Chapter 43: The Secret Behind the Door
"You’re sure she’s gone?" Magnolia asked as the four of them stepped back into the flickering torchlight of the upper hall. Her voice held the same steel as always, but there was a faint edge beneath it not fear, not doubt. Reverence.
"She walked into a wall and vanished," Beckett muttered. "Unless she knows some trick of the Keep I haven’t seen, she’s not exactly around the corner."
Rhett said nothing. He moved like a shadow now, silent, dangerous, focused. His gaze never left Camille.
She hadn’t spoken in several minutes. The silver thread still wrapped around her fingers, glowing faintly in rhythm with her pulse.
"What are you thinking?" he finally asked her.
"That I’m holding a key," she answered. "And I don’t know which door it was meant to open."
"The bond awakened something down there," Magnolia said. "You saw the way it reacted to you. It wasn’t defense. It was allegiance."
Camille looked down at the thread, watching the glow fade slowly as it settled. "Then it’s time to see who still stands with us."
By the time they reached the council chambers, news had already spread. The wolves who had stayed near the Keep’s inner ring were no longer scattered. They had gathered. Quiet. Still. Waiting.
Camille stepped through them like a blade through water.
The double doors of the high tribunal opened before she reached them.