Chapter 16
849 Words
JULIAN POV
“She deserves to know… why her father betrayed us.”
My father’s voice carried through the stone like a command carved into steel.
The corridor fell silent.
Even the guards lowered their eyes.
I didn’t turn around.
I kept my hand against the ancient door, feeling the pulse beneath the stone.
It was alive.
Slow.
Steady.
Waiting.
Behind this wall was Penelope.
I could feel her.
Not because I possessed some mystical connection to her.
Because the castle itself had begun weaving her into its foundations.
It had chosen.
That was the part no one understood.
Not Cassian.
Not Lucien.
Not even the King.
The choosing wasn’t an honor.
It was a sentence.
I slowly lowered my hand.
“You knew,” I said quietly.
My father coughed.
The sound echoed painfully through the corridor.
“I suspected.”
“You knew she was here.”
“I knew the castle would bring her.”
I finally turned.
King Darius stood supported by two attendants.
He shouldn’t have been out of bed.
His face had become almost translucent beneath the candlelight.
Silver veins climbed from beneath his collar, spreading across his throat like cracks through porcelain.
Each breath looked painful.
Yet despite the sickness eating him alive…
His eyes remained terrifying.
The eyes of a king.
The eyes every Valerius prince had inherited.
“You should be resting,” I said.
A faint smile touched his lips.
“When kingdoms begin to shake…”
He looked toward the floor.
“…kings don’t sleep.”
As if the castle had heard him…
The ground trembled.
Harder than before.
The walls groaned.
Dust rained from the ceiling.
Several guards instinctively reached for their weapons.
Then…
Silence.
Only for a heartbeat.
A deep roar rolled beneath the mountain.
Not from outside.
From below.
It wasn’t the cry of an animal.
It sounded ancient.
Like stone grinding against stone.
Like something stretching after centuries of imprisonment.
One of the younger guards stumbled backward.
“What… was that?”
No one answered him.
Because everyone already knew.
Whatever slept beneath the castle…
Was waking.
Cassian appeared at the end of the corridor, breathing heavily.
“Julian.”
“What?”
“The eastern tower cracked.”
My eyes narrowed.
“What?”
“The servants said the walls split open by themselves.”
Another tremor shook the corridor.
This one was stronger.
Candles toppled onto the floor.
The paintings lining the walls tilted crookedly.
Somewhere deeper inside the castle…
Glass shattered.
Lucien arrived moments later, his expression unusually grim.
“It isn’t just the tower.”
He looked directly at the King.
“The mountain is moving.”
No one spoke.
Then my father closed his eyes.
“So…”
he whispered.
“It has begun.”
I stepped toward him.
“What has begun?”
His gaze found mine again.
“The prison is weakening.”
“The seal?”
He nodded once.
“For centuries…”
another cough interrupted him, dark blood staining the cloth in his hand,
“…every King gave pieces of his life to strengthen it.”
I stared at him.
My entire childhood flashed before my eyes.
The endless illnesses.
The physicians.
The medicines.
The exhaustion.
I had believed my father was cursed.
Weak.
Dying from an unknown disease.
He wasn’t.
He had been sacrificing himself.
Year after year.
Century after century.
To keep something buried.
Cassian broke the silence.
“If the seal breaks…”
The King answered before anyone else could.
“It won’t.”
His voice remained calm.
“It must not.”
Must not.
Not cannot.
A difference.
A dangerous difference.
Another violent tremor ripped through the castle.
This time the floor split.
A long crack raced across the marble beneath our feet before stopping inches from the sealed library door.
The crack…
Stopped directly beneath my hand.
My pulse slowed.
It wasn’t random.
Nothing in this castle ever was.
Inside that room…
Penelope was standing over the heart of whatever had been imprisoned beneath us.
The realization settled like ice in my veins.
The castle hadn’t hidden her from me.
It had hidden her…
With it.
My father followed my gaze.
“You finally understand.”
I looked back at him.
“No.”
“I’ve only begun.”
The King’s tired smile returned.
“Good.”
“Because what Elias Thorne stole…”
His voice weakened.
“…was never a child.”
The corridor went deathly still.
My heartbeat stopped.
“What did you say?”
He looked directly into my eyes.
“Elias didn’t betray us by taking Penelope.”
His breathing became shallow.
“He betrayed us…”
“…by taking what the castle had already chosen.”
Another roar erupted beneath the mountain.
This time it was so loud the entire castle shook violently.
Somewhere beyond the sealed library…
A woman’s scream echoed through the stone.
Penelope.
Without another thought, I slammed both hands against the ancient door.
“Penelope!”
No answer.
Only another deafening roar.
And for the first time in centuries…
Fear won.
- Writer
