Chapter 164 Ghostly Treason
Chapter 164 Ghostly Treason
Riven POV
The heavy iron doors of the infirmary hadn't even fully settled into their frames before the static in my blood turned into a full-blown roar.
I didn't look at Zayden as we strode down the vaulted gray corridor, but I could hear the rhythmic, lethal click of his shoes keeping perfect pace with mine.
The air around us was practically warping from the sheer volume of alpha energy we were radiating. Every student we passed instinctively pressed themselves against the masonry, their eyes darting to the floor.
They could smell the hunt on us.
Finding Abby wasn't a challenge. She was a low-tier beta who had spent the last three weeks trying too hard to look invincible.
We caught up to her on the lower terrace, just past the shadow of the old conservatory.
The afternoon sun was struggling through a thick blanket of slate-gray mountain fog, casting a pale, washed-out light over the gravel pathways.
Abby was standing near the stone balustrade, her back to the main walkway. A phone was pressed tightly against her ear, her free hand clutching the lapels of her coat as she spoke into the receiver in a frantic, hushed whisper.
"I already told you!" she hissed into the phone, her voice shaking. "We have to—"
She stopped dead.
The wolf’s instinct for survival is a funny thing; it alerts you right before the jaws snap shut. Abby slowly turned her head, her gaze sweeping around until her eyes landed directly on Zayden and me.
We were fifty feet away, cutting across the dead grass in a synchronized, unyielding line.
The phone slipped from her fingers. It hit the gravel with a sharp, plastic crunch, the screen shattering into a spiderweb of silver lines.
For one agonizing heartbeat, she just stared at us, her face draining of all color until she looked like a corpse in an auxiliary uniform.
Then, her knees buckled, her heels dug into the loose stone, and she bolted.
"Zayden, flank the lower arch!" I roared, the sound tearing out of my throat as a half-wolf growl.
The world went narrow. The gray masonry, the flickering gas lamps, the distant sounds of the afternoon bells—everything blurred into a streak of meaningless color as my inner wolf surged to the surface.
My vision shifted, the flat grays of the courtyard sharpening into high-contrast hues of heat and motion.
I felt the muscles in my thighs bunch and lock, the raw, silver-line speed exploding through my joints as I tore down the terrace stairs in a single, gravity-defying leap.
Abby was fast—fear makes a beta light on their feet—but she was running on human adrenaline. We were running on the ancient, blood-bound legacy of the primary Alphas.
She vaulted over a low boxwood hedge, her boots kicking up chunks of damp earth. I didn't bother going around.
I hit the hedge at full sprint, my hands planting against the frozen stone retaining wall behind it as I launched my body over the barrier, my boots clearing the sharp branches by inches.
To my left, Zayden was a shadow of dark leather and lethal intent, tearing through the iron arches of the lower quad to cut off her escape toward the main gates.
Abby darted into the narrow, claustrophobic alleyway between the old boiler rooms and the storage vaults.
It was a dead-end corridor of damp brick and rusted pipes, cluttered with iron coal carts and discarded wooden crates.
She scrambled over a stack of splintered pallets, her fingernails clawing at the rough cedar as she tried to pull herself onto an iron fire escape.
She didn't make it to the first rung.
With a final, explosive burst of speed that shattered the cobblestone beneath my heels, I closed the gap. I launched myself forward, my weight carrying us both off the wooden pallets.
A loud, echoing bang rattled through the alleyway as I slammed her body flat against the cold, damp brick wall.
"Ah! Get off me!" she shrieked, her voice high and piercing as she began to thrash like a wild animal caught in a steel jaw.
I didn't give her an inch of leverage.
Before she could bring her knees up or try to channel a defensive frequency, I hooked my left forearm hard under her chin, pinning her neck against the rough masonry while my right hand clamped around her wrists, locking them together in an iron grip above her head.
Zayden showed up at the mouth of the alley a second later, his breathing light, his eyes burning a dangerous, predatory gold as he stepped into the shadows.
He didn't say a word; he simply crossed his arms, his massive frame completely blocking the only exit, casting a long, suffocating shadow over her face.
"Let me go! Riven, let me go!" Abby whimpered, her chest heaving violently against my coat, her eyes darting frantically from side to side. "I didn't do anything! I swear to the moon goddess, I don't know why you’re attacking me!"
"Shut up," I growled, my voice dropping into that dark, heavy register that usually makes lesser wolves drop to their knees. "You’re going to look at me, Abby. And you’re going to tell me exactly what you did to Kathy."
"I don't know what you’re talking about!" she lied, her voice rising in a desperate, screeching pitch as she tried to twist her wrists out of my grip. "I have nothing to do with Kathy!"
The sound of her using Kathy's name in that sniveling, deceitful frequency broke the last thread of my control.
CRACK.
My right fist exploded into the brickwork less than an inch from her left ear. The impact shattered the ancient mortar, sending a sharp spray of red dust and stone chips stinging across her cheek.
The sheer force of the blow vibrated straight through the masonry behind her skull.
Abby let out a sharp, terrified whimper, her head jerking away as her entire body went completely limp against the wall, her knees shaking so badly she was only held up by my forearm against her throat.
"Don't lie to me," I whispered, leaning in until my breath stirred the loose strands of her hair.
I let my eyes go completely. The amber burned away, replaced by the brilliant, blinding green of my primary line—the unadulterated, crushing weight of a silver-line executioner.
I flooded the narrow brick alley with my aura until the air grew so cold our breath hitched in silver plumes.
"The next strike won't miss the brick, Abby," I muttered, my wolf snarling just beneath the surface of my skin. "You took her. Speak. Now."
She looked at my eyes, and the last of her resistance completely shattered.
The terror in her gaze was absolute, the realization that I would tear this alley apart block by block to save my girl finally sinking into her marrow.
"I had to!" she sobbed, the tears finally bursting from her eyes, mixing with the red brick dust on her skin. "She threatened my line! She said she’d erase my family from the registry if I didn't do it! I didn't know what she were going to put inside her, Riven! I swear I didn't know!"
"Who did you take her to?" Zayden’s voice cut through the alley like a cold blade. He stepped forward, his golden eyes fixed on her trembling form.
Abby’s chest heaved as she looked between the two of us, her eyes wide, wild, and rolling back in her head as if she were looking for a ghost in the shadows of the old boiler room.
She swallowed hard, her voice dropping into a terrified, breathless whisper as she finally confessed the truth.
"Her name... her name is Madame Vespa."
Zayden and I both froze.
I slowly lowered my fist from the brickwork, my green light flickering back to amber as I looked over my shoulder at my brother.
Zayden’s brow was furrowed in complete, hollow confusion, his shoulders dropping a fraction of an inch.
We didn't know her.
"Who the hell is Madame Vespa?" I demanded, turning my focus back to Abby, my grip tightening on her wrists.
Abby let out a weak, broken laugh that sounded dangerously close to hysteria, her tears tracking clean lines through the dust on her face as she stared up at me.
"Of course you don't know her... you primary wolves only read the history they permit you to see," she whispered, her voice trembling with an ancient, deeply entrenched terror. "Madame Vespa... she’s from Lady Malia's book. She came to me. She isn't dead!"