Chapter 55: The Walls That Breathe
Emma’s POV
I didn’t know how long I had been in the passage.
The air was thick down here, damp and heavy, like the walls themselves were pressing closer, watching me, waiting. The flickering candlelight barely cut through the darkness, the glow stretching long and thin against the cold stone floor.
Caroline stood ahead of me, her pale blue gown swaying softly. She wasn’t a ghost—at least, not in the way I had come to understand ghosts. She was something else.
A memory, maybe.
Or a warning.
She turned toward me, her expression unreadable. “You weren’t supposed to find this place.”
My stomach twisted. “Then why did Everdawn show it to me?”
She tilted her head slightly. “Because it’s tired.”
I frowned. “Of what?”
Caroline exhaled. “Keeping secrets
