The Forgotten Pulse of the Bond-Chapter 60: IN THE HOLLOWFANG’S MOUTH

"Do you feel that? It’s... humming again."

Magnolia’s voice echoed along the damp corridor as they descended the spiral stone stairway. The air grew colder with every step, thick with the scent of moss, old blood, and something unspoken, something that did not belong to the world above.

Camille walked ahead, her torchlight catching the carvings on the walls, ancient glyphs etched by claw and bone. Her shoulders were squared, but the tremble in her hand betrayed her.

"That’s not humming," she said. "That’s breathing. This place is alive."

The stairway spilled into a vast underground chamber, and the two sisters paused at the threshold. The hollow beneath the estate stretched wide like the ribcage of a buried beast, arched stone columns rose from the earth, holding the weight of generations, and along the walls, names had been carved in long-forgotten dialects. The names of the condemned. The traitorous. The cursed.

Magnolia narrowed her eyes. "This was never a sanctuary."

"No," Camille whispered. "It was a prison."

They stepped inside, their footsteps crunching over bones and dust. Chains still hung from the walls, iron stained deep with time and use. A stone altar sat at the center, crowned with a sculpture of the Hollowfang crest, fangs rising from the earth, crossed by twin blades.

Camille moved toward it. "This is where they sealed the first revolt. Where blood bought silence."

Magnolia walked slowly to a mural carved into the wall behind the altar. She brushed away soot and ash. "Who are they?"

Camille turned, eyes widening.

The mural showed a woman, tall, regal, with violet eyes and flame-like hair. She stood before a council of wolves, her palms held out in surrender. Her body was wrapped in cloth, but her neck bore the mark of the Pact. The woman’s face was familiar.

Magnolia stepped back. "Is that..."

"Yes," Camille said. "That’s our mother."

"And these wolves?"

"Elders of the Hollowfang. The first Syndicate. She surrendered herself to them. To buy us time."

Magnolia’s jaw tightened. "Then what did they bury down here? Her secret? Or her sin?"

Camille didn’t answer.

Instead, she turned to the altar and pressed her palm against the crest. For a moment, nothing happened. Then the stone cracked, revealing a stairway descending even further into the dark.

"You coming?" she asked.

Magnolia drew her blade and followed. "Right behind you."

Camille paused. "This is a truth chamber."

Magnolia raised a brow. "That’s not comforting."

"No. It isn’t."

At the far end, a circular chamber awaited. Its walls were covered with mirrors, cracked and clouded. The moment they stepped inside, the temperature dropped, and the mirrors shimmered with reflections not their own.

One by one, the mirrors began to speak.

"You were never chosen," one whispered to Camille.

"You will always be feared," another breathed to Magnolia.

They flinched but didn’t run.

Camille faced her mirror. "Lies."

The mirror cracked deeper.

Magnolia pressed her fingers to the glass. "I am not what they say I am."

The mirror shattered.

The room pulsed, and in the center of the chamber, a pedestal rose slowly from the floor. Resting atop it was a box, small, ornate, carved with the same sigil from the scroll. Camille reached for it.

"Wait," Magnolia said. "What if it’s cursed?"

"Everything in our life is cursed," Camille muttered, opening the box.

Inside was a folded parchment and a vial of black liquid.

She read aloud.

"’When the heirs awaken, so too will the fire that bound them. One shall bleed. One shall burn. And only the true heart shall reign.’"

Magnolia looked at the vial. "What is that?"

"Memory ink," Camille replied. "It binds visions to blood."

Before Magnolia could protest, Camille unstoppered the vial, dipped her finger in, and pressed it to the parchment.

The ink hissed.

And then the vision hit.

They stood in a memory not their own.

The chamber had shifted around them, now a throne room filled with flickering torches and crimson banners. Wolves knelt before a woman crowned in flame. It was their mother. Her voice thundered across the room.

"If I fall, bind them. Do not let the Hollowfang rise again. They are not ready."

The council members bowed. One among them, the tallest, stepped forward. His face hidden beneath a silver mask.

"I will see it done," he said.

Camille turned to Magnolia. "That’s him. Sterling."

The vision cracked, fire spreading across the room, and the crown shattered as their mother collapsed in flame.

Darkness returned.

They gasped, collapsing to their knees as the vision faded. Camille clutched her chest.

"She knew. She knew Sterling would betray her."

Magnolia helped her up. "Then why give him the power?"

"Because he was blood," Camille whispered. "And blood blinds."

Back aboveground, Rhett stood on the estate’s western watchtower, eyes narrowed at the strange glow rising from beneath the soil. He felt it, bone-deep, a call that was not his own. Something was shifting beneath their feet, and it had his name on it.

Savannah joined him, her hand resting on the hilt of her blade.

"They’ve been down there too long."

He nodded. "They found something. I can feel it."

She looked toward the distant chapel ruins. "Should we go after them?"

"No," Rhett said quietly. "We wait. Whatever’s awakening down there, only the bloodline can stop it."

Camille and Magnolia reached the final chamber, round, hollow, with a stone dais in the center. Upon it sat a throne, carved of black bone and fire-stained wood.

Camille froze.

"I’ve seen this in dreams."

Magnolia looked around. "Is this where it ends?"

"No," Camille said. "This is where it starts."

The walls began to shake, dust falling like rain. A shadow moved behind the throne. Then it stepped forward.

She was tall. Dressed in black. Her eyes were fire.

"Lucia Thorne," Camille breathed.

Lucia smiled.

"My daughters," she said. "So much like her. So much weaker." freewebnøvel.com

Magnolia stepped forward, blade raised. "You’re not real."

Lucia’s smile twisted. "I am every choice she made to protect you. Every lie you inherited. I am the consequence."

Camille clenched her fists. "Then let’s end it."

Lucia’s eyes glowed brighter.

"You cannot destroy what you were born from," she hissed.

The chamber roared.

Fire ignited in the veins of the stone.

The sisters braced.

And the Hollowfang awakened.