Chapter 16 The council
RAIN’S POV
I hadn’t slept long maybe two hours when a loud, urgent knock slammed against my door.
Not Rosee’s gentle knock from earlier.
This one carried weight. Authority.
Danger.
I jerked up from the floor, trembling.
“Rain.”
Rosee’s voice was sharp, clipped, tense.
I wiped my face and rushed to the door. When I opened it, he was already fully dressed—dark coat, gloves, boots and his expression was carved from stone.
“Mykel,” Rosee snapped, glancing behind me, “stay here. Don’t let anything enter.”
Mykel rolled his eyes. “I’m not your guard dog.”
“You are tonight,” Rosee said coldly.
Something serious was happening.
I stepped into the hallway. “What’s wrong?”
Rosee hesitated for half a heartbeat, then looked me dead in the eye.
“The Council has located your brother.”
My breath dried instantly.
“R–Ryan? Alive?”
“ I want you to follow me.”
“Why me?” I whispered. “You said I should rest.”
Rosee’s jaw clenched. “I didn’t want you involved. But they want witnesses. And you…” He paused, voice lowering. “You’re connected to all of this whether I like it or not.”
Mykel stood up straighter. “If she leaves the apartment, creatures will sense her.”
Rosee’s eyes hardened.
“Then I’ll kill whatever comes.”
Mykel snorted. “You? Without your power.”
Rosee forced out a breath. “I’ll manage.”
Something flickered in Mykel’s eyes respect, irritation—then he stepped aside.
“Bring her back alive.”
Rosee didn’t teleport or use magic, he simply walked fast, dragging me through back alleys, abandoned markets, and cold, mist-filled streets until we reached the edge of the city.
A massive stone hill blocked the path.
“We’re here,” he said.
I frowned. “Here where?”
Before I could blink, Rosee pressed his palm against a dent in the stone.
Click.
The rock shifted, grinding open to reveal a narrow stairway spiraling downward into pitch-blackness.
My blood ran cold.
“This is the entrance?”
“To the Council’s underground,” he murmured. “Stay close.”
I followed him down stone steps slick with ancient moisture. The deeper we went, the colder and heavier the air became, as if we were descending into the chest of a buried beast.
Finally, we reached a wooden door reinforced with hundreds of old, rusted, intertwining locks.
Each lock had symbols carved into it, blood sigils, runes, clan marks.
Rosee knocked three times.
The silence afterward felt alive.
Then.
Clack. Clack. Clack.
One by one, the ancient locks twisted open on their own.
You don’t open the Council’s door.
It opens for you, if it wants you.
The wooden door creaked wide, revealing a vast chamber glowing with torches and crystal lanterns. The air smelled like old books and iron.
The hall was made of carved black stone, a ceiling so high it vanished into shadow. A round table of dark oak sat in the center, carved with symbols of wolves, dragons, vampires, and mages.
And sitting around it were seven elders.
Each one radiating power like a storm pressed into human form.
As soon as we stepped inside, all eyes snapped to me.
Whispers erupted instantly:
“Who is she?”
“Rosee brought a stranger?”
“Is he out of his mind?!”
“That girl reeks of forbidden blood.”
Rosee’s hand tightened around my wrist protectively before he let go.
“Silence,” he growled, voice sharp enough to cut bone.
A tall elder slammed his palm on the table.
“You dare bring a surface dweller to our sacred chamber, Rosee?”
“She is a witness,” Rosee replied, tone cold and controlled. “And she is connected to the case.”
A witch elder with silver eyes narrowed at me. “Connected how?”
Rosee didn’t answer. He didn’t need to.
One of the elders pointed sharply.
“There is something… wrong about her aura.”
More whispers.
I felt like prey in a den of predators.
The head elder, a stern man with gray braids and golden tattoos, slammed a staff on the ground.
“We summoned you, Rosee, concerning the Alpha’s missing son. We tracked new traces of his presence.”
My breath caught.
Rosee’s voice was steady. “Where?”
The elder lifted his hand. A glowing projection materialized over the table was an image of an enchantment-broken village, ruins, glowing scorch marks, claw scratches.
“The Alpha child was last sighted in these woods,” the elder stated. “Near the Hollow Ridge.”
My stomach dropped.
Hollow Ridge was known for only one thing:
Dangerous creatures lived there.
Rosee’s expression darkened. “Ryan was there willingly?”
“No.” Another elder leaned forward. “He was dragged there.”
My pulse pounded.
“But that is not all,” the elder continued.
They swiped a hand over the projection revealing a new image.
A glowing fragment of a mirror, Not just any mirror. The same mirror that swallowed me.
I gasped.
Rosee stiffened.
“We found traces of the Mirror Realm’s magic around his disappearance,” the witch elder said. “This confirms that the entity who lured the Alpha child… is also the one who tried to claim your companion.”
All eyes shifted to me.
My throat dried.
Rosee immediately stepped half a step in front of me.
“She is not to be blamed for what the mirror wants.”
“And what does it want?” an elder sneered.
A cold whisper filled the room.
“Her blood.”
Everyone turned sharply.
A smooth, deadly voice filled the chamber.
Mykel.
Standing in the doorway.
He had followed us.
He walked inside with the confidence of a king in a room full of peasants.
The elders tensed.
Rosee’s jaw dropped. “Mykel. why the hell are you here?”
“I go where she goes,” Mykel said simply.
The room erupted in outrage.
“A vampire!”
“He’s forbidden here!”
“Remove him now!”
Mykel’s red eyes glowed. “Try.”
Rosee rubbed the bridge of his nose.
“This idiot followed us.”
Mykel shrugged. “If something in this dungeon tries to eat her, she’ll scream and you’ll be powerless. I won’t.”
He had a point.
The elders continued bickering, political tension crackling in the air like electricity.
Finally the head elder raised his staff.
“ENOUGH!”
The room fell silent.
“Rosee,” the elder said, voice deep and commanding, “you and your… associates… are ordered to investigate the Hollow Ridge. Retrieve the Alpha child if possible.”
He turned his piercing gaze to me.
“And you, girl… your connection to the Mirror Realm is no longer a coincidence. You will either help us identify the entity.”
Rosee’s eyes flashed murderously.
“She’s not your weapon.”
“or be contained,” the elder finished coldly.
Contained, As in imprisoned?
As in locked away underground where no one ever leaves.
I staggered back, breath shaking.
Rosee moved instantly, placing himself between me and the elders.
“She is under my protection.”
“Your protection means little,” the elder replied. “You have no power, Rosee.”
The room tensed.
Because the council had finally spoken the one thing Rosee never wanted anyone to say out loud.
The one thing he’s been hiding for years.
He is powerless and everyone knew it now.
The elders smirked.
Mykel bristled.
I whispered, almost without thinking:
“You will not lock me anywhere.”
Every torch flame flickered, every rune glowed and the elder stiffened.
Because the cursed thing inside me was waking up.