Chapter 575: When the Shadow Breathes Again

Chapter 574: When the Shadow Breathes Again

Madam Tyler looked up from the table the moment she saw Orion and the others approach.

Her brows lifted in clear surprise.

"Well," she said slowly, straightening slightly. "This is quite unexpected."

Her gaze settled on Orion.

"I must say, Orion," she continued, a hint of dry amusement slipping into her tone, "I did not expect to see you twice in one day."

Orion smiled faintly.

"Me too. But there’s something we need to confirm," he said simply.

That was enough to wipe the amusement from her face.

She studied him for a second longer, then nodded once.

"Then I assume it’s important."

"It is."

Eldric, who had been hunched over the table with parchments scattered in careful disorder, adjusted his glasses and glanced up.

His eyes flicked briefly toward Sophia, then to Ronan and Annabeth.

Then back to Orion.

Orion didn’t waste time.

He moved toward the table.

"Do you still have the translations Sophia made?" he asked.

Madam Tyler frowned slightly but reached for the parchments without argument. She gathered them from the side and handed them over.

Orion took them with a nod. "Thank you."

Sophia stepped closer beside him.

Eldric straightened, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose.

"Is something the matter?" he asked with a frown on his face.

No one answered him.

Orion’s eyes moved through the parchment. Sophia watched him for a moment before lowering her own gaze to the parchment.

"Wash the eyes of the earth...

While the water sings, the Great Disaster sleeps...

But heed the silt: when the blood runs black before the rain,

And the sea seeks a new successor of the night...

The First Key has turned.

But the wheels turn too, for an ancient shadow may no longer be left a shadow."

Madam Tyler and Eldric exchanged a confused look.

Ronan noticed it too, his brows drawing together as he glanced between them.

Annabeth remained quiet, her gaze shifting between the parchments and their faces, confusion slowly beginning to settle in.

Orion and Sophia then moved to the next parchment.

"Blood seeps beyond flesh...

Darkness drinks the marrow...

Life rots where it lingers...

The curse feeds, the cage is life...

Power devours power, endless...

And the shadow hungers."

Sophia exhaled, and then she spoke.

"I think..." she began, her voice thoughtful, slower than usual, "I think we might have been looking at this the wrong way."

Madam Tyler’s attention snapped to her immediately.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

Sophia lifted her gaze.

"These translations," she said, gesturing lightly toward the parchments, "we’ve been treating them like something that already happened."

She paused.

"But what if they’re not? What if they’re not speaking of the past..." she said, "but of the present?"

Eldric’s eyes narrowed slightly. "We have no evidence that it points to what’s happening now?"

"You were the one who said the words have a warning mixed in them, remember?" Sophia asked him.

Eldric nodded. "Perhaps the warning was for now."

Madam Tyler stared at Sophia. "Sweet girl, could you please explain?" she asked.

Sophia nodded once and turned slightly, her gaze shifting briefly to Annabeth.

"Annabeth told us something," she said. "About the plague."

She paused.

"Actually," she corrected herself, "we should probably stop calling it that. And like Annabeth suggested, calling it a curse would be better."

"A curse?" Eldric repeated.

Sophia nodded. "Yes, and it’s tied to black magic. One thing is consistent with everyone affected," she said. "They bleed black. Or cough it."

"Black blood," Eldric muttered.

Sophia nodded. "And that’s the evidence you were asking for. You wanted evidence that this could be linked to what was happening now... the curse is the evidence."

Orion spoke then.

"I agree with her," he said.

All eyes turned to him.

"I suspected something similar the moment she said it," he continued.

His finger moved slightly over the first translation.

"’When the blood runs black before the rain,’" he quoted.

"Eldric already suggested, and we all know this is linked to black magic, but the thing is, black magic is too prominent. Everything ties back to it. The curse ties back to it. The beasts in Nirvana, the Trine of Ash and Vein, Dolion... everything is happening now. Everything I’ve mentioned are things we witnessed in the present, so like Sophia said, perhaps the warning in these translations is for us."

Orion’s finger shifted further down the lines.

"’The sea seeks a new successor of the night,’" he quoted.

"I believe," he said slowly, "that this refers to the leader of the Enclave."

"We never could quite understand what it meant, and I don’t think Sophia being Luna would signify her being the successor of the night... I may be wrong, but I think this actually means the leader of the Enclave."

Annabeth stared with a deep frown. She was very confused. Orion just called Sophia... oh, maybe he meant Sophia as Luna of the Nightshade Pack—that’s what she told herself, even though her brain refused that suggestion.

"And if what I’m saying is true," Orion paused, "perhaps me killing Dolion was a mistake I shouldn’t have made, and perhaps Dolion was the previous successor of the night."

"Not to cut you short, brother, but if you did not kill that beast, then I would have killed it. And besides, maybe someone else would have killed it too. Who knows?" Ronan suggested.

Sophia nodded. "And also, if you had not killed Dolion," she told Orion, "then maybe he would have killed me. He wanted me."

"He wanted your power," Orion told her.

Sophia shrugged as Annabeth exhaled. "Guys... I’m very, very lost," she told them.

Ronan turned to her. "It’s a long story, which you may likely get to know later, but one thing you should know is that my sister-in-law," he said, gesturing towards Sophia, "is the real Luna... the one that prophecy foretold."

Annabeth’s eyes widened in shock. She turned to Sophia, who gave her a shy wave.

"Oh my..." Annabeth paused. "Is thi—" She shook her head. "It’s true."

She said it to herself, and then her smile widened as chuckles broke out of her.