Chapter 24 Void Stalker
Seran’s POV
The forest at the border of Rivenhall territory was always quiet at night, but tonight the silence felt different.
Not because the animals had disappeared, even though that was part of it. Not because the fog had rolled in earlier than usual either. I’ve worked for The Hidden Circle far too long to treat changes in nature as coincidence.
Silence like this always means one thing.
Something is waking up from a long sleep. And I still haven’t found the cause.
I stood on the branch of an old tree, high enough to give me a wide view toward Rivenhall Castle. From here, I could see the faint lines of light coming from the castle windows standing far in the center of Rivenhall pack territory.
I’d been at this border for several days.
Not close enough to be detected by Magnus’s pack guards. Not far enough to lose track of the energy I was searching for.
The order from the Hidden Circle Council still echoed clearly in my mind.
Observe. Do not interfere. Find out what exactly is awakening inside that girl.
“Evra.”
I exhaled slowly while watching the forest below. The night air felt heavy, as if something invisible was pressing down from every direction.
I had felt pressure like this before. Years ago. In a place even blood witches rarely dared to mention.
But tonight felt more… strange.
I closed my eyes for a moment, letting my senses work.
Energy.
That’s what I was looking for.
It didn’t take long before I found it.
Faint. Subtle. But unmistakable.
And the energy was pulsing.
My eyes opened slowly.
A small smile that was almost invisible appeared at the corner of my lips.
“So you’re really starting to wake up even without any ritual. Whoa... impressive,” I murmured quietly.
The pulse of energy was coming from the direction of Rivenhall Castle.
It didn’t explode like before, like what happened when the seal at The Hidden Circle Auction was destroyed. Tonight the pulse was more controlled, like something that was learning how to breathe steadily.
“Evra... So... the blood of the First Bloodline really is awakening.”
I had already expected it would happen. After the ancient seal holding Evra’s power was pulled away by something that should never have touched it, it was only a matter of time before that blood began finding its own rhythm.
But that wasn’t the only reason I stayed here.
There was something else.
Something even the Hidden Circle Council didn’t fully understand yet.
I shifted my gaze toward the deeper part of the forest.
Since two nights ago, I’d started sensing another change in this territory.
Forest animals no longer approached the border area. Night birds stopped flying over certain parts of the woods.
And most suspicious of all, the air felt like it was being… pulled. As if something was sniffing at this world from behind an unseen curtain.
I dropped down from the tree branch and landed silently on the damp forest floor.
Then I started walking slowly, my steps light and leaving almost no trace behind. My dark eyes moved from shadow to shadow, reading every tiny change around me.
This forest should feel alive like any shifter forest.
But tonight, even the woods felt like a place abandoned by every living thing.
I stopped when I sensed something shift again.
I didn’t immediately know what had changed, but my body recognized it faster than my mind did.
The air.
I straightened slightly.
The air that had felt heavy before now turned… sharp.
I inhaled slowly.
That was when I felt it.
A scent.
Not the smell of soil or wet leaves typical of Rivenhall.
This… was the scent of energy.
Energy far too ancient to belong to the modern world.
I slowly turned my head toward the darker side of the forest.
Something was there. It wasn’t moving. It wasn’t speaking. It was simply standing there… waiting.
I’m not someone who panics.
As a Hidden Circle observer, I’ve seen too many strange things to react immediately.
But my instincts have never been wrong. And right now those instincts told me something simple.
I wasn’t alone in this forest.
I didn’t move for several minutes. Only my eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness.
A few seconds passed.
Then something shifted.
Not footsteps.
More like a shadow deciding to move.
And finally, I saw it.
Between two ancient tree trunks, something stood there. Too tall to be human. Too thin to be a wolf.
Its body looked stretched, like a silhouette pulled longer by the darkness. Its skin—or whatever covered it—looked pale, like bone buried for centuries.
The creature didn’t move.
But I knew it was looking at me.
My eyes narrowed slightly. I wasn’t surprised.
Instead, a cold realization surfaced in my mind.
“That’s impossible…” I muttered quietly.
The creature finally moved. Its steps made no sound. Its feet barely seemed to touch the ground as it stepped out from the shadows.
Now I could see it clearly.
Its body was tall and unnaturally thin. Its arms were long enough to almost reach its knees. Its face… barely had a shape at all, just dark hollows where eyes should be.
But the most disturbing thing wasn’t its form.
It was the way it stood.
As if it didn’t truly belong to this world.
I let out a slow breath.
I recognized it.
I’d read about creatures like this in the deepest archives of the Hidden Circle.
Creatures most blood witches had never even seen with their own eyes.
Void Stalker.
I stared at the creature without blinking.
“So it’s true.”
I had already started suspecting this possibility since last night, but seeing it with my own eyes was different.
Void Stalkers don’t appear in this world without reason.
They aren’t summoned. They aren’t commanded. They simply arrive when something from ancient history begins to awaken.
I slowly shifted my gaze toward Rivenhall Castle far in the distance.
“Your blood really is noisy, Evra,” I murmured.
The Void Stalker didn’t approach.
It simply stood among the trees, its body leaning slightly forward like a creature sniffing something in the air.
I carefully followed the direction of its face.
Not toward me. Not toward the forest.
It was staring straight at the castle.
I watched carefully.
A few seconds later, another shadow appeared among the trees.
Then another. And another.
I didn’t move, but my eyes began counting.
One. Two. Three. Four.
Four Void Stalkers.
All standing along the same edge of the forest. All facing the castle.
None of them tried to enter Rivenhall pack territory.
They simply stood there.
Waiting.
Sniffing.
I slowly crossed my arms.
“This… is far worse than I expected.”
If one Void Stalker appeared, it could be considered an anomaly.
But four?
That meant something far bigger was happening.
I felt the pulse of energy from the castle again.
Stronger now.
But still controlled.
Evra might not even realize that her blood was calling something.
I watched the creatures carefully.
Void Stalkers don’t usually gather like this.
They’re hunters. But tonight they weren’t hunting. They looked more like… seekers.
I shifted slightly, stepping to the side to observe them from a different angle.
None of them reacted to my movement.
They didn’t even glance in my direction.
All of their attention remained fixed on the castle.
On the source of the pulsing energy inside.
I let out a quiet breath.
“So this is what it feels like when the old world starts smelling its own blood,” I murmured.
I started thinking about the report I would have to send to the Hidden Circle Council later.
This wasn’t just a mid-level anomaly anymore.
This was the beginning of something far bigger.
But before I could think further about that report, something changed.
One of the Void Stalkers suddenly moved.
Its long, thin head slowly turned.
I frowned.
It was no longer looking at the castle.
Now it was looking at… something else.
I followed its gaze.
Toward the castle again.
But not the entire building.
More specific.
One wing of the castle.
The west wing.
I knew who was there.
Evra.
But what made me stop breathing for a moment was the creature’s reaction.
The Void Stalker wasn’t sniffing anymore.
It… stopped.
Completely still.
As if it had discovered something it didn’t expect.
I stared at it sharply.
“Why did you stop?” I murmured.
The creature remained still for several seconds.
Then something happened that had never been recorded in the Hidden Circle archives.
The Void Stalker slowly turned its head again.
But this time, its gaze shifted.
No longer toward Evra.
The creature was now staring at another part of the castle.
I followed the direction.
The main wing of the castle.
Where Alpha Rivenhall usually stayed.
My frown deepened instantly.
“No. That doesn’t make sense. Void Stalkers are never interested in wolves. They only respond to ancient energy.”
But the creature didn’t look away.
All of them kept staring in the same direction.
As if they were seeing something I couldn’t even sense from this distance.
And then I realized something that made my thoughts freeze.
“Don’t tell me…”
If that creature was responding to Magnus too…
Then every calculation the Hidden Circle had made until now was wrong.
I stared at them for a few more seconds.
Then the Void Stalker slowly stepped back.
The others followed.
One by one, the thin shadows slipped back into the darkness of the forest.
As if they had found what they came looking for tonight.
I stayed where I was.
I chose not to chase them.
Just watching the forest fall silent again.
But the silence now felt much heavier.
I finally let out a long breath, realizing one thing.
Evra wasn’t the only center of this awakening.
There was another variable.
Something the Hidden Circle hadn’t even noticed yet.
I glanced once more at the castle standing proudly in the distance.
Lights still glowed from several windows.
Inside that castle, two living beings were walking toward a destiny neither of them fully understood yet.
A small grin spread across my face.
“This will be an interesting report,” I murmured.
I turned to leave the forest.
But before I could walk far, a quiet sound rose from the darkness behind me.
More like a whisper that shouldn’t exist in this world.
I stopped and slowly turned.
The forest behind me was empty.
Nothing there.
But the sound came again.
Clearer this time.
A voice with no body.
A voice that felt like it was coming from the crack between worlds.
I stiffened.
I had read about this in the old Hidden Circle archives.
But I never thought I would hear it myself.
The voice spoke again.
Soft.
But clear.
And the words made my blood turn cold.
“She… is… awake…”
I stared into the darkness without blinking.
Then I answered in a low, cautious voice.
“Who do you mean?”
A few seconds passed.
Silence returned to the forest.
I almost thought I had imagined it.
Until the voice answered again.
Closer.
Clearer.
And far more terrifying.
“The one who… locked us up.”
I froze.
My mind went straight to one name.
One possibility the Hidden Circle had never dared to officially record in their archives.
Slowly… very slowly… I turned back toward Ravenholt Castle.
And for the first time since I accepted this mission… I was no longer sure who exactly we were observing in this territory.
Evra. Or… Alpha Rivenhall.
I stared at the castle for a long moment before whispering to myself.
“Magnus…” My eyes narrowed slightly. And the next words left my mouth in a far more serious tone. “…who exactly are you?”