The darkness inside the den was different from the darkness outside. Thicker somehow, heavier, like something was pressing against David's eyes from the inside. He stopped just past the entrance, let his eyes adjust, let his fire build in his hand until it was bright enough to see by. The walls were packed earth and old bones, things the gorehounds had dragged in over months or years, the remains of whatever creatures had been unlucky enough to wander too close to the nest.
Lucas was right behind him, his breathing loud in the enclosed space, his body shifted to something closer to normal so he could fit through the narrow passage. "I hate caves. I really hate caves. This isn't even a cave, it's a hole in the ground, and I hate it."
David moved forward, his fire lighting the way, his eyes scanning the walls. The passage was wider than it had looked from outside, tall enough for him to stand, wide enough for Lucas to move beside him if he didn't shift too much. The alpha had let them pass without a sound, without a fight, and that was wrong. Gorehounds didn't let anyone into their dens. They tore apart anything that came close and buried the bones somewhere dark.
"It knows you're here," Becca whispered from behind Lucas, her voice barely audible. "It let you in. Why would it let you in?"
David didn't have an answer. He kept moving, his feet finding the path, his fire lighting the way. The passage sloped down, deeper into the earth, and the walls changed as they went. Less bone, more stone. Less dirt, more rock. The air was cooler here, drier, and something else too, something that made the crystal in his pocket pulse a little faster.
Lucas grabbed his arm. "David. Look."
He stopped, held up his fire, looked at where Lucas was pointing. The walls were covered in marks, not claw marks, not something the gorehounds would have made. Carvings. Old carvings, worn smooth in places, but still visible. Symbols that David had seen before, on his father's journal, on his mother's necklace, on the box that had held the crystal.
Erica moved up beside them, her bow lowered, her eyes on the walls. "These aren't gorehound markings. These are old. Really old."
Becca was studying one of the symbols, her hand reaching out to touch it, pulling back before she made contact. "My grandmother has drawings of these in the archive. Symbols from before the system, from before the portals, from before any of this. She said they were markers. Waypoints for something that was here before we were."
David moved past them, following the symbols, following the pull in his chest. The passage opened into a chamber, larger than the den outside, larger than anything that should have been under this hill. The ceiling was high, lost in darkness, and the walls were covered in symbols, thousands of them, millions maybe, carved into the stone by hands that had been gone for a very long time.
In the center of the chamber, something was waiting.
It wasn't the egg. David had expected the egg, had been looking for the egg, had been feeling the egg since he entered the forest. But this wasn't the egg. It was a stone, a standing stone, taller than Lucas, wider than two men could reach around, covered in symbols that glowed faintly in the darkness.
Lucas let out a low whistle. "What is that thing?"
David walked toward it, his feet moving without him telling them to, his hand reaching out before he could stop himself. The stone was warm, warmer than the air, warmer than it should have been, and when his fingers touched the surface, the symbols flared bright enough to blind him.
He was somewhere else.
Not the vault this time, not his father's study, not the place where his mother had written her last words. Somewhere else. A room he'd never seen, a room that could have been anywhere or nowhere, a room filled with light that came from no source he could name.
A woman was standing in front of him, her back turned, her hair dark, her clothes old in a way that had nothing to do with age. She turned when he entered, and her face was familiar in a way he couldn't place, something in the shape of her eyes, the line of her jaw, the way she held herself.
"You found it," she said, and her voice was tired, like someone who had been waiting for a very long time. "I wasn't sure you would. I wasn't sure anyone would."
David looked around the room, at the light, at the woman, at the place that couldn't be real. "Who are you? Where am I?"
The woman smiled, and there was sadness in it, and hope, and something that looked like grief. "This is a memory. A recording. Something I left behind a long time ago, for someone who would come looking. My name is Lian. Lian Ashborn. I was your mother's sister."
David's breath caught in his chest. His aunt. Elena's mother. The woman who had married Marcus Vane's father, who had died the same night his parents died, who had left behind a daughter who grew up in the house of her killer.
"You're dead," he said, and his voice sounded strange in the light. "You died eighteen years ago."
Lian nodded slowly. "I died eighteen years ago. But before I died, I came here. To this place, to this stone, to leave something behind for whoever would come after." She moved closer, and David could see her face clearly now, could see the lines of exhaustion, the shadow of fear, the brightness of something that might have been hope. "You found the egg. You found the vault. You found my sister's journal. You're doing what we couldn't do, David. You're fighting back."
David shook his head. "I don't know what I'm doing. I don't know what the egg is. I don't know why the Council wants it. I don't know why they killed you."
Lian was quiet for a moment, her eyes on his face, her expression unreadable. "The egg is older than the system. Older than the portals. Older than anything on this world. It was here before we came, and it will be here after we're gone. The Phoenix Clan was formed to protect it, to keep it hidden, to make sure it never fell into the wrong hands."
"The wrong hands." David's voice was hard. "The Council. Chen. The Vane family."
Lian nodded. "They think the egg can give them control over the system. They think it's a weapon, a tool, something they can use to make themselves powerful. They're wrong. The egg isn't a weapon. It's something else. Something that's been waiting for someone to wake it up."
David moved closer, his hands clenched at his sides, his heart pounding. "Wake it up? What does that mean? What's inside the egg?"
Lian smiled, and for a moment she looked like Elena, like the cousin David had found in the darkness of his father's legacy. "That's something you'll have to find out for yourself. Something you'll have to decide for yourself. The egg chose you, David. It's been waiting for you since before you were born. When you're ready, when you're strong enough, it will wake up. And when it does, everything will change."
David opened his mouth to ask another question, to demand answers, to make her tell him what he needed to know. But the light was fading, the room was fading, Lian's face was fading into the brightness.
"Elena," she said, and her voice was soft now, softer than it had been, softer than David had expected. "My daughter. Is she... does she know?"
David reached out, tried to hold onto the light, tried to hold onto her. "She knows. She's with me. She's safe."
Lian smiled, and there was peace in her face, the kind of peace that came from knowing something you'd been waiting to hear for a very long time. "Good. Tell her I'm sorry. Tell her I loved her. Tell her I never wanted to leave."
The light was gone.
David was back in the chamber, his hand on the stone, his eyes open, his heart pounding. Lucas was beside him, his face pale, his hands on David's shoulders like he was trying to hold him up.
"You were gone," Lucas said, his voice rough. "You touched the stone and you were gone. Your eyes were open but you weren't there."
David pulled his hand away from the stone, stepped back, let his breathing slow. The symbols were fading now, the glow dimming, the stone returning to what it had been before he touched it. "I saw her. Elena's mother. She left something behind. A message."
Elena was at the entrance of the chamber, her face pale, her hands shaking. "My mother? You saw my mother?"
David moved toward her, put his hands on her shoulders, looked into her eyes. "She said to tell you she's sorry. She said she loved you. She said she never wanted to leave."
Elena's face crumpled, the composure she'd held since she left her father's house finally breaking. She pressed her hands against her face and David held her, let her cry, let her grieve for the mother she'd never known. Lucas moved to stand beside them, his hand on Elena's back, his face grim. Becca was watching the entrance, her shadows spreading, her eyes scanning the darkness. Erica had her bow up, an arrow nocked, waiting for something to come out of the dark.
But nothing came. The chamber was quiet, the stone was dark, and somewhere above them, the alpha was waiting for them to come out.
"We need to go," Becca said finally, her voice soft but firm. "The pack will be back soon. We can't stay here."
David looked at the stone, at the thing his aunt had left behind, at the message that had been waiting for eighteen years. He thought about what she'd said, about the egg, about the system, about everything that was coming. She hadn't given him answers. She'd given him questions.
He put his arm around Elena, led her toward the passage, toward the light, toward the world outside.
"Let's go home," he said.
They moved through the passage, back toward the entrance, back toward the clearing where the alpha was waiting. David could feel it before they reached the opening, could feel its presence, its patience, its watchfulness. It hadn't moved. It had been waiting for them to come out.
Lucas shifted beside him, his body growing, his density changing. "If it attacks, I'll hold it. You get Elena out."
David shook his head. "It's not going to attack. It let us in. It's going to let us out."
Becca moved up beside him, her shadows ready, her voice low. "You don't know that."
"No. But I'm going to find out."
He walked out of the den, Elena beside him, Lucas behind him, Becca and Erica covering their flanks. The alpha was standing where they'd left it, its head lowered, its eyes following them as they emerged. It didn't move, didn't growl, didn't do anything except watch them walk across the clearing, toward the ridge, toward the forest.
Mira was waiting for them at the top of the ridge, her face pale, her hands shaking. "The pack. They're coming back. I heard them in the forest, maybe ten minutes out."
David looked back at the clearing, at the alpha that was still watching them, at the den that held something his aunt had left behind. "Then we need to move."
They moved. Fast. Through the forest, past the old logging road, past the places where the gorehounds had marked their territory, toward the safe zone where the hunters gathered and the lights burned bright. Lucas was in front, clearing the path, his body shifted, his hands ready. Erica was behind them, her bow up, her eyes scanning the trees. Becca was beside David, her shadows spreading, her face set.
Elena was holding David's hand, her grip tight, her face pale. "My mother. What else did she say? What else did she tell you?"
David looked at her, at the cousin he'd found, at the woman who'd been waiting for him her whole life. "She said the egg chose me. That it's been waiting for me since before I was born. That when I'm ready, when I'm strong enough, it will wake up."
Elena's eyes widened. "Wake up? Wake up into what?"
David didn't have an answer. He pulled Elena forward, kept moving, kept running. The forest was dark around them, the trees pressing close, the sounds of the pack getting louder behind them.