Chapter 158 The Primordial Debt
In a room full of diamonds, the sharpest thing is always the truth.
The girl in the white dress stopped a few feet from us. The "Investors" moved back, their greedy eyes replaced by fear. They recognized her. They didn't worship her; they were terrified of her.
"Cassia," my father rasped, his eyes fixed on the girl. "That is not your sister. That is the Mother of the Pack. The first one. The Board didn't create her. They found her beneath the ice of the Silent Valley. They’ve been using her blood to feed the elite for a century."
"And now I am awake," the girl said. She looked at Leo. "And I have come for my crown."
"Over my dead body," I said. My vision was swimming in amber. The wolf inside me was screaming to be let out, but the silver decorations in the room were dampening my strength.
"That can be arranged," the girl replied.
Julian, the lawyer with the red hair, stepped forward. He didn't look like a decoy now. He looked like an executioner. "The auction is cancelled, ladies and gentlemen. The CEO has decided to keep the Dividend for herself."
Panic erupted. The wealthy guests scrambled for the exits, their fine silks rustling as they fled the monster they had paid to see.
"Evan, the tunnels!" I hissed.
Vance had mentioned tunnels earlier. I scanned the walls, looking for the tell-tale signs of a Marlowe hidden door. My father had built this house to be a maze.
Behind the portrait of the founder, a voice whispered.
It wasn't Evan. It wasn't the baby. It was Sarah, speaking to me through the locket I still wore beneath my dress. She was miles away in the valley, but the link between sisters was a physical thread.
"There!" I pointed to the massive oil painting of my grandfather.
Evan grabbed my hand. We bolted.
"Stop them!" the girl in white commanded.
Julian moved with unnatural speed. He wasn't a wolf, but he wasn't human. He was a Construct, a machine built around a human heart. He lunged, his hand transforming into a silver blade.
Evan didn't have claws, but he had a lifetime of street fighting in the rough parts of the valley. He grabbed a heavy silver champagne bucket and swung it with everything he had.
The metal connected with Julian’s jaw with a sickening clank. Julian stumbled, sparks flying from his neck.
"Go, Cassia!" Evan shouted.
I slammed my shoulder into the portrait. The wall gave way, revealing a dark, narrow passage that smelled of dust and damp stone. We dove inside, Evan pulling the door shut just as a silver blade thudded into the wood on the other side.
It was pitch black. I could hear Leo’s steady breathing and the frantic beat of Evan’s human heart.
"Are you okay?" I whispered, reaching for him in the dark.
"I'm fine," he panted. "But Cass... the girl. When she looked at me, I felt a pull. Like a hook in my chest."
"The debt she mentioned?"
"My mother never told me where she came from," Evan said. "She just said we were 'different.' What if she didn't just run from the Council? What if she stole the Primordial's heart to give me a soul?"
"We'll figure it out," I promised. "But we have to get out of the city. We have to get Leo to the mountains."
"You won't make it to the mountains," a voice echoed through the tunnel.
It wasn't behind us. It was ahead.
A torch flared to life. Henry Marlowe stood there. He had used a different entrance. He looked worse up close—his skin was grey, and he was leaking a dark, oily fluid from his ears.
"You're dying, Father," I said, shielding Leo.
"The wolves did more than judge me," Henry wheezed. "They infected me with the 'Truth.' My body is rejecting the lies. But I won't die alone. I’m taking the girl with me."
"The girl in the dress?"
"She isn't a girl, Cassia! She is a parasite! She’s been feeding on our family for generations. She promised me eternal life, and she gave me rot!"
He held up a small, glass vial. Inside was a swirling red liquid.
"This is her heart," Henry said. "The part Evan’s mother stole. I found it in the vault downstairs. If I break this, every werewolf connected to her will die. Including you. Including the boy."
"Then why haven't you broken it?" I asked, my voice steady.
Henry looked at the vial, his hands shaking. "Because I'm a Marlowe. And I still want to see how the story ends."
Suddenly, the floor beneath us began to vibrate. A low, rhythmic thudding came from the walls.
"She’s coming," Evan whispered. "I can feel her. She’s calling the heart back."
The walls of the tunnel began to crack. White roots—the same ones from the Great Oak began to burst through the brick. They weren't looking for water. They were looking for the vial.
"Give it to me, Henry," I said, holding out my hand. "I can destroy her without killing the rest of us. I have the Source’s blood."
"You think you're so special," Henry sneered. "But you're just another variable."
He raised the vial high, ready to smash it against the stone.
"No!" Evan tackled him.
The two men hit the floor. The vial flew from Henry’s hand. I lunged for it, my fingers brushing the glass.
But I wasn't the only one reaching for it.
A hand made of pure, white light emerged from the wall. It caught the vial mid-air.
The girl in the white dress stepped through the solid brick as if it were water. She held the red heart to her chest, and her eyes turned from red to a blinding, brilliant white.
"The debt is paid," she said.
She looked at Evan, and for a moment, he glowed with the same light. He fell to his knees, gasping.
"Evan!" I ran to him.
"I... I can hear it again," Evan whispered. His eyes were turning gold. The brown was fading. "The music... it’s back, Cass. But it’s wrong. It sounds like a scream."
The girl in white looked at me. "Your father was right about one thing, Cassia. I am a parasite. And I’ve just found a much better host than a dying old man."
She moved toward Leo.
"Get away from him!" I shifted, my fur exploding outward, my claws raking the air.
She didn't fight me. She smiled. "I don't want the baby, Cassia. I want the father. The one who was human enough to survive the silver, but wolf enough to hold the heart."
She vanished into a cloud of white petals, and when the air cleared, Evan was gone.
Only a single, white rose lay on the tunnel floor where he had been standing.
Where has she taken Evan, and why did his mother steal the heart in the first place?