Chapter 242
Chapter 242:
Fiona’s face flushed a mottled red, and she quickly melted back into the crowd. I offered Blake a grateful smile, but the brief confrontation had drained me. The suffocating mix of expensive perfumes, roasted meats, and the toxic memories of my high school bullies was suddenly too much to bear.
“I need some air,” I murmured to Blake. “I’ll be back in a few minutes p>
I slipped out through the heavy side doors, leaving the chaotic ballroom behind. The crisp night air hit my flushed cheeks as I navigated the familiar, winding stone paths of the academy. I didn’t stop until I reached the oldest, most secluded part of the campus: the Abandoned Bell Tower Courtyard.
It was my ultimate sanctuary. The courtyard was bathed in pale moonlight, smelling of damp earth, creeping ivy, and ancient stone. In the center stood the crumbling bell tower, its walls built from a soft, fragile red brick that had weathered decades of harsh winters.
I walked up to the wall, my heels clicking softly against the cobblestones.
𝘞𝖾𝗲𝘬𝘭y 𝘳el𝗲𝗮𝗌𝗲ѕ o𝘯 𝗀а𝘭ո𝘰𝗏е𝗅𝘴.сo𝗺
There it was. Hidden beneath a thick vine of ivy, barely visible in the shadows, was the crude carving I had made with a hairpin years ago. Adelina + Jase.
A bitter, hollow ache settled in my chest. I had come here to say a final goodbye to the foolish, wolfless girl who had carved those letters, desperate for a love that was always a lie. I reached out, my fingertips gently brushing over the weathered grooves to wipe away the years of accumulated dirt.
The stone crumbled slightly under my touch.
I pulled my hand back. My fingertips were coated in a fine, gritty, reddish-brown powder.
I stared at my hand, my breath stalling in my lungs. The moonlight caught the distinct, vibrant color of the crushed brick. My mind violently snapped back to the VIP entrance earlier that night—Kain standing under the streetlamp, the powdery, reddish-brown stain smeared across his pristine white cuff.
Wolfsbane, I had thought.
My blood ran entirely cold. The freezing ice around my heart shattered, replaced by a terrifying, paralyzing dread.
It wasn’t Wolfsbane. It was this brick dust.
Kain had lied to me. He hadn’t been in a closed-door meeting with the Continental Pack Elders. He had been here. In the dark. In the exact, hidden sanctuary that only I knew about.
My dormant Inner Wolf whimpered, shrinking back from the overwhelming, suffocating truth. Kain Blackwell had been watching me. He knew my secrets, my hiding places, the darkest corners of my past. I stood alone in the moonlit courtyard, staring at the red dust on my fingers, completely consumed by the terrifying mystery of what the Lycan King truly wanted from me.
Adelina POV
I stared at the reddish-brown dust coating my fingertips, my heart hammering a frantic rhythm against my ribs. The freezing dread in my chest was suffocating. Kain had been here. The Lycan King had stood in the shadows of my most private sanctuary.
“Lina? What are you looking at?” Blake’s voice broke through my spiraling panic. She stepped into the pale moonlight of the courtyard, her brow furrowed.