Chapter 63: Chapter 63 : The Truth Elara Carried

Chapter 63 : The Truth Elara Carried

POV: Liora

The room felt different after Kael left.

Not quieter, because the fortress was never truly quiet anymore. There were always footsteps in the distance, voices carried through walls, the constant reminder that something was shifting beyond what anyone was willing to say out loud. But inside my room, something had settled in a way that made it harder to ignore my own thoughts.

Kael knew. He knew exactly how little I had left and I knew just as much about him.

I stayed where I was for a while after he left, sitting on the edge of the bed, my hand resting unconsciously against my stomach. The bond between us was still there, but it felt distant, muted in a way I hadn’t gotten used to yet. Before the pregnancy, I would have felt him even after he walked out, would have known exactly what he was thinking without needing to guess.

Now, there was nothing.

Just silence.

I exhaled slowly and pushed myself to my feet.

Sitting here wasn’t going to change anything. It wasn’t going to give me answers, and it definitely wasn’t going to prepare me for whatever was coming next. If anything, it would only make it easier for everything to catch up to me before I understood what I was supposed to be dealing with.

There was only one place I could go.

The hidden room.

The walk there felt longer than it should have, even though I knew every turn by now. My body was still recovering, still not fully steady, but I ignored it. The weakness wasn’t new. It had just become something I had to work around instead of something I could wait out.

When I reached the panel, my fingers found the latch easily. I hesitated for a second, not because I was unsure, but because something in me already knew this conversation wasn’t going to be simple.

Then I pressed it open.

The air inside was warmer, still carrying that strange sense of separation from the rest of the fortress. Like whatever existed in this room didn’t fully belong to the same place as everything outside it.

Elara was awake, more than before.

She wasn’t just conscious this time. She was aware in a way that made the difference obvious the moment I stepped closer. Her eyes followed me immediately, clearer, sharper, even if the exhaustion was still there.

"You shouldn’t be up," I said quietly as I moved toward her.

My voice sounded steadier than I felt.

She tried to speak, but the effort caught in her throat, turning into a shallow breath instead. I reached for the glass of water beside her and helped her sit up just enough to take a small sip.

"Slowly," I said, watching carefully to make sure she didn’t push herself too far.

She nodded faintly, her grip weak against the glass before I set it back down.

For a moment, neither of us said anything. Then she looked at me properly, not just at my face.

At me.

There was something different in her expression this time. Not just relief that I was alive. Not just concern.

Recognition.

"You... survived," she said, her voice rough, barely above a whisper.

"I’m still here," I replied.

Her gaze dropped briefly, like she was processing something, before lifting again. "Then it’s worse than I thought."

That wasn’t what I expected.

I frowned slightly, pulling the chair closer so I could sit beside her. "What do you mean?"

She didn’t answer immediately. Her breathing slowed, like she was trying to gather enough strength to say something that mattered instead of wasting it on things that didn’t.

"When they took me," she started slowly, her voice uneven but steady enough to hold, "it wasn’t random."

I didn’t interrupt her. I already knew that much.

"Isolade was there," she continued. "Not just once. She came back... more than once."

Something in my chest tightened slightly at the name, but I kept my expression neutral. "What did she want?"

Elara let out a faint breath, her fingers tightening slightly against the sheets beneath her.

"You."

The word landed heavier than it should have

"Not to kill you," she added before I could speak. "Not at first."

That got my attention.

"What do you mean, not at first?" I asked.

Her gaze held mine, and for a moment, I saw something close to fear flicker there before she forced it down.

"She wanted to see how far you could go," she said. "What it would take for you to break. What it would take for you to survive."

My brows drew together slightly. "That doesn’t make sense."

"It didn’t to me either," Elara admitted. "Not until she started asking questions."

"What kind of questions?"

Her throat worked as she swallowed, like even remembering it took effort.

"She asked about your healing," she said. "How often you used it. How long it took. What happened to you after."

My body stilled.

"She wasn’t guessing," Elara continued, her voice gaining just enough strength to make each word clearer. "She already knew something. She just needed confirmation."

A cold feeling settled in my chest.

"How would she know anything about that?" I asked quietly.

Elara didn’t answer right away. Instead, she watched me for a moment, like she was deciding whether or not to say what came next.

Then she did.

"She said something," Elara murmured. "While she thought I wasn’t listening."

My fingers curled slightly against my lap.

"What did she say?"

Elara’s gaze didn’t leave mine. "She said... ’If she survives this, then she’s the one.’"

I didn’t speak immediately because I understood exactly what that meant. She wasn’t trying to kill me. She was testing me.

And that meant—

"She knew," I said quietly.

Elara nodded faintly. "Yes."

Not just Seraphina, but isolade.. Isolade knew too.

The realization didn’t come with panic. It came with something colder. Something heavier.

Because if Isolade knew, then this wasn’t contained to one person’s control anymore. This wasn’t just something hidden within the fortress walls. It was something that had already spread beyond it. Something people were actively searching for.

And somehow—

I was at the center of it.

My hand moved unconsciously to my stomach again, pressing lightly against it as the thought settled deeper.

White Wolf.

The word I had been avoiding. The thing everyone else seemed to understand better than I did, It didn’t make sense.

I couldn’t even shift.

I didn’t have a wolf.

And yet, everything kept circling back to me like I was something more than that. Like I was something they had been waiting for.

The thought should have felt impossible. Instead, it felt dangerously close to true.

"She wasn’t done," Elara said suddenly, pulling my attention back to her.

I looked up quickly. "What else did she say?"

Elara’s expression tightened slightly, like whatever came next was harder to explain.

"She mentioned a place," she said slowly. "A room."

My chest tightened.

"A room?" I repeated.

She nodded weakly. "And... chains."

Everything in me went still, the hidden chamber, the woman chained inside it. The one place that felt like it existed outside everything else.

"You’re sure?" I asked, my voice quieter now.

Elara’s gaze held mine. "I wouldn’t say it if I wasn’t."

My mind moved quickly, connecting pieces that hadn’t made sense before, the chamber, the sealed door, the way it reacted when I got too close, the fact that the woman chained inside is my ancestor and had my face.

That realization settled in slowly, but once it did, it didn’t leave. Someone had been there before me.

"I..." Elara started, her voice faltering slightly. "There was something else..."

She tried to push herself up, like she needed to say it properly, but the effort was too much. Her body gave out before she could finish, her breathing turning uneven as the strength she had been holding onto slipped away again.

"Don’t," I said quickly, reaching out to steady her. "You’ve said enough."

Her eyes searched mine, frustration flickering briefly before exhaustion took over completely. Within seconds, she was barely conscious again, her breathing evening out as she slipped back into something close to sleep.

I stayed there for a moment, my hand still lightly against her arm, making sure she was stable before I pulled back.

The room felt quieter now but not peaceful. Not anymore. Because everything she had said was still there, sitting in my mind, connecting in ways I hadn’t been ready to see before.

Seraphina knew.

Isolade knew.

I stood slowly, the movement more deliberate this time as I stepped back from the bed. For a second, I considered going back there.

Opening the chamber again. Trying to see what I had missed, but something in me held back.

I turned toward the door, my thoughts still heavy, still shifting, still trying to settle into something clear. But one thing had already locked into place, I wasn’t the beginning of this, I wasn’t even the center of it.

I was the result.

The final piece.

I paused just before stepping out, my hand resting briefly against the edge of the door as the realization settled completely.

"I wasn’t the first one they were looking for," I whispered under my breath.

The words didn’t feel like a guess anymore.

They felt like truth. I exhaled slowly, my grip tightening slightly before I let go.

"I was the last one they needed."