David woke to sunlight on his face and the sound of voices somewhere in the estate and the feeling that he'd slept for about a hundred years. He lay there for a while, not moving, just breathing, just existing, just letting the warmth of the sun seep into his bones. Elena was gone from beside him, had probably left sometime in the night, had probably gone back to her own room to sleep in her own bed.
The crystal was still on the nightstand, pulsing faintly, the rhythm slower now, like it was sleeping too. David reached for it, held it in his hand, felt the warmth of it spread through his fingers. His aunt had put herself in that stone, had left a piece of herself behind for him to find, had been waiting eighteen years for him to come.
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 more questions. The egg chose you, she'd said. It's been waiting for you since before you were born. When you're ready, when you're strong enough, it will wake up.
But what did that mean? What was inside the egg? What would happen when it woke up?
David put the crystal back on the nightstand, swung his legs out of bed, stood up. His body ached from the running, from the climbing, from the hours of tension that had finally released sometime in the night. He stretched, felt his joints pop, felt his muscles protest, felt the fire in his chest flicker and settle.
There was a knock on his door, and Lucas's voice came through, muffled but unmistakable. "You awake? Becca says breakfast is ready and your grandma wants to talk about the thing in the trees and also there's coffee, real coffee, not that stuff they gave us in First Landing."
David opened the door. Lucas was standing there in clothes that looked like they'd been slept in, his hair somehow even messier than usual, his face bright with the kind of energy that came from too much caffeine and not enough sleep.
"You look terrible," David said.
"You look worse. Now come on, there's food."
---
The main hall was crowded when they got there, more people than David had ever seen at the estate at one time. The grandmother was at her usual place, her walking stick in her hands, her eyes moving from face to face. Kaito was beside her, standing without his cane for the first time since the attack, his face still pale but his expression clear. Becca was at the table, her coffee in her hands, her shadows quiet for once. Erica was by the window, her bow on her back, her eyes on the gardens.
Elena was sitting between them, her face pale but her eyes bright, her hands wrapped around a cup of something that steamed in the morning light. She looked up when David walked in, smiled, small but real.
Lucas headed straight for the food, loading his plate with enough for three people, talking the whole time about what he was going to eat and how hungry he was and how he thought he might actually die if he didn't get food in the next thirty seconds. David sat down beside Elena, poured himself some coffee, waited for the grandmother to speak.
She didn't keep him waiting long.
"The thing in the trees," she said, her voice carrying across the room, silencing the conversations that had been going on around them. "Mira said her father saw it years ago, in the deep Expanse. She said it was waiting. Waiting for something. Waiting for someone."
David nodded slowly. "She said it had been waiting for a very long time."
The grandmother leaned forward, her eyes sharp, her voice low. "The Chen family has been in power for decades. They have connections everywhere, people who owe them favors, people who are afraid of them, people who would do anything to stay on their good side. If they've been protecting the Vane family all these years, if they've been covering up what happened to the Phoenix Clan, then they're not going to stop just because we found some evidence."
Kaito moved from his place beside the grandmother, his steps careful, his voice steady. "But we have more than evidence now. We have the stone from the den, the message from Lian, the thing in the trees. We have something that connects all of this, something that goes back further than the Vane family, further than Chen, further than anyone we've been looking at."
Becca looked up from her coffee, her voice quiet. "The egg. Whatever's inside the egg, whatever it is, it's been waiting for David. The thing in the trees, the alpha, the den, all of it has been waiting for him. That's not a coincidence. That's something else."
Erica spoke from the window, her voice calm, her eyes still on the gardens. "Something that's been here longer than the system. Longer than the portals. Longer than any of us."
The grandmother was quiet for a long moment, her eyes on David's face, something shifting in her expression. "Your mother said the egg chose you. That it's been waiting for you since before you were born. What does that mean, David? What does it want?"
David looked at the coffee in his hands, at the steam rising from the surface, at the way the light caught the edges of the cup. "I don't know. Lian wouldn't tell me. She said I had to find out for myself."
Lucas had stopped eating, his fork halfway to his mouth, his face serious. "So we find out. We go back to the den, we find the stone, we figure out what it's connected to. We're not going to learn anything sitting here."
Becca shook her head, her voice sharp. "We can't go back. The pack is still there, the alpha is still there, the thing in the trees is still there. We barely made it out the first time. We won't get a second chance."
David looked at her, at the fear in her eyes, at the shadows that were rising around her feet like they were trying to protect her. "Then we don't go back. We find another way."
Elena spoke for the first time, her voice quiet but steady. "My mother. She put that stone in the den for a reason. She wanted someone to find it. She wanted David to find it. But she didn't want him to take it. She wanted him to see it, to touch it, to hear what she had to say. And then she wanted him to leave it there."
David turned to look at her. "Why? Why leave it?"
Elena met his eyes, something in her expression shifting. "Because it's not just a message. It's a marker. A waypoint. Something that's connected to other places, other stones, other things that have been waiting for someone to find them. My mother didn't put that stone in the den. She found it there. The same way Mira's father found his stone in the deep Expanse. The same way your father found the crystal. They're all connected."
The grandmother leaned forward, her voice sharp. "Connected to what?"
Elena shook her head slowly. "I don't know. But I think that's what we're supposed to find out."
---
The rest of the day passed slowly, the estate settling into a rhythm that felt almost normal. Lucas spent most of it in the training facility, working off the energy he'd built up during the hunt, destroying dummies and practicing his density shifts until the walls shook. Becca joined him for a while, her shadows moving, her daggers flashing, the two of them pushing each other harder than either of them would have pushed alone.
Erica disappeared into the gardens, doing what she always did, watching, waiting, making sure no one was coming for them. David found her there in the late afternoon, sitting on the bench where he'd sat with Elena the night before, her bow across her lap, her eyes on the horizon.
"You should be resting," she said, not looking at him.
"So should you."
She shrugged, a small movement, almost invisible. "Someone has to watch."
David sat down beside her, not too close, not too far. "The thing in the trees. You didn't see it. When Mira saw it, when it was watching the cabin, you didn't see it."
Erica was quiet for a moment, her eyes still on the horizon. "No. I didn't. I've been watching for threats my whole life, David. I've trained myself to see things other people miss. But I didn't see that thing. I didn't hear it. I didn't feel it. And that scares me more than anything I've ever seen."
David thought about the thing in the trees, the way it had stood there watching, the way it had let them go, the way it had been waiting for them since before they entered the forest. "It didn't want to be seen. Not by you. Not by anyone except Mira."
Erica turned to look at him, something shifting in her expression. "Why Mira? What does she have that we don't?"
David thought about the stone in Mira's hand, the symbols on its surface, the warmth he'd felt when he touched it. "The stone. Her father found it in the deep Expanse, the same way my father found the crystal, the same way Lian found the stone in the den. They're all connected. And the thing in the trees, whatever it is, it's connected too."
Erica was quiet for a long moment, her eyes on his face, her expression unreadable. "You're going to find it. Whatever it is, wherever it's hiding, you're going to find it."
David nodded slowly. "Yes. I am."
"Then I'm coming with you."
"I know."
She almost smiled, a small movement of her lips, almost invisible. "Good."
---
Dinner was quiet, the grandmother excusing herself early, Kaito following her, his steps slow but steady. Becca ate in silence, her eyes on her plate, her shadows still. Lucas tried to fill the silence with stories about the hunt, about the gorehounds, about the thing in the trees, but even he ran out of words eventually.
Elena sat beside David, her hand on his arm, her presence steady. She'd been quiet since the morning, since the grandmother's questions, since the talk about the stones and the markers and the things that had been waiting. David could feel her thinking, could feel the weight of everything she'd learned pressing against her.
"What are you thinking?" he asked, his voice low.
Elena looked at him, something in her expression shifting. "I'm thinking about my mother. About the stone she found, the message she left, the thing she was trying to protect. I'm thinking about what she said, about the egg choosing you, about it waiting for you to be ready. And I'm thinking about what happens when you are."
David put his hand over hers, felt her fingers cold, felt her trembling. "We'll face it together. Whatever it is, whatever comes, we'll face it together."
Elena nodded slowly, her eyes bright. "Together."
Lucas stood up from the table, his energy returning, his voice bright. "Okay, enough of this sad stuff. We're alive, we're safe, we've got food and beds and people who care about us. Let's enjoy it while we can." He grabbed Elena's hand, pulled her to her feet. "Come on, I want to show you the training facility. Becca's been teaching me this new form and I think I've almost got it."
Elena looked back at David, something in her expression shifting, something that might have been gratitude or relief or just the surprise of being treated like a normal person instead of a secret that had been hidden for eighteen years. He nodded at her, told her to go, told her to enjoy herself, told her she deserved it.
She smiled and let Lucas pull her out of the room.
Becca moved to David's side, her shadows quiet, her voice low. "She's strong. Elena. Stronger than she knows."
David watched the door where she'd disappeared, thought about the years she'd spent in that house, the weight she'd been carrying, the courage it had taken to leave. "She's been fighting alone for a long time. She's not alone anymore."
Becca was quiet for a moment, her hand on his arm, her presence steady. "Neither are you."
David looked at her, at the girl who had been with him since the beginning, who had trained him, fought beside him, trusted him when he gave her nothing to trust. "I know."
She nodded, released his arm, moved toward the door. "Get some rest.