The further they walked into the cave, the more it felt like the darkness had weight—dense, pressing, and almost breathing.
Seraphina's boots scraped softly against the damp stone, but every sound seems louder, as if the cave itself amplified fear.
Kael moved ahead of her now, his body tense, his shoulders rigid like he was preparing to face a ghost from his past.
She kept glancing back, half-expecting shadows to slither after them, or for that terrifying light inside her to ignite without warning.
The silence between them stretched, filled only by the soft trickle of underground water and the low groans of the cave's shifting walls.
"Why do I feel like the darkness is watching us?" she finally asked, her voice hushed but echoing unnaturally.
Kael didn't look back, but his answer was grave.
"Because it is."
Her heart thudded harder against her ribs, as if trying to claw its way out of her chest.
She wanted to stop walking.
She wanted to scream.
But she didn't.
She kept moving, because whatever waited ahead had to be better than what was hunting her behind.
The path narrowed and forced them closer, the walls brushing their shoulders like fingers dragging across skin.
It felt alive.
Seraphina tried not to breathe too loudly.
Suddenly, the walls expanded again, opening into a vast chamber so wide it swallowed the lightless space like a void.
A fire sparked to life—unlit by flame or hand—casting golden light across the rock and revealing a large stone throne carved into the cave's wall.
Sitting upon it was a man.
No, not a man—a presence.
His silver eyes pierced through the dimness with unnatural intensity, and his white hair flowed like threads of lightning frozen in time.
"Father," Kael said, bowing stiffly, the word laced with tension and unspoken history.
The figure didn't rise, but his voice rolled out like thunder in a storm.
"You brought her here."
Kael straightened.
"She needs to know."
The Alpha's gaze shifted to Seraphina.
She felt stripped bare under his stare—like every secret she didn't know she held was suddenly visible.
"She's not ready," the Alpha growled, his voice echoing through the stone like an ancient law.
"She activated the mark," Kael argued. "She has to be prepared."
The Alpha's expression darkened, and Seraphina noticed a scar running across his left cheek, jagged like a claw mark that never healed.
"That doesn't mean she's ready," he said, rising slowly from the throne, his height casting a long shadow that seemed to stretch across the entire chamber.
His energy was overwhelming—cold, wild, and commanding all at once.
"What exactly am I?" Seraphina asked, her voice small but firm.
The Alpha stared at her, then stepped forward until he stood just a few feet away, towering above her like a storm about to break.
"You're the vessel of the last Howler's curse," he said.
Her throat tightened.
"The what?"
"The curse that once drowned this world in blood and madness," the Alpha continued, his eyes never blinking. "Sealed away centuries ago… in blood… and bone… and silence."
Seraphina's knees wobbled, but she didn't fall.
"Why me?"
The Alpha circled her slowly now, studying her like she was an artifact stolen from time.
"Because your blood carries a secret none have dared awaken—until now."
Kael tensed behind her, as if bracing for a fight that hadn't yet begun.
Seraphina turned toward the Alpha, her mark glowing brighter than ever, casting a pale light across her face.
"I didn't choose this," she whispered.
"No one ever does," the Alpha replied, voice softer now, yet still heavy with power.
Seraphina stood frozen in the middle of the chamber, the Alpha's words clawing at the edges of her understanding like sharp talons tearing through delicate fabric.
She could feel Kael's presence behind her, protective but distant, as if even he was afraid of the truth now unraveling before them.
"You mean this… mark… this power inside me… was meant to destroy?" she asked, the words tasting like ash on her tongue.
The Alpha stopped circling her, his eyes narrowing like a wolf sizing up a wounded animal before the final strike.
"It was meant to choose," he corrected. "To find a host worthy enough to carry it without losing their soul in the fire."
Seraphina's breath hitched, her fingers curling into trembling fists as she struggled to keep her thoughts from spinning into chaos.
"And if the host does lose their soul?" she asked.
"Then everything burns," the Alpha said coldly, his voice devoid of hesitation.
A violent shiver crawled across her skin, as if her body already anticipated the destruction buried deep within her bones.
Kael stepped forward finally, his voice a sharp contrast to his father's—stern, but laced with something that sounded dangerously close to hope.
"She's stronger than you think," he said. "She's already resisting it."
The Alpha turned to his son, his expression unreadable but far from impressed.
"And so did your mother," he said quietly. "Until she didn't."
Kael's face went pale.
Seraphina looked between them, the tension crackling like dry leaves in a wildfire.
"You said I need to control it," she said, her voice breaking through the weight in the air. "How?"
The Alpha walked toward the edge of the chamber, where a narrow passage yawned open in the stone like a mouth waiting to swallow her whole.
"You train with it," he said. "You bleed with it. You learn how to command it before it commands you."
Seraphina hesitated, eyeing the black hallway beyond.
"What happens if I fail?" she asked.
The Alpha didn't turn around.
"You won't be the only one who dies."
His words clung to the cave walls like mist, cold and suffocating.
Kael stepped beside her and placed a hand gently on her back.
"You can do this," he whispered. "I've seen what you are—what you could become."
She wanted to believe him.
But her hands were shaking.
Her legs felt like stone.
And the glowing mark on her skin pulsed like a heartbeat separate from her own, reminding her that something inside her was changing too fast for her to control.
Still, she nodded once.
"I'm ready," she said, even though she wasn't sure it was true.
The Alpha turned back and studied her again.
His eyes seemed to pierce deeper this time, as if peeling back the layers of her lies and fear until there was nothing left but the raw truth of her soul.
"Then follow me," he said.
He led them through the narrow hallway, the light of Seraphina's mark illuminating the jagged stone walls with an eerie glow.
They walked in silence for minutes that felt like hours, until they reached a wide cavern filled with ancient runes carved into the ground in spiraling, dizzying patterns.
Symbols glowed faintly on the walls—some familiar, most terrifyingly alien.
"What is this place?" she asked.
"A memory," the Alpha said. "A graveyard. A warning."
The room hummed with energy, thick and wild and barely restrained beneath the stone surface.
In the center stood a raised platform, with what looked like old blades, chains, and torn fabric—relics of past battles, maybe of past failures.
"This is where it begins," the Alpha said, gesturing for her to step into the circle. "Or where it ends."
Seraphina swallowed hard and stepped forward, the symbols beneath her feet flaring brighter with each movement.
She didn't know what kind of test this was.
But every instinct in her body screamed that this was not just training.
This was survival.
Kael moved to the edge of the circle, his upeyes locked on her, fierce and silent.
"You'll feel pain," the Alpha said. "Fear. Rage. Love. Everything you are will be stripped and laid bare."
Seraphina looked up at him, heart thudding in her chest.
"And if I break?"
The Alpha's voice was like stone cracking beneath pressure.
"Then you were never meant to carry the mark."
A cold wind spiraled suddenly around the circle, and the runes lit up like fire chasing lightning.
Seraphina shut her eyes.
And everything went black.