Chapter Seven
1172 Words
Amber woke to warmth.
For a moment, she didn’t understand it. The caves were always cold—damp, suffocating, lifeless. But now, something soft brushed against her skin, like a memory she had almost forgotten.
Heat.
Light.
Her eyes snapped open.
She wasn’t in her cell.
Amber pushed herself up slowly, her breath catching as she took in her surroundings. Stone walls still enclosed her, but this room was different. Cleaner. Quieter. There were no iron bars, no echoing cries, no dripping water gnawing at her sanity.
And above—
A narrow opening carved into the rock ceiling.
Sunlight poured through it.
Not much. Just a thin beam. But it stretched across the floor like something sacred, stopping inches from where she lay.
Amber stared at it, her chest tightening.
The sun.
Her throat burned suddenly, emotion rising too fast to control. She hadn’t realised how much she missed it—not just the warmth, but what it meant. Freedom. Home. Life.
Her wolf stirred beneath her skin.
Not weak this time.
Aware.
Hungry.
“What have you done to me?” she whispered, her voice rough.
“Nothing you didn’t already carry.”
The voice came from behind her.
Amber spun around.
He was there.
The Watcher stood near the far wall, half in shadow like always. Still. Silent. Watching.
Her pulse spiked instantly. “You brought me here.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
He didn’t answer straight away. Instead, he stepped forward, slow and deliberate, until the light caught part of his face. His features were sharp, almost carved, pale against the glow. But it was his eyes that held her—dark, steady, unreadable.
“You wouldn’t survive where they’ve placed you,” he said.
Amber’s jaw tightened. “That’s not your decision to make.”
“No,” he said calmly. “But it is my responsibility to know whether you’re worth saving.”
The words hit harder than she expected.
“Saving?” she repeated. “I didn’t ask for your help.”
“You didn’t have to.”
Something in his tone—quiet, certain—made her chest twist.
Amber swung her legs off the bed and forced herself to stand. Her body still felt heavy, the wolfsbane clinging stubbornly to her system, but not like before. Not completely numbing.
Her wolf pushed forward, testing its strength.
Watching him.
“You act like you’re different,” Amber said, her voice sharper now. “Like you’re not one of them.”
A flicker crossed his face. Gone too quickly to name.
“Am I?” he asked softly.
Amber hesitated.
That was the problem.
He didn’t feel like the others.
No suffocating hunger. No cruel amusement. No instinct screaming run.
Just tension.
And something else.
Something she didn’t trust.
“Then prove it,” she said.
Silence stretched between them.
For a moment, she thought he wouldn’t respond.
Then he raised his hand.
The air shifted.
Amber felt it instantly—a pull, like something invisible tightening around the room. The faint beam of sunlight above flickered, then widened, the opening in the rock seeming to stretch without actually moving.
Light flooded the chamber.
Amber gasped.
Warmth hit her skin, stronger this time, and her wolf surged forward with a force that stole the breath from her lungs. It wasn’t just relief—it was power. Energy she hadn’t felt since before she was captured.
Her knees nearly gave out.
“What…?” she breathed.
The Watcher lowered his hand.
The light softened again, shrinking back to its narrow beam—but it didn’t disappear.
“You feel it,” he said.
Amber’s heart pounded. “That’s not possible.”
“And yet.”
She stared at him, her thoughts spiralling. “What did you do?”
“Nothing unnatural,” he replied. “Only revealed what was already there.”
Her chest tightened. “You’re not making sense.”
He stepped closer.
Close enough that she could see the fine details now—the stillness in his expression, the control in every movement. Not restrained like the others.
Disciplined.
“It means,” he said quietly, “you are tied to something the Court does not understand.”
“The sun,” Amber said quickly. “That’s just what we are. All of us—”
“No.”
The word cut through her.
“Not like this.”
Silence fell.
For the first time, doubt crept in.
Not fear.
Something deeper.
Her wolf shifted uneasily.
Who am I?
Before she could speak again—
The door slammed open.
Amber flinched as the sound shattered the stillness.
Zane stood in the doorway, his usual composure gone. His expression was tight, alert.
“They’re coming,” he said. “The Court wants her. Now.”
The air changed instantly.
Amber felt it—like pressure building before a storm.
The Watcher didn’t move. But something in him sharpened, invisible but undeniable.
“Then it begins,” he said.
Amber looked between them. “What begins?”
Neither of them answered.
Zane stepped forward and grabbed her arm. His grip was firm—not cruel, but urgent.
“You need to move.”
Amber resisted for half a second, her gaze snapping back to the Watcher.
“No,” she said. “Not this time. I want answers.”
Zane tightened his hold. “This isn’t the time—”
“When is it then?” she snapped. “When I’m dead?”
Silence.
The Watcher watched her carefully.
Measuring.
Then he spoke.
“Soon.”
The word wasn’t comforting.
It sounded like a promise she might not survive to see.
Zane pulled her toward the door.
Amber stumbled slightly, still adjusting to the strength returning to her body. As they crossed the threshold, she twisted back, locking eyes with him one last time.
“Tell me your name,” she demanded.
For a moment, he said nothing.
Then—
“You’ll earn it.”
The door slammed shut.
The sound echoed through her chest as much as the corridor beyond.
Zane dragged her forward, his pace quick.
“Do you have any idea what you’ve done?” he muttered.
Amber frowned. “What are you talking about?”
“You caught his attention,” Zane said. “That never ends well.”
Amber’s pulse quickened. “He already had it.”
Zane glanced at her, something unreadable in his expression. “Then you’re in more danger than I thought.”
They moved through the corridors quickly now, the familiar cold closing in around her again. The warmth from the sunlight was already fading, leaving behind a hollow ache.
But something had changed.
Her wolf wasn’t quiet anymore.
It was awake.
Watching.
Waiting.
As they approached the heavy doors ahead, Amber’s stomach twisted.
The Court.
This time would be different.
It had to be.
Because now—
She wasn’t just trying to survive.
She was trying to understand.
And somehow, that felt even more dangerous.
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