Chapter 59 Ghosts Of The Past

Chapter 59 Ghosts Of The Past
CHAPTER 59: Ghosts of the Past

Seraphine's POV

The jagged circle, the three bloody daggers and the thorny vines.

I stared at the ancient symbol carved deep into the foundation stone. Suddenly, the air completely vanished from the room.

My chest tightened so violently that I gasped with my cold hands flying up to grip my throat.

I wasn't in the Lycan palace anymore but was seven years old again. I was hiding inside a dark, cramped kitchen cupboard, peering through the wooden slats as monsters tore my entire world apart.

"Seraphine!" Maya’s voice sounded warped, like she was screaming at me from underwater.

My knees gave out as I hit the dusty floor hard but barely felt the impact. A high-pitched ringing pierced my ears, drowning out the distant sounds of the palace guards in the halls.

I scrambled backward in sheer panic. My boots kicked up thick clouds of dust until my spine slammed hard against wooden chest. I pulled my knees tightly to my chest, shaking so uncontrollably that my teeth chattered.

"What is happening to her?" Caspian’s deep voice boomed, thick with confusion and alarm.

"Back up, Caspian. Give her space," a sharp, commanding voice demanded.

It wasn't Maya. It was Lyrin.

The Lycan princess dropped gracefully to her knees right in front of me. She didn't look at me with the cold, aristocratic disdain I had come to expect from her.

Her golden eyes were wide with genuine concern as she reached out, her hands surprisingly gentle and firmly gripped my trembling shoulders.

"Seraphine, look at me," Lyrin ordered.

Her tone was authoritative, cutting right through the haze of my panic. "Look right at my eyes."

I blinked violently as hot tears spilled over my cheeks. I forced myself to meet her glowing gaze.

"You are in the palace," Lyrin said slowly, her voice dropping.

"You are safe. My brother's guards are right outside that door and nothing is going to touch you. Now, take a breath, match my breathing."

Lyrin exaggerated her breathing, inhaling deeply through her nose and exhaling through her mouth.

I desperately tried to follow her lead but my first breath was a jagged, broken sob but the second one came a little easier. Maya knelt beside Lyrin, gently rubbing warm circles into my back.

"That's it," Maya whispered soothingly.

"You're okay. We are right here with you."

It took a few long and agonizing minutes for the ringing in my ears to finally stop. The dusty room slowly came back into focus and I realized my nails were digging so hard into my own arms that I was drawing tiny crescents of blood. I forced my hands to relax as I dropped them into my laps.

"I'm sorry," I croaked.

My throat felt like it was lined with shattered glass. "I... I couldn't breathe."

"Do not apologize," Lyrin said firmly refusing to let go of my shoulders.

"Fear is natural but you need to tell us what just happened. What is that symbolnSeraphine? Why did it do this to you?"

Caspian stepped closer, his massive frame blocking the moonlight from the window. "I said it before, that mark isn't Lycan. I know every rogue crest on this continent. That belongs to humans."

"It does," I whispered my voice trembling.

I closed my eyes but the bloody image was permanently burned into the back of my eyelids. "It's the mark of the people who slaughtered my family."

The room fell into an incredibly heavy, dead silence. Even Caspian, a hardened warrior who had seen countless battles, seemed to stiffen.

Lyrin frowned with her eyes narrowing.

"Your parents were killed in a random human robbery. Aric told me the story. They were just unfortunate victims of a home invasion."

I shook my head slowly, wiping the wet tears from my cheeks with the back of my hand.

"That is what the town guards told everyone and that is what I let Aric believe, because I thought the past was dead. But it wasn't a robbery, Lyrin. They didn't take any money and didn't take my mother's jewelry. They only came to kill."

Maya gasped softly, her hand covering her mouth.

I looked past Lyrin, staring at the dark hole in the floorboards. "I was hiding in the kitchen. I saw the men who did it. They wore dark cloaks and their faces were covered in iron masks. When they were finished... when my parents were gone... one of the men dipped his fingers in my father's blood. He painted that exact symbol on the inside of our front door before they vanished into the night."

"A jagged circle, three daggers and thorny vines," Caspian muttered, looking back down at the foundation stone.

"A hunter's crest, it's an extremist cult."

"But what is it doing here?" Maya asked, her voice squeaked with terror.

"Inside the Lycan palace? Hidden right next to Commander Varak's rebel flag?"

Lyrin slowly stood up, brushing the dirt from her dress. The warmth in her eyes vanished, replaced instantly by a cold, calculating fury.

She looked from the human crest to the silver coins and finally to the coded letters scattered across the floor.

"It means my brother’s throne isn't the only thing they want," Lyrin said softly and turned her sharp gaze back to me.

"Varak didn't fund this rebellion by himself. He made a deal with human hunters to stage this coup tonight."

"But why?" I asked, my heart picking up a frantic rhythm all over again.

"Why would Lycan purists work with human hunters? They hate humans."

"Because they share a common enemy," Caspian answered darkly and crossed his massive arms over his chest.

"Varak wants Aric dead so he can take the crown while the hunters want you."

The words hit me like a physical blow and the air grew suddenly cold as the realization crashed over me in a terrifying wave.

This entire riot, the destruction of the palace, the fallen banner at the city gates... was all tied to me. I wasn't just a bystander in a Lycan civil war but a bait.

"We need to get this to Aric immediately," Lyrin ordered, her tone clipping with absolute urgency.

Lyrin stepped toward the dark compartment to grab the coded letters but she suddenly paused. She tilted her head as her Lycan ears twitched slightly. She then frowned, looking down at her boots.

"Do you hear that?" She whispered.

Caspian frowned, leaning forward. "Hear what?"

"The wind," Lyrin replied.

She dropped to her knees ignoring the letters and moved her hands past the hidden compartment, feeling the rough edges of the surrounding floorboards.

"There shouldn't be a draft coming from underneath a solid foundation stone. This compartment is too deep."

Lyrin dug her sharp claws into the gap of the next wooden plank and with a violent, angry grunt, she yanked backward.

The thick floorboard splintered and cracked tearing away from the rusty iron nails holding it down. Then she grabbed the next board, ripping it up with her bare hands and tossing the broken wood aside.

Maya and I scrambled to our feet, backing away as Lyrin tore a massive, gaping hole into the floor of the servant's quarters.

"Lyrin, what are you doing?" Caspian asked, stepping up beside her.

Lyrin didn't answer. She pulled up one final board, completely exposing the dark space beneath the room. A sudden, chilling wind blew upward kicking dust into the air.

We all stared down into the opening. It wasn't just a shallow hiding spot for coins and flags.

Beneath the floorboards was a dark, freshly dug, narrow tunnel shaft leading straight down into the pitch black depths of the earth.

It was completely vertical, lined with crude wooden braces to keep the dirt from caving in and hooked onto the side of the top brace was a thick, braided rope, slightly swaying in the cold draft.

"Goddess above," Maya breathed, her eyes wide with horror.

Caspian drew his sword, the metallic ring echoing loudly in the quiet room. "That shaft goes straight down into the unmapped mining catacombs."

Lyrin stared into the dark abyss as her jaw locked tight. She reached down and touched the edge of the wooden brace. When she pulled her hand back, her fingertips were coated in wet mud.

She looked up at me with eyes flashing with a terrifying realization.

"The dirt is wet, Seraphine," Lyrin whispered, her voice barely carrying over the sound of the howling wind rushing up from the tunnel.

"Someone didn't just use this room to hide their treason. They used it to crawl up inside the palace."