Chapter 11 - THE CASTLE WHERE NOBODY DREAMED
The old Blackwood observatory stood on a mountain above the Cascades.
Its stone walls were dark with rain.
The telescope dome had collapsed decades earlier.
Windows were boarded shut.
And according to official records, the property had been abandoned since the Winter Schism.
I stood beneath the trees with Nia, Rowan, and three independent pack investigators.
The plan wasn't to storm the building.
We had preserved the Hollow Crown financial records, obtained witness statements, and brought investigators authorized by a coalition of pack leaders who had refused Varrick's emergency decree.
We were there to verify evidence of unlawful detention and secure the people inside.
It was an imperfect plan.
But it was better than charging into a prison with nothing but anger.
Inside the observatory, we discovered a hidden elevator.
It led six floors underground.
The deeper we descended, the colder the air became.
Then I heard it.
Silence.
Not ordinary quiet.
A strange absence.
No distant thoughts.
No instinctive awareness of other wolves.
The building seemed to swallow every feeling.
Rowan's face tightened.
“They used suppression fields here.”
I looked at him.
“To stop people shifting?”
“To stop them feeling anything strongly enough to resist.”
My stomach turned.
We passed empty medical rooms.
Locked storage cabinets.
Rows of beds.
Then we reached a corridor where pale lights illuminated numbered doors.
A woman's voice came from behind one.
“Please don't take my daughter.”
I stopped breathing.
Nia rushed forward.
Investigators opened the door.
Inside, a young mother sat on the floor holding a little girl.
Both wore hospital gowns.
The child couldn't have been older than six.
Her eyes were dull.
She stared at us without speaking.
I knelt.
“Hi, sweetheart.”
She looked at me.
“Are you here to make me forget again?”
Something inside me broke.
“No.”
I swallowed.
“I'm here to help you remember whatever you want to remember.”
The little girl began crying.
Over the next several hours, the investigators located nineteen people being held in the underground facility.
Some had been there for months.
Others for years.
Medical teams were brought in.
The captives received emergency evaluations and the opportunity to contact family members.
I tried to help where I could.
But then Rowan found a sealed room at the end of the corridor.
Its door carried an old nameplate.
C. ARDENT.
My heart stopped.
Cassian.
I reached for the handle.
Locked.
An investigator obtained access.
The door opened.
Inside was a small room.
A bed.
A chair.
A desk covered in notebooks.
And a photograph of a newborn baby.
Me.
I picked it up with trembling hands.
On the back was written:
Aurelia. Three days old. My little light.
Tears filled my eyes.
A voice came from behind me.
“You shouldn't be here.”
I turned.
A man stood in the doorway.
Tall.
Thin.
His dark hair had gone almost completely silver.
There were scars across his hands.
His eyes were the same shape as mine.
He stared at me.
Then at the photograph.
His mouth trembled.
“Selene?”
I shook my head.
My voice broke.
“No.”
He stepped backward.
“Impossible.”
I took a breath.
“My name is Honey.”
His expression changed.
Then I added, “But I think you named me Aurelia.”
The photograph slipped from his hand.
He stared at me.
And whispered, “My daughter?”
I began crying.
“Yes.”
He crossed the room.
Then stopped just before reaching me.
His hands trembled.
“May I?”
I nodded.
He pulled me into his arms.
And after twenty-six years, my father held me again.
Later, Cassian explained that he'd been forced to work on the suppression research.
He had resisted whenever possible.
Hidden information.
Protected prisoners.
Sabotaged experiments without putting captives at greater risk.
But the facility's enchantments prevented him from leaving.
For twenty-six years, he had believed Selene was dead.
And that I had been safely raised somewhere far away.
He had never expected to see me again.
I sat beside him.
“Is my mother alive?”
Cassian looked toward the floor.
For a long moment, he said nothing.
Then he whispered, “I saw her after the war.”
My heart raced.
“Where?”
“Here.”
I stared.
“She was imprisoned?”
He nodded.
“For several months.”
“What happened?”
Cassian's eyes filled.
“She broke the suppression field long enough for some children to escape.”
I swallowed.
“And then?”
He took my hand.
“Varrick ordered her transferred to the old royal sanctuary.”
“Why?”
“Because he couldn't control her.”
I leaned forward.
“Is she still there?”
Cassian looked at me.
“I don't know.”
May you like
Then he said something that made the room go quiet.
“But the last message she sent me said she had discovered how to restore the Seven Oaths.”
