Chapter 42 The Uncle Who Knows Too Much

Chapter 42 The Uncle Who Knows Too Much
Evra’s POV
I followed my uncle almost without speaking from the moment we left the Rivenhall Dominion building. There were only a few steps between us, but somehow it felt like a much greater distance stretched in the space between.
The last time I saw this man, I hadn’t even fully understood how the world worked. I only knew him as my father’s younger brother, the one who rarely came home to Eldergrove, always arrived with stories from other territories, then disappeared again before I could ask too many questions.
Now there were several strands of gray in his dark hair near his temples, his shoulders looked thinner than I remembered, and there was a strange caution in every step he took. More than once, he glanced behind us to make sure no one was following, then kept walking as if nothing had happened.
The city park he mentioned turned out to be about two blocks from the center of Rivenhall. It was much quieter than the main road. Large trees lined the stone path, shading long benches that faced a small pond in the middle of the park.
There weren’t many people around. Just a mother sitting with her young child in the distance and two elderly men playing some kind of board game beneath a tree.
My uncle chose the bench farthest from the entrance, right beside a large tree whose branches hung low enough to block the view from the main street.
“Sit,” he said.
I didn’t obey right away.
I stood there for a few seconds, studying him, trying to read something in a face that was so familiar and yet somehow felt like it belonged to a stranger.
“Why did we have to come all the way out here just to talk?”
Uncle looked toward the Rivenhall Dominion building, its highest point still visible through the trees.
“Because that place has too many ears.”
“Are you hiding something, Uncle?”
The corner of his mouth moved slightly.
Not a smile.
More like the reaction of someone hearing a question he had already expected.
“You haven’t changed.”
“I don’t even know what that means.”
“Always asking questions before anyone else is ready to answer them.”
I finally sat beside him, though I left a small gap between us.
The late-afternoon wind was cold enough to make me pull my shoulders in slightly. It carried the scent of pond water mixed with damp earth.
For a while, neither of us spoke.
Strangely, my uncle was the one who looked more uneasy.
His hands laced together over his thighs, then separated again. His eyes kept sweeping the area around us. As if I wasn’t the one who should be worried about being outside Magnus’s protection.
As if he was afraid someone might see us together.
“I thought you were dead,” he said suddenly.
I turned to him.
There was nothing dramatic in his voice.
That somehow made the words feel heavier.
“Why?”
He took a long breath before answering.
“Because that’s what your family said after you left Eldergrove. Not officially. There was no funeral. No body. But after a few years passed without any news, everyone stopped talking about you. My brother never answered when I asked either.”
His brother.
My father.
My chest tightened slightly.
“Dad knew I was still alive.”
“I know that now.” His gaze shifted to me. “But back then, I knew nothing.”
“That’s funny. Because no one ever told me you were still alive either.”
Uncle gave a short laugh, but there was no humor in it.
“My brother has always been very good at cutting people out of his life when he thinks it’s necessary.”
I didn’t like the way he said it.
Too flat.
Too familiar.
Like the sentence had been shaped by years of experience.
But I hadn’t come here to talk about whatever had happened between my father and his younger brother.
There was something much more important I needed to know.
“Uncle, there’s something I want to ask you.”
He immediately looked at me. “About what?”
“First Bloodline.”
His reaction lasted only a second.
But I saw it.
His shoulders tensed.
His expression changed.
The fingers that had been moving casually a moment ago suddenly went still.
And that was enough of an answer for me.
“You know something,” I said.
“I didn’t say that.”
“You haven’t even answered yet.”
“I also don’t have to answer every question you ask me.”
I shifted slightly toward him.
“Uncle, I’m not asking about our family’s past for no reason. Something is happening to me, and everything keeps leading back to the Lysander name.”
He went silent.
I continued before he could cut me off.
“I hear voices I shouldn’t be able to hear. I see things that haven’t happened yet. A symbol appeared on my body. And people I don’t even know have started talking about ancient blood as if I’m supposed to understand what it means.”
My uncle’s face became even harder to read.
“Did someone in Rivenhall use that term with you?” he asked quietly.
“More than one person.”
“Alpha Magnus?”
I didn’t answer right away.
Apparently, that was answer enough.
Uncle exhaled sharply and stared ahead.
“Damn it.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Why?”
He didn’t answer.
“Uncle.”
“I don’t know much about the First Bloodline.”
I almost laughed from frustration.
“But you know something.”
“I only know the stories.” He looked at me again. “Not facts. Not official records. Family stories that were never explained properly to begin with.”
“What kind of stories?”
He hesitated long enough that I started to think he was going to stand up and leave.
Instead, he finally leaned back slightly and looked at the trees in front of us.
“The Lysander family used to have a lot of strange rules,” he said. “Some of them had already stopped being followed before you were even born. Don’t marry into certain families. Don’t stay too long in certain territories. Never use blood in any ritual. And there was one rule that was always considered the most ridiculous of all.”
I waited.
He turned to me.
“A Lysander must never be bound to a Rivenhall.”
My entire body went still.
Not because I didn’t understand the words.
Because I understood far too well what they might mean.
The Lysander Prophecy.
The name immediately surfaced in my mind, along with the image of Magnus kneeling in blood.
An arrow from behind.
My grandfather.
And the voice that had spoken the name of my bloodline.
“What does bound mean?” I asked more quietly.
“I don’t know.”
“Don’t lie.”
“I’m not.” His voice sharpened slightly. “I really don’t know the details. Father only ever said the rule could not be broken.”
I stared at him.
“And he never explained why?”
“No.”
“That makes no sense.”
He let out a small scoff. “Of course it doesn’t. Most of our family rules never made much sense.”
“Then why did your whole expression change the second I mentioned First Bloodline?”
Uncle fell silent again.
This time, longer.
“I heard the term once,” he finally said. “When I was young. From Father.”
“Grandfather?”
He nodded.
“What did he say?”
“Only one sentence.” His gaze turned distant, as if he were pulling something out of a memory he had buried years ago. “‘If the first blood ever wakes again, don’t let Rivenhall find it first.’”
My heart started beating faster.
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
I rubbed a hand over my face in frustration.
“You keep saying you don’t know.”
“Because that’s the truth.” This time, Uncle looked directly at me. “Do you think our family sat around every night discussing ancient blood secrets? We didn’t. Most of it was already nearly forgotten when I still lived in Eldergrove. My brother didn’t believe any of it. Neither did I. We thought it was old people’s nonsense.”
“But now?”
His eyes dropped briefly to my wrist.
I noticed immediately and lowered my own gaze.
The red symbol was partially hidden beneath my sleeve.
I held my breath.
“You saw it?”
Uncle didn’t answer.
I pulled the fabric at my wrist slightly higher until the red mark was fully visible.
And for the first time since we met again, my uncle completely lost his composure.
He shot to his feet.
“Where did you get that?”
I stood too.
“It appeared on its own.”
“When?”
“After the auction seal on my body broke.”
His brow furrowed.
“Auction?”
I immediately regretted saying too much.
Uncle looked at me as though he had just realized there was an entire part of my life he knew nothing about.
“Evra... what exactly happened to you?”
“That’s not what we’re talking about.”
I held up my wrist again.
“You know this symbol?”
He didn’t answer immediately.
His gaze stayed fixed on it for several seconds before he quickly looked around the park again.
“Put your hand down.”
“Why?”
“Put it down!”
Something in his voice made me obey, even though I didn’t like it.
He reached inside his jacket and opened what looked like a hidden pocket.
His hand disappeared deeper into it before he finally pulled out a small dark object.
At first, I thought it was a coin.
Then he opened his palm.
My breath stopped.
It looked more like an old pendant.
The metal had gone dull with age, parts of it nearly blackened, but the symbol carved into the surface was still perfectly visible.
A circular line.
Three small branches at the bottom.
And a sharp shape in the center.
My eyes widened.
The same.
Exactly the same as the red symbol on my wrist.
I looked from the pendant to my uncle’s face.
“Where did you get this?”
Uncle closed his hand around it again, his expression turning hard.
“From your grandfather. My father.”
My chest suddenly felt hollow.
“Why did he give it to you, Uncle Aldric?”
Uncle didn’t answer right away.
Instead, he stepped closer and lowered his voice.
“Evra, listen to me very carefully.”
I stared at him.
“Don’t tell anyone in Rivenhall that you met me today. Including anyone who might know Alpha Magnus.”
I frowned.
“Why?”
“Don’t tell him about this pendant. And don’t tell him what I said about our family either.”
“Uncle—”
“Promise me.”
His voice no longer sounded like a request.
It sounded like fear.
I looked at the pendant now hidden inside his fist.
“Why, Uncle?”
He stared at me for several seconds before speaking quietly.
“Because if Magnus Rivenhall sees this symbol... he may know far more about you than your own family ever did.”