The whole room was dark, so dark I couldn't even see my own hands in front of me. It felt like stepping straight into a cave that swallowed sound and light alike. I pressed my back against the wall, breathing slowly as I let my fingers skim along the cold surface. It grounded me, at least enough to take a few steps forward without tripping on something invisible.
"Uhm… hello?" My voice echoed, bouncing off the walls like the room was bigger than it looked from outside. No one answered, of course. Not Liv, not Soren, not anyone. Just me and whatever this place was supposed to be.
I kept walking, hugging the wall until my fingers brushed something metallic, small and hidden, almost like a switch. I flinched back, startled, but then soft lights flickered to life across the room. Slowly, one by one, lantern-like bulbs in the walls ignited, casting warm golden light.
My breath hitched.
Gods, this place was beautiful.
The walls weren't plain, they were alive. Covered in drawings carved into the stone itself: vines curling into trees, trees unraveling into branches filled with tiny, glowing figures. They looked like little spirits or ancestors, walking among the roots like guardians of old stories.
It felt like I had just stepped into a piece of history. Living history.
Growing up, stories of our origins had always been told by elders sitting by bonfires. No proof, no carvings, nothing. Just spoken words drifting into the night. But here, the Novaterra pack had taken those same stories and carved them into stone. They decided to preserve and display their history. Not just a story but a story with evidence. A whole legacy etched into rock. This was beautiful.
Far more beautiful than anything I had ever seen. The way you could understand the story without words was magnificent.
How could anyone not call this place paradise? Even their ancestors were thinking ahead of their time. It was obvious it didn't take the reign of one Alpha to make this place what it was. It was the work of generations.
As I stepped further in, something else caught my eye. The center of the room held a massive circular stone embedded into the floor. Ancient letters wrapped around the circumference like a halo. Real ancient language. Not scratched copies or decorative patterns, but the real thing.
I almost laughed. Mama would've cried if she saw this. She had forced me and my brother to learn the old tongue, saying we might need it one day. I hated it then. Now? I could kiss her feet.
I kneeled near the edge of the circle and read carefully.
The inscription said:
"Blood into stone, spirit into bond.
Step forward unclaimed, rise forward reborn."
Goosebumps ran up my arms. What did they mean by that?
My gaze dropped to the center, where a small, raised slab sat like a pedestal. Curiosity tugged at me. Maybe I wasn't supposed to touch it,but something in the air, something beyond logic or fear, urged me closer.
I reached out.
"Ouch!" I jerked my hand back instinctively. A sharp edge hidden on the corner had sliced my finger. A thin line of blood welled up immediately.
"Great," I muttered, shoving the finger into my mouth to stop the sting. It burned like hell. "Perfect way to start."
When the bleeding slowed, I leaned over the slab again only to freeze.
My blood had dripped onto the stone. Right across the engraved markings.
"No, no, no…dammit." I wiped at it quickly, using my sleeve, but that only smeared it deeper into the carved words. "Shit…okay, okay, come on…"
The more I wiped, the worse it got. Red streaks filled the grooves, making the ancient letters stand out painfully bright. I hissed under my breath and tried to angle the sleeve to keep from touching the sharp spot again.
But then… the slab hummed.
I yanked my hand back like it burned.
"What the hell…?"
A faint vibration trembled beneath my palm even though I wasn't touching it anymore. The stone felt alive, like something inside it had just woken up. I stepped back slowly, heart thundering.
Then the circle reacted.
One symbol lit up.
Then another.
Then another.
Glowing, pulsing softly with pale silver light.
"No, no, no…" I whispered, backing up. This couldn't be normal. Liv didn't say anything about glowing runes. Soren didn't either. And if blood was supposed to activate it, someone definitely should've mentioned that.
My instinct screamed at me to get out, so I tried stepping backward out of the circle.
Except I couldn't.
It wasn't like an invisible wall or force field. My body just… wouldn't move. Like the air had turned cement around my legs. Panic sparked through my veins.
"What…what is happening?!" I tried again, harder, but my feet didn't budge.
The symbols grew brighter.
The room grew warmer.
And then my chest exploded with pain.
I screamed.
My hands flew to my shirt, clawing desperately at the fabric like ripping it would somehow stop the agony. It felt like claws were inside my chest, raking through my heart, tearing it apart from the inside.
"Stop…stop…please stop!" My voice cracked, high and broken. Tears blurred my vision as the burning intensified. I dropped to my knees, choking on sobs as the pain stole every breath.
It hurt so much I couldn't think. Couldn't breathe. Couldn't even scream properly.
It felt like dying.
Then the world around me flashed.
Not the room.
Not the symbols.
My life.
Every memory I had,every moment I'd lived rushed forward at once. Mama teaching us to read old texts. My brother pulling me into muddy puddles. Running from the forest packs. Falling. Failing. Losing everything. Every good thing. Every terrible thing.
Everything.
They flickered behind my eyes like someone was flipping through pages too fast to stop.
My lungs seized.
My throat closed.
And then the pain swallowed everything whole.
Darkness crashed into me.