Chapter 71 Runes
Elena’s POV
I felt better after yesterday. I had gotten my dress and Ciara hadn't shown her face since.
I tried to avoid Liam so I wouldn't have to show him my injured hand.
“What happened?” He asked one night when he slept in my room.
“Oh that, I had tried to kill a bug on the mirror and I kind of ended up getting injured.”
He took my hand and looked at it. “I have told you to be careful,”
“I know and I'm sorry,” I muttered.
He kissed my wound and pulled me closer.
Today was my rest day and I was happy because Clara had me moving to different places, trying to arrange everything for the wedding.
It still felt like a dream because I couldn't believe my wedding was in three days.
I was nervous about it before but now I couldn't wait for it to happen.
I opened my drawer looking for my perfume when I saw my necklace.
It was still as beautiful as always.
I held onto it because it was the only thing I had from my mother but now I had feeling it had been holding my wolf back.
I picked it up.
The necklace felt heavier than usual.
I sat on the edge of the bed.
I had owned this necklace for as long as I could remember. It had survived everything that happened to me in Silver Lake pack, the beatings, the nights I cried myself to sleep, the years of being invisible.
The pendant was warm against my skin, not hot, but alive.
I frowned.
That wasn’t normal.
I raised it up and allowed the sunlight to hit it.
It was small but it had was oval shaped and was made of a metal that was older than silver.
Well at least that was what the antique store's owner told me.
I had always assumed it was just worn with age, the strange grooves nothing more than scratches.
But now I could see them clearly.
They weren’t scratches.
They were markings.
I gasped.
I traced one with my thumb. Immediately I touched it, I felt a sharp pulse that went through my hand. I dropped it immediately.
“What are you?” I whispered as I tried to pick it up again.
Images flashed before my eyes. Fire curling around stone. A howl that didn’t sound like any wolf I’d ever heard. A woman screaming.
I closed my eyes shut, forcing myself to breathe.
This had been happening more often lately. Not just dreams anymore, but moments where it felt like I was remembering something but it always disappeared before I could understand it.
You’re imagining things, I told myself.
I moved to the desk and pulled open the small drawer.
I put the necklace on the desk carefully and got a cloth.
I needed to see if something was hidden there.
As I wiped away the dust, the scratches began to stand out more distinctly.
They formed patterns and curves that twisted into symbols.
“Runes,” I gasped.
My heart skipped a bit.
“Liam,” I breathed.
I didn’t know why I was so sure he would understand, only that I needed him.
Whatever this was, I couldn’t face it alone.
I grabbed the necklace and left the room, my bare feet silent against the floor as I made my way toward his study.
The guards nodded as I passed.
Tension was in the walls of the pack house now, it was thick and constant.
I knocked once.
“Come in,” Liam’s voice called.
He looked up from a stack of papers on his table, when I entered, his expression instantly softening.
“Elena? Is everything okay?”
“I think so,” I said, though my voice betrayed me. “I just… I need you to look at something.”
He looked at me with concern as I crossed the room and placed the necklace in his hand.
The moment his fingers closed around it, his posture changed.
Liam inhaled. “Your necklace, it feels different.”
“Yes, I think it zapped me.”
His thumb brushed over the runes, and his jaw tightened. “These aren’t decorative.”
“I know,” I whispered. “They’ve been… reacting to me.”
He looked up at me then, really looked at me, as if trying to see past my skin.
“How?”
“I don’t know. Sometimes they’re warm. Sometimes I see things. Hear things.” I swallowed. “I thought I was losing my mind.”
“You’re not,” he said firmly.
He moved to one of the bookshelves lining the wall and pulled out an ancient-looking tome, its spine cracked with age. He laid it open on the desk, flipping pages with practiced ease.
“Where did you learn this?” I asked.
“I spent most of my childhood in the library,” he said grimly. “My father said that I needed to study so he would talk me to the library. I took these books from the library not too long ago, it looked old so I thought it would have something I needed to know.”
He stopped at a page filled with symbols eerily similar to those etched into my necklace.
My breath caught.
“That’s it,” I said. “Those are the same markings.”
Liam’s finger traced one rune slowly. “These are binding runes,” he said. “Old ones. Very old. Designed to seal power.”
Seal.
The word echoed painfully.
“It sealed my wolf,” I asked.
Fear flowed to my spine. “Liam.”
“These runes are used to seal anything, it could even conceal a person’s true presence,” he said carefully.
The room suddenly felt too small.
“You mean, it was used on me.”
His silence was answer enough.
I stumbled back a step, shaking my head.
“No. That doesn’t make sense. I don’t even have a wolf.”
“Not sensing a wolf doesn’t mean you don’t have one,” Liam said quietly. “It means it’s hidden. Or restrained.”
I thought about all those years I tried to get a wolf but someone had taken it away from me.
“But why,” I asked.
“I don't know Elena, the book doesn't say anything more than that.” Liam walked closer and pulled me into his arms.
“I want to know the truth, I'm sick of all of this.” I sobbed into his chest.
“Then I think it's time we visit the library.”