echoes from a ti when the world was still wild and raw.
"Avelar..." I repeated, tasting the weight of the na. "Maeryn..."
"They were Lycans," Kieran said, still staring at the wall. "Pure blooded Lycans, not like the ones we know today."
There was sothing reverent in his tone, sothing rare.
I stared at the carving a little longer, the glow from the single bulb casting faint shadows along the etched stone. I didn’t know who they were, but sothing in stirred... like a mory I didn’t have was trying to rise to the surface.
"What does all this an?" I asked, my voice low and trembling slightly, though I didn’t want it to. "Why are these carvings here? What does this have to do with anything? Why would Astrid Voss have an entire hidden room full of...... this?"
I spun slowly in place, eyes darting from the ancient markings to the carvings, the strange symbols that seed to whisper in the back of my mind.
"How is any of this connected?"
Kieran didn’t answer right away.
He was still staring at the carving of the two figures, Avelar and Maeryn. Sothing dark flickered in his golden red eyes before he turned sharply away.
"We need to leave," he said suddenly. "Now."
I blinked. "What?"
"Astrid just walked out of the main building. She didn’t lock the front door," he said, already moving toward the wall we’d entered from. "Which ans she’s probably coming back soon."
A sharp jolt of panic tightened in my chest.
We hurried back to the smooth stone wall that had sealed behind us when we entered. It looked solid, seamless, like it had never moved at all.
"How do we leave?" I asked, breath catching.
Kieran didn’t reply imdiately. His eyes scanned the carvings. "Look for sothing that can be pressed," he said. "Could be anything, a mark, a stone, even part of the carving. Just... look."
We split up, running our hands over the walls, the strange grooves and symbols, every bump and jagged corner.
Nothing.
I felt the panic begin to swell.
"What if we’re trapped in here?" I whispered. "What if this is it? What if she finds us in here and—"
Kieran scoffed behind . "We’re not trapped."
I turned to face him, my breath coming faster.
"You seem awfully sure of that."
"I am," he said flatly. "If we can’t find the exit... I’ll make one."
He balled his fist and gave the wall a sharp knock. The stone didn’t even flinch, but the sound echoed dully.
"I’ll break this whole damn wall down if I have to," he said, not even blinking.
I stared at at him.
This was the man Adrian told about.
The man who’d walked into Adrian’s old pack like a shadow with teeth and left him shattered. The one who’d stood beside his father when everything in Adrian’s life was torn to pieces.
The sa man who ripped through enemies without a second thought. The Lycan prince. The predator every feral was raised to fear.
And I was stuck with him. Locked in a hidden room where no one would find us, completely alone.
I should be afraid. I should be terrified even.
My mind whispered the fear, my pulse tried to obey..... but my body... didn’t.
I wasn’t scared of him. Not the way I should be. Not the way the others were. Not even the way I once was.
Instead, I felt this sharp, magnetic pull toward him, like his darkness called to sothing I didn’t even understand inside . It was twisted, it was wrong, it was dangerous.
And it terrified .
Not because I thought he’d hurt .
But because a part of didn’t care if he did.
He glanced at then, golden red eyes narrowing like he could hear the storm spinning inside my head.
"What?" he asked, low and quiet.
I quickly looked away, pressing my hand to one of the carvings, pretending to study it.
"Nothing," I murmured. "Just... trying to find a way out."
Kieran stepped closer, his presence brushing against like heat, like shadow.
"Don’t worry," he said, almost under his breath. "I am not going to let you die in this room. Not whilst you are still my servant, not whilst you still belong to ."
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