Chapter 54 054

Chapter 54 054

Rayna
Morning came without mercy. I wouldn't say I blamed it. Or if I was being more specific, I was too preoccupied with other things to even figure out if I was mad that night didn't last long anymore, or not.

I hadn’t slept, not really. Maybe my eyes closed once or twice, but rest never followed. Every time I drifted, I saw Zero’s hands, the way his fists had clenched so tight they looked like they might fracture under the pressure. I saw his jaw set, the barely contained fury vibrating beneath his skin, and it lit something deep inside me.

Asides that, there was a tiny sliver of hope that just refused to let me out of its cage.

He had been so close, so fucking close to breaking or punching a hole in the wall, I wasn't sure, but I knew for a fact that I was getting somewhere. That was the part that haunted me most.

I lay staring at the ceiling as the light crept in, my body heavy, and my mind viciously alert. Ever since I walked into this room, I was sure this was the position I'd been in, and if I was being honest, I didn't even feel like moving. Not one inch.

I replayed the moment again and again, the way the air had shifted when I spoke Lila’s name, the way his control had strained. I could feel it even now, like phantom tension pressing against my chest.

“If she hadn’t interrupted,” I whispered to the empty room, “you would have spoken.”

The thought felt dangerous, hope always did, but still I found myself clinging to it like that was the only lifeline I had.

But what that all I really had?

The thought struck me immediately, and I hated and loved how an idea was already forming at the thought of it. Deep down I knew it was going to put me in trouble.

Did I care? Maybe a little bit. Was I still going to go ahead with the idea in my head? Of course.

Without so much as a single thought, I pushed myself upright. My limbs were stiff, my head throbbing with exhaustion, but I forced myself not to think about that. Right now, I had bigger fish to fry and best believe that if I didn't make use of this opportunity now, then I was going to regret it.

. I moved through my room on instinctz washing my face, and changing my clothes, with my body going through motions my mind barely acknowledged.

Every mirror I passed felt accusatory, every shadow felt watchful, and threaded through all of it, calm and sharp as a blade pressed to my throat, was the Mistress’s voice.

“Do not dig.”

I could still remember it like it was only a couple of hours ago. Even if I tried, I wasn't sure I would be able to forget the way her eyes had pinned on me, like she could mentally coerce me into doing her bidding. She definitely didn't have that kind of power, but I knew it she did, then she wouldn't hesitate to use it on me.

I froze with my hands resting on the edge of the dresser.

“I’m not digging,” I muttered, as if she could hear me. “I’m just… walking.”

The words tasted like a lie, but I swallowed them anyway. If I could say it to myself and believe it, then maybe it would actually turn true.

I dressed simply, and deliberately unremarkable. If I was going to be seen, I didn’t want to look like I was hunting for anything. I just wanted to look like another woman wandering the House because boredom was its own kind of prison.

Once I was done dressing, I stepped into the corridor and let my feet decide the direction.

The House felt different during the day. It was quieter, and stripped of the charged intimacy that clung to the nights. Maybe if I wasn't so on edge, I would actually appreciate the feeling that came with it. The walls didn’t hum as loudly, and the shadows retreated just enough to lull you into thinking this place could be harmless.

That was how it worked, I’d learned. Comfort before the knife.

I wandered past rooms I wasn’t meant to enter, corridors that narrowed until they felt like veins running through the body of the House itself. I told myself I was only curious. That if I stumbled onto something, it would be coincidence.

Luck, purely fate, but anything but intent.

Minutes blurred into hours, but I didn't complain. I wasn't sure how long u walked for, but eventually, I reached a door I hadn’t noticed before.

It was smaller than the others, half hidden between two towering shelves carved directly into the stone wall. There was no guard, no sign, just a lock so old it looked decorative rather than functional.

My pulse quickened.

“Just a look,” I whispered.

The door creaked when I pushed it open, the sound loud in the stillness. I flinched, waiting for an alarm, a voice, or even a hand on my shoulder, but nothing came.

Inside, the room smelled like dust and paper and time. Shelves lined every wall, filled with boxes, ledgers, artifacts wrapped in cloth that had yellowed with age, and I immediately recognized what this place was, an archive.

My stomach tightened. This wasn’t a place meant for wandering, the words screamed in my head but I stepped inside anyway.

My fingers brushed over spines and labels I didn’t understand, names and dates that blurred together. I didn’t know what I was looking for. I only knew I’d recognize it if I saw it.

That certainty pulled me deeper into the room. I was still doing my little sightseeing when I stopped.

There, on a lower shelf, tucked behind a stack of thin folders, was a small velvet pouch. It was black and worn soft with handling. My breath caught painfully in my throat.

I knew that pouch.

My hands shook as I reached for it, my heart slamming so hard it made my vision pulse. The fabric gave easily beneath my fingers, and when I loosened the drawstring, something cold and familiar slid into my palm.

The locket.

Lila’s locket.

I stared at it like it might disappear if I blinked. The metal was scratched, dulled with age, but unmistakable. I’d held it a thousand times. I’d fastened it around her neck myself the last time I saw her alive.

“No,” I breathed. “No, no, no…”

My chest burned as I snapped it open.

Inside was the faded picture, Lila smiling crookedly, defiant as ever. My fingers trembled so badly I had to clutch the shelf to stay upright.

They told me it was lost, they told me it was never recovered, but turns out they lied.

Fear slid into me slow and cold, followed closely by something worse.

Understanding.

This wasn’t an accident, this wasn’t misplacement. Someone had kept it, catalogued it, and hidden it away like evidence or a trophy, I didn’t know which terrified me more.

My mind raced, threads snapping together with sickening clarity.

Zero’s fists, his silence, and the Mistress’s warning.

Do not dig.

My breath came shallow as I closed the locket and pressed it to my chest, the metal cold even through the fabric of my dress.

“If you have this,” I whispered to the empty room, “what else do you have?”

My hands shook as I slipped the locket into my pocket, my heart pounding so loud I was certain it could be heard through the walls. Every instinct screamed at me to run, to put it back, to pretend I’d never found it.

But I couldn’t. I wouldn’t.

As I backed out of the archive and pulled the door shut, one thought echoed louder than all the others.

Zero hadn’t just been listening last night.

He had known, and whatever waited for me on the last night, whatever truth sat behind his silence and the Mistress’s warnings, it was no longer buried.

It was already in my hands.

Great..