The stairwell narrows as I go.
The ceiling dips lower. The air thickens——less like it's being breathed, more like it's remembering.
The stone shifts beneath my fingertips as I descend.
No longer carved.
Not clean.
Just raw earth, veined with dark root and veins of dull metal that hum faintly beneath the surface.
I pause on the landing halfway down.
My pendant pulses——warm and steady, like a heartbeat buried under stone.
I don't speak.
I don't reach for it.
But it responds to me anyway.
I keep walking.
Deeper.
The walls begin to change. Etchings emerge—-not like the Court's rigid patterns, but flowing symbols.
Curved. Layered. Familiar.
One catches my eye.
A mirrored version of the one etched into the back of my pendant.
The one Lilly gave me.
I trace the symbol with my fingertip, and the stone shivers beneath it.
Not from cold.
From recognition.
This isn't just another trial.
This isn't just some place Freyr forgot.
This is where the truth lives.
I reach the bottom.
The stairs end in a narrow hallway lined with sealed stone doors——each with symbols I've never seen.
Except one.
At the far end.
That door is marked with the design on my pendant.
It opens when I step in front of it.
The stone peels back like breath released.
The room beyond glows with low gold light.
And in the silence, I hear it:
My mother's voice.
Not words.
Just a laugh.
Not loud.
Just real.
And for the first time since stepping into Nox—-
I feel like I've come home.
********
Freyr's POV
I should have buried the door deeper.
I should have sealed the path with more than stone and silence.
But I didn't.
Because I was arrogant.
Because I thought fear would be enough.
Now the realm hums with her footsteps.
Not loud.
Not forceful.
Just present.
Like the roots of this place are following her.
Like they've been waiting for her.
I step into the observatory chamber, but the mirror in the center is dark. No image. No echo.
She's gone beneath the layers even I can't reach.
And I know what she'll find down there.
The blood seals that didn't hold.
The echoes of the truth I've buried in layer after layer of carefully curated lies.
She'll see the walls etched with her family's line——not human. Not just fae, But something older.
She'll find out why the Court began testing her. Why Cassie was taken. Why her parents were slaughtered and by who. What Justin and his family really means to her.
Punishment for what she carried, for what they represented, what they turned their backs on.
And now?
Now she has the most sinful bond possible to fae, she has one of the pendants, and she is starting to age into herself.
And the fates—-**the damn fates—**have stopped whispering in riddles and started dragging her toward the truth.
I close my fist over the edge of the glass, the stone crackling beneath my palm.
She's going to see everything.
And when she does…..
I don't know if I'll be able to stop her.