Chapter 136 Elara's POV
Every instinct I possessed told me to run away. To flee in the opposite direction as fast as my injured leg could carry me.
But what if someone needed help? What if someone was in terrible danger? What if I could save them?
I limped toward the sounds, following the screams through the rain and darkness. Moving as quickly as my sprained ankle would allow.
The screams led me deeper into the forest, to an area that felt fundamentally wrong. The trees were thicker here, growing so close together they blocked out what little light came from the cloudy sky.
The air felt heavier, oppressive, like something dark and malevolent pressed down on everything.
Then I saw it through the rain and darkness. A cave entrance. Large and gaping like an open mouth on the side of a rocky hill. The screams were definitely coming from inside.
I should have turned back immediately. Should have found help. Should have done anything except what I did next.
But I was pregnant, injured, lost, and terrified. And those screams sounded like torture. Like people dying slowly in agony.
I moved toward the cave entrance as quietly as I could manage while limping. My heart was pounding so hard I thought it might burst from my chest.
The screaming was louder here, echoing out from the cave depths. Multiple voices, men and women both. All of them making sounds of terrible, unbearable pain.
I found a crack in the rock face beside the main entrance. A narrow gap barely large enough for a person to squeeze through.
My pregnant belly barely fit through the opening. I had to turn sideways and suck in my breath, rocks scraping my swollen stomach as I forced my way through.
But I managed it. Slipped through into the cave interior.
Inside, the narrow crack opened into a much larger chamber. And what I saw there froze the blood in my veins.
Dozens of them chained to the cave walls like animals. Being systematically tortured.
Some were being beaten with clubs and whips, their backs torn and bleeding. Others were being burned with hot coals, their screams echoing off the stone walls. Others were being cut with knives, blood pooling on the cave floor beneath them.
And standing over all of them were figures in dark robes. Performing rituals chanting in a language I didn't recognize. Moving with practiced efficiency from one victim to the next.
One of the robed figures held a branding iron. It glowed red-hot, radiating heat that I could feel even from my hiding spot near the wall.
They pressed it firmly to a prisoner's bare chest. The man's scream was inhuman, raw and agonized beyond anything I'd ever heard. The smell of burning flesh filled the cave, making my stomach heave.
When they pulled the iron away, a mark remained. Burned deep into his skin still smoking.
Three curved lines forming a triangle pattern. Erebus's mark.
They were creating Erebus followers by force. Through torture and pain and dark magic. Breaking people down and rebuilding them as servants of the darkness.
I pressed my hand hard over my mouth to keep from screaming in horror.
.
I needed to leave immediately. I needed to get out of this cave before they noticed me. I needed to run and never look back.
I started backing toward the crack I'd squeezed through, moving as silently as possible.
Then I saw them.
In the far corner of the chamber, separated from the other prisoners. Chained apart from the rest.
Four men I recognized instantly.
Blue Moon Pack warriors. Men I had seen around the pack house. Men Kaden trusted implicitly.
What were they doing here? How had they ended up imprisoned deep in Dark Moon Pack territory?
I moved closer without thinking, drawn by recognition and confusion. Trying to see better in the dim, flickering torchlight that illuminated the cave.
One of them looked up, his face was bruised and bloody, one eye swollen completely shut. But I recognized him immediately.
Marcus is one of Kaden's best trackers. A man I'd spoken to dozens of times in the pack house.
Our eyes met across the cave. His widened in recognition and absolute horror.
He shook his head frantically at me. Violent, desperate movements. A clear warning. Telling me to leave. To run to get out while I still could.
But I couldn't move my body and wouldn't obey my brain's commands. I was frozen in shock, unable to process what I was seeing.
These were Kaden's men, his most trusted warriors. Here in this torture chamber. Being prepared for branding for forced conversion to Erebus's army.
Which could only mean one thing.
The Dark Moon Pack wasn't just connected to Erebus. They were actively working for him. Capturing people and converting them through torture and dark magic.
Xavier was working with Erebus. Had been all along.
I had been brought here supposedly for safety. For protection from the execution order but I had walked straight into the enemy's stronghold into the heart of darkness itself.
And Kaden had no idea that I was safe. Thought Xavier was protecting me.
My legs gave out beneath me.
I fell hard to the stone floor. The sound of my body hitting rock echoed through the cave chamber, impossibly loud in the moment of silence between screams.
Every single robed figure turned toward me in perfect unison.
The screaming stopped abruptly. Silence fell over the cave, broken only by the ragged breathing of the prisoners and my own panicked gasps.
Then one of the robed figures spoke, their voice eerily calm.
"We have a visitor."