Chapter 91
*Max*
The fire had burned low by the time the messenger arrived.
I stood at the edge of what used to be the Council’s southern watchpost–now little more than charred beams and blood- soaked mud. The sky above was overcast, casting everything in dull grey. It had rained earlier. The kind of rain that couldn’t wash anything clean. Not the stench of ash. Not the blood staining the soil. And definitely not the guilt sitting heavy on my chest like a second skin.
Jiselle was gone.
And whatever temporary truce I had with Nathaniel wouldn’t last. Not really. Not after what I’d done.
I hadn’t lied. Not completely. Everything I said in that courtyard was true–Carrow had planned to bind Jiselle with a rune- dagger. The Council wanted her controlled or killed. And I stopped it. But truth twisted just right still felt like betrayal. And I couldn’t pretend otherwise.
I’d spent years learning to play both sides–Academy golden boy, rogue sympathizer, half–savior, half–spy. But somewhere along the way, the lines blurred. I stopped knowing which side was right. All I knew now was that Jiselle had been taken, and the ones who took her weren’t working alone.
I was still studying the broken runes etched into the foundation stone when the man arrived–hooded, cautious, flanked by two younger wolves who looked like they hadn’t slept in days.
“Laker,” he said without preamble. “You’re late.”
I didn’t bother with small talk. “You got the list?”
He handed over a worn parchment, edges singed. I unfolded it, eyes scanning the names. Some I recognized. Former Council guards. Rune engineers. Suppression artists. All marked as deceased.
Except one.
I tapped the last name. “She’s alive?”
“Far as we know,” he replied. “Went underground six months ago. Last seen in the northern research base–before it went dark.”
I folded the list. “Then that’s where I’m going.”
The man hesitated. “You sure about this, Max? These weren’t just Council rejects. They were the ones who helped build the rogue units.”
I paused. “What do you mean?”
“The rogue army,” he said. “Not all of them turned by choice. The Council created some of them. Black–ops stuff. Test subjects. Rune–linked wolves designed to obey commands. When the experiments got too messy, they buried the evidence. Only some of it didn’t stay buried.”
I felt the blood drain from my face.
“They made them?” I whispered.
–
“They bred them. Engineered them. Then called them enemies when it suited them.”
“And the Alpha?”
The man’s mouth twisted. “He was the first. Prototype.”
I didn’t speak for a long moment. The wind stirred the ashes around us, whistling low through the trees. That meant Kael- whoever he truly was–wasn’t born rogue. He was created. Forged. Trained. Maybe even programmed.
No wonder he knew how to use suppression runes. No wonder he moved like a soldier.
No wonder Jiselle had been taken.
“She’s not just a prisoner,” I said aloud. “She’s part of the plan.”
The man gave me a look. “You think they want to kill her?”
“No,” murmured. “I think they want to make her into one of them.”
And that was worse.
I left not long after, riding hard through the mountain trails. My horse–borrowed, tired, and stubborn–did!
ke the pace,
but I didn’t care. Every mile brought more questions, more weight pressing down on me. Was she already enged? Had Kael broken through her defenses the way the Council had tried to? What if she stopped fighting?
By the time I reached the remnants of the research base, the sky had gone full black. No moon tonight. Just cold wind and
silence.
1/2
Chapter 91
The base had been buried into the cliffs, a network of tunnels and wards once hidden by illusion spells. Now the main entrance lay open–clearly breached, the wards long since burned away.
I crept inside, blade in hand.
The scent of dust and dried magic clung to everything. Old blood stained the floor in patterns that didn’t match any ritual! knew. Shelves lined the walls, most broken, their contents scattered–rune fragments, cracked crystals, half–written glyphs.
Notes.
I moved quickly, scanning what I could. Most of the papers were beyond saving. But near the back, tucked into the wall, was a terminal–still glowing faintly with residual power. Council tech. Locked behind layers of security.
I fed a drop of my blood into the reader.
It hissed.
Recognized me.
And unlocked.
Lines of text flickered across the screen. Subject logs. Transfer dates. Project names,
Project HOLLOW.
My chest tightened.
I scrolled down–past the failed bonds, the rogue pairings, the list of wolves whose minds had snapped under pressure.
Then I saw her name.
Jiselle Vareen.
Marked as flagged. Monitored. Tagged for transition.
Next to it: Ethereal variant – uncontrolled.
Uncontrolled.
I swore violently, slamming my fist into the wall.
They’d had plans for her long before the trials. Before the Academy made her a symbol. Before she ever knew what she was. And l–idiot that I was–had thought I could protect her by playing their game.
She wasn’t meant to survive the Academy.
She was meant to be converted.
And Kael–Kael was the hand meant to deliver her.
The realization was a blade through my chest. Not because she was gone. But because she might not even know she was falling.
If he twisted her–if he made her believe they were her salvation-
No. I couldn’t let that happen.
I grabbed everything I could–notes, drives, shards of old rune disks–and bolted into the night. The storm had started, wind and rain slashing through the trees like claws.
I didn’t feel it.
I barely felt anything.
Except the knowledge that Jiselle wasn’t just in danger.
She was being shaped.
And if I didn’t get to her first, I might not recognize the girl I once knew when I finally found her.
The Council had tried to tame her.
Kael might succeed.
And that thought haunted me more than anything else.
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