Chapter 99 The Island’s Guests

Chapter 99 The Island’s Guests
Levi:

A week passed, but nothing settled.

The pulses beneath Blackstone kept coming. Some were weak enough to ignore if someone tried hard enough. Others rolled through the island like distant thunder beneath the earth, making the wards flicker and the wolves restless for hours afterward.

No breaches. No attacks. Nothing Lucas could point to on a screen and call a threat.

That somehow made it worse.

The island felt like it was waiting. Everyone felt it. Even the children. Especially the children.

At first the twins had cried whenever the pulses came. Now they didn’t react with fear anymore. They would simply stop whatever they were doing and go quiet, listening to something no one else could hear.

Agnes hated that. She tried not to show it, but I noticed every time.

Aurora looked unsettled too. The stone from the cliffs never left Aurora now. I pretended not to see the way her hand drifted toward her pocket whenever the pressure beneath the island shifted. Whatever connection existed between her and that thing was growing stronger every day.

And no one understood what it meant.

Rain hammered against the command room windows as I stood reviewing patrol rotations with Lucas.

“North ridge reported another pulse twenty minutes ago,” Lucas said while typing rapidly. “Shorter duration this time.”

“Strength?”

Lucas glanced toward another screen. “Lower than yesterday. But wider.”

I rubbed a hand across my jaw. “Anything from the mainland?”

“Nothing useful.” Lucas leaned back in his chair. “Most regional traffic has gone quiet again.”

Quiet. That word had started sounding dangerous.

I looked toward the storm outside the windows. The sea below the cliffs was almost invisible beneath the rain and fog.

Behind me the command room door opened quietly. Aurora stepped inside carrying one of the twins on her hip while the other walked beside her holding tightly to her hand.

The moment I saw her face, I knew something was wrong.

“You felt it again,” I said.

Aurora nodded slowly.

“It’s different tonight.”

Lucas looked up immediately. “Different how?”

She hesitated before answering.

“Closer.”

The room went still. Before I could ask another question, every screen in the command room flickered sharply.

Lucas swore under his breath. “What now?”

The radar system pulsed once before stabilizing again. Then an alert appeared.

UNAUTHORIZED APPROACH DETECTED.

Distance: two nautical miles.

I straightened instantly.

“Ship?”

Lucas frowned. “No. Too small.”

Another pulse rolled beneath Blackstone hard enough to shake the lights overhead.

The twins didn’t react with fear. Aria simply turned toward the windows.

“They’re here,” she said softly.

Every hair along my arms rose.

Aurora looked down sharply. “Aria...”

But the child only stared toward the sea.

Lucas enlarged the scan.

A tiny signal moved slowly through the storm.

Impossible.

“No boat that size should survive those waters tonight,” Lucas muttered.

I was already moving toward the door.

“Sound the shoreline teams.”

Rain hit hard the second we stepped outside.

The entire island seemed awake now. Wolves moved between buildings with tense energy while guards rushed toward defensive positions along the cliffs.

Nobody spoke much.

The pulses had worn everyone thin this past week.

By the time I reached the shoreline overlook, half the inner circle was already there.

Rylan stood near the edge with two guards. Caelum arrived moments later. Jax came last, looking irritated about being dragged out into another storm.

Far below us, waves crashed violently against the rocks.

Then through the fog, a small wooden boat appeared.

Everyone went silent.

The sea around Blackstone was protected by ancient wards layered beneath Lucas’s systems and reinforced by the island itself. Unauthorized boats didn’t reach the cliffs.

Usually they never even found them.

But this boat kept moving forward slowly. Aurora stopped beside me, her breathing uneven.

“That’s impossible,” Lucas said quietly behind us.

The wards should have reacted by now. They didn’t. Instead, faint silver lines began glowing beneath the rocks along the shoreline. Not defensive. Welcoming.

Agnes arrived seconds later and froze the moment she saw the boat.

For the first time since I’d known her, genuine fear crossed her face.

The boat finally drifted close enough for us to see the figures inside. Two women. One older.

One collapsed against the side of the boat barely conscious beneath a soaked dark cloak.

Aurora inhaled sharply.

“Serena.”

Lightning split across the sky.

The older woman lifted her head slowly. Her silver-gray robes marked her immediately. A witch of the sacred order.

Not one of the mainland practitioners either. They were older, one of the strongest coven-born.

The witch guided the boat through the violent waves with impossible calm while the wards around Blackstone continued parting for her like they recognized her presence.

Or the girl beside her.

Lucas looked genuinely shaken now.

“The shields aren’t resisting them,” he said. “They’re letting them through.”

Agnes stepped forward slowly into the rain.

“No,” she whispered. “The island is allowing them.”

That was worse. Much worse. If the island allowed anyone in like that, then the sense of security the wards had provided us was nothing but falsehood.

The boat struck shallow water near the shore.

I moved immediately with Rylan and two guards, heading down the narrow cliff path toward the beach.

Aurora followed despite my attempt to stop her. The twins came too. Strangely calm.

Aria held tightly to Aurora’s hand while Lior stared directly toward Serena like he already knew her.

By the time we reached the shoreline, the witch had stepped from the boat. She looked exhausted but steady. The witch helped Serena out. But Serena barely moved.

Her face was pale beneath wet strands of blonde hair. Blood stained part of her sleeve.

I recognized her. Why wouldn't I. The Council had once tried to place her beside me like a political offering wrapped in silk and obligation.

Back then Serena had smiled through every gala and gathering while her father spoke for her like she belonged to the future they planned.

But I remembered one thing clearly.

The night Aurora first appeared publicly beside me, Serena had looked at Aurora with something dangerously close to pity.

And later that evening, when no one else was listening, she had quietly told Aurora:

“The Council never gives gifts without chains.”

At the time, I thought it was bitterness. Now I wondered if it had been a warning.

The witch looked directly at me.

“They’re coming,” she said simply.

Before I could answer, Jax suddenly froze beside me.

Completely still.

Like something invisible had hit him square in the chest.

Rain poured around us while everyone turned toward him in confusion.

Jax stared at Serena like the rest of the world had disappeared.

Then slowly, disbelievingly, he took one step forward. Serena didn't look like she could hold on for long. The witch was holding her up with difficulty and before she could tumble and fall Jax moved.

Faster than I had ever seen him move, and caught Serena in his arm. He could only utter a single word.

A declaration or a question? May be both.

“Mate…?”