Chapter 90
Elizabeth
I followed Damon through the mansion.
No explanation.
No destination.
Just Damon walking ahead of me like I was supposed to magically know where we were going.
Typical.
The morning sun filtered through the enormous windows as we moved through the quiet hallways.
Most of the house was still asleep.
Or pretending to be.
With this family it was hard to tell.
I glanced at his back.
Black shirt.
Dark jeans.
Hands in his pockets.
Relaxed.
At least he looked relaxed.
With Damon, appearances meant absolutely nothing.
“You know,” I said.
“Hm.”
“You could tell me where we’re going.”
“No.”
I rolled my eyes.
“You’re incredibly annoying.” I whispered to myself forgetting he could literally hear me
“So I’ve been told.”
His voice carried the faintest hint of amusement.
That somehow made him more annoying.
We descended a staircase I’d never seen before.
It curved downward beneath the mansion.
Stone walls replaced polished wood.
The air grew cooler.
The atmosphere shifted.
The deeper we went, the older everything felt.
“Okay.”
I looked around.
“This is officially creepy.”
Damon didn’t even glance back.
“You say that about everything.”
“Because everything involving you is creepy.”
That earned an actual chuckle.
A rare one.
Low.
Brief.
Gone almost immediately.
I hated how much I liked hearing it.
The staircase finally opened into a large underground chamber.
My steps slowed.
The room was enormous.
Ancient stone pillars stretched toward a high ceiling.
Glass display cases lined the walls.
Artifacts sat inside them.
Weapons.
Books.
Jewelry.
Objects I couldn’t even identify.
Everything looked old.
Very old.
“What is this place?”
Damon walked past one of the cases.
“A collection.”
“A collection?”
His silver eyes flickered toward me.
“My family has existed for a very long time, Elizabeth.”
Fair point.
I slowly moved through the room.
Every item seemed to carry history.
Stories.
Secrets.
A thousand years of them.
Maybe more.
My gaze landed on an old crown sitting beneath glass.
The metal looked dark.
Almost black.
Something about it felt intimidating.
Even sitting behind a display case.
I pointed.
“Whose was that?”
Damon barely looked.
“A king.”
That was it.
That was the answer.
A king.
Nothing else.
I sighed dramatically.
“Do all of you suffer from chronic refusal-to-elaborate syndrome?”
“Probably.”
At least he was self-aware.
I continued walking.
My thoughts drifted back to the conversation with Elijah.
Freedom.
Light.
A world too dark to remain in.
The questions returned immediately.
“Damon.”
“Hm.”
“Why did you leave?”
For the first time since we’d entered the chamber, he became still.
Interesting.
Very interesting.
His expression remained neutral.
Controlled.
But something changed.
Something small.
Something careful.
“It was no longer home.”
The exact same answer Adam had given.
Almost word for word.
Which meant it had probably been rehearsed.
I folded my arms.
“That’s suspicious.”
His eyebrow lifted.
“Suspicious?”
“You all say the same thing.”
A faint smirk appeared.
“Perhaps because it’s true.”
Maybe.
Maybe not.
I wasn’t convinced.
I stepped closer.
“What was it really like?”
For a moment I thought he wouldn’t answer.
Then he sighed.
“A beautiful place.”
That surprised me.
The answer sounded genuine.
Not rehearsed.
Not guarded.
Real.
I stayed quiet.
Letting him continue.
“The forests stretched for miles.”
His voice grew distant.
Like he was remembering.
“Mountains touched the clouds.”
His gaze drifted somewhere beyond the chamber walls.
“There were cities older than anything in this world.”
I found myself completely captivated.
Because for the first time—
Damon wasn’t being sarcastic.
He wasn’t teasing.
He wasn’t hiding behind arrogance.
He was remembering.
“It sounds incredible.”
“It was.”
The answer came immediately.
Without hesitation.
That caught my attention.
Because suddenly Adam’s explanation didn’t fit.
If the place was that beautiful—
Why leave?
I asked exactly that.
Damon looked at me.
His expression unreadable.
“Beauty doesn’t make something worth staying for.”
The words settled heavily between us.
Before I could ask more, he started walking again.
Conversation over.
Or at least he wanted it to be.
Unfortunately for him—
I was curious.
“So humans lived there too?”
“Yes.”
“They knew about vampires?”
“Yes.”
“Werewolves?”
“Yes.”
“Witches?”
Another nod.
My mind struggled to imagine it.
A world where nobody had to hide.
Where supernatural creatures existed openly.
No secrets.
No pretending.
No lies.
Part of me wondered if that would be better.
Then another thought appeared.
“If it was all out in the open…”
I looked at him.
“Didn’t people fight constantly?”
A strange expression crossed his face.
Gone almost immediately.
“Sometimes.”
That wasn’t an answer.
It was an avoidance.
I recognized one when I heard it.
“How often is sometimes?”
His gaze met mine.
A faint smile appeared.
Dangerous.
Beautiful.
Annoying.
“More often than occasionally.”
Translation:
all the time.
I laughed despite myself.
“So there were wars.”
Damon didn’t answer immediately.
And that silence told me everything.
There had been wars.
A lot of them.
Suddenly Adam’s words made much more sense.
The world was dark.
Heavy.
Full of conflict.
But even now I felt there was something both brothers weren’t saying.
Something important.
Something dangerous.
“What aren’t you telling me?”
The question escaped before I could stop it.
Damon looked genuinely amused.
“A great many things.”
At least he was honest about that.
I groaned.
“You are impossible.”
“So I’ve heard.”
I pointed accusingly at him.
“You keep doing that.”
“Doing what?”
“Answering questions without answering them.”
His smile widened slightly.
A victory.
The man considered every conversation a competition.
And somehow he usually won.
Infuriating.
I turned away before I could continue arguing.
My attention landed on something sitting alone on a pedestal.
Unlike the other artifacts, this one wasn’t protected by glass.
It looked like a stone tablet.
Ancient.
Covered in symbols.
My stomach tightened.
Because I recognized one of them.
The symbol burned into my hand.
The exact same one.
The air suddenly felt colder.
I stepped closer.
Damon’s amusement vanished instantly.
“What is it?”
I pointed.
My voice came out quieter than intended.
“That.”
His expression hardened.
Immediately.
Dangerously.
For the first time all morning—
Damon looked genuinely concerned.
I stared at the symbol.
Then at the mark on my hand.
Then back at the stone.
My pulse began hammering.
Because beneath the symbol—
Words had been carved into the ancient surface.
Words that looked centuries old.
Words that should have been impossible.
Yet somehow I could read every single one.
As if I already knew them.
As if I’d known them my entire life.
And the first line made my blood run cold.