Chapter 80 The Secret of the Silverfang Exile
Aria POV
The water in the tunnels was freezing, and by the time I crawled out onto a ledge of dry concrete, my skin was blue and I couldn't remember how to form words or even what my own name was supposed to be. I was shivering so hard that the sound of my teeth chattering echoed off the damp walls, and I huddled against a rusted metal door until it suddenly groaned open and two men with scarred faces and tattered clothes looked down at me. They didn't look like the groomed guards from the Syndicate or the leather-clad riders from Grayson's pack, because they looked like people who had been forgotten by the world for a very long time, and one of them reached down to grab my arm while the other held a flickering lantern up to my face.
"She’s the one the sensors were screaming about, but she looks like a drowned rat instead of a legend, so maybe the equipment is finally breaking down after all these years," the taller one said, and he pulled me to my feet while I struggled to find my balance on my numb legs.
"Look at her eyes, because they aren't changing back to brown properly and there’s still a silver ring around the pupil, so we need to take her to Hecate before the hunters find the entrance to the sector," the other man replied, and he didn't wait for me to agree before he started leading me through a maze of tunnels that were much deeper and drier than the sewers I had just escaped.
We eventually reached a wide chamber that looked like an old Cold War bunker, filled with mismatched furniture and old rugs, and an elderly woman with long grey hair and eyes that looked like cracked glass was sitting in a high-backed chair made of scavenged wood. She watched me as I was pushed into the center of the room, and she didn't say anything for a long time, but she just leaned forward and sniffed the air as if she could smell the history of my bloodline.
"You can leave us now, because this girl isn't a threat to anyone except herself for the moment, and I need to see if there's enough of her mind left to understand the mess she’s walked into," Hecate said, and her voice was steady and calm, unlike the frantic shouting I had heard back at the warehouse.
Once the men left, she pointed to a bowl of hot broth on a low table and signaled for me to eat, and as the warmth started to return to my hands, I looked at her and tried to find the words that were stuck in the back of my throat.
"I don't... I don't know who I am, and there's a wolf inside me that feels like it’s made of lead and moonlight, and I'm scared that if I sleep, I won't ever wake up as a human again," I finally managed to whisper, and my voice sounded like it belonged to a stranger.
"You're a Silver-Black, which is a rare form that hasn't been seen since the last great purge, and the reason you're so confused is because your mother spent her entire life trying to make sure you never found out about the fire in your blood," Hecate told me, and she stood up to walk toward a shelf filled with old, leather-bound journals.
"My mother died in a house fire when I was a baby, and that’s what my Nana told me, and she never mentioned anything about wolves or rituals or silver fur," I said, and I felt a surge of frustration because everyone kept telling me my life was a lie.
"Your mother didn't die in a fire, Aria, because she was a Silverfang Princess who was supposed to be the centerpiece of a corporate merger between the packs, but she fled the ritual three decades ago and changed her name to hide from the Syndicate," the old woman countered, and she pulled out a faded photograph of a woman who looked exactly like me, standing in front of a forest I didn't recognize. "She wanted you to have a normal life, but the blood of a princess doesn't just go away because you moved to the city and started a bakery, and now that you've shifted, the balance of power in this entire state has been tipped over."
"I don't want power, I just want to go back to Grayson and find a way to stop the Syndicate from hunting us," I argued, and I stood up so quickly that the broth spilled over the side of the bowl.
"Grayson is the Alpha of the Nightfangs, and as long as he lives, the war between the factions will never end because the Syndicate will keep using your bond to feed the curse that’s killing him," Hecate said, and she stepped closer until I could see the reflection of the lantern in her cloudy eyes. "The Silver-Black is a Judgment Wolf, and the lore says that you are the only one who can unify the packs and destroy the Syndicate, but there is a price for that kind of peace."
"What price? I've already lost my home and my shop, and I'm living in a tunnel like an animal, so what else is there to take?" I asked, and I felt a cold dread starting to settle in my stomach as I watched her expression turn solemn.
"To balance the scales and stop the genetic corruption that the Syndicate has planted, you have to kill the Alpha of the Nightfangs, because his bloodline is the anchor for the curse, and if he dies by your hand, the cycle is broken and the remaining wolves can be free," she explained, and she said it so casually that for a second I thought I had misheard her.
"I’m not killing Grayson, and I don't care about the scales or the bloodlines, so you can tell your lore to someone else because I’m leaving this place right now," I told her, and I turned toward the door, but she didn't even try to stop me.
"If you don't do it, the Syndicate will use him to lure you into a trap, and they will kill him anyway while they turn you into a breeding machine for their new army," she called out after me, and her voice was like a heavy weight pressing against my back. "You love him, so you think saving him is the right thing to do, but in this world, sometimes the only way to save someone is to be the one who ends their suffering before the monsters get to them."
I stopped at the entrance to the tunnel and looked back at her, and the flickering light made the shadows in the room look like they were reaching for me. I wanted to tell her she was wrong and that Grayson and I would find another way, but the memory of his grey-veined hands and the way he looked at me with such terror made me wonder if she was telling the truth. I felt the silver-black wolf stirring in my mind, and for the first time, it didn't feel like a monster, but like a heavy responsibility that was asking me how much I was willing to sacrifice to save the people I cared about.