by Cara Wylde
Avelyn smiled and took her time to study the beautiful blonde. Rosanna was wearing a cute dress with a generous cleavage that emphasized the swell of her round breasts. The skirt stopped right above her knees, but her leather boots turned the seductive effect into a rather playful, tomboyish one. Avelyn looked at the girl’s bare shoulders, and pulled her scarf tighter over her chest and arms. It was a chilly morning, and she really envied the werewolves’ fast metabolism, which kept them comfortably warm even in the coldest weather. She saw Christine coming out of the kitchen, carrying a tray with two cups, a pretty teapot, and a plate of homemade biscuits.
“Good morning!” Avelyn greeted her in a cheerful voice.
“Hey, Christine,” said Rosanna.
“Good morning to you, girls! So, what’s the newest gossip?”
“Oh, now, we weren’t gossiping,” answered the blonde. “We were just talking about ‘The Boleyn Inheritance’.”
“That awful novel by Philippa Gregory? I can’t believe you’re still reading those books. You know they’re not real history, right?”
“Whatever. At least they’re fun to read. History isn’t.”
Christine poured the tea.
“What about you, Miss Avelyn? Do you like these kinds of books?”
“They’re enjoyable. I read them for the romance, really.”
“I guess that’s acceptable.” She gave each girl her cup, and placed the biscuits in the middle of the small table. “You haven’t forgotten to take your medicine these days, I presume.”
Avelyn stole a quick glance at Rosanna, who had her nose stuck in her cup and was inhaling the sweet scent of jasmine. “No, of course not.”
“What medicine? Are you ill?”
“No. Miss Avelyn has had some headaches, and I’ve prepared an herbal mixture for her.”
Rosanna huffed. “I’d have headaches too if I were stuck between four walls with nothing to keep me company but books. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I love books. But confinement? Not my thing, no sir.”
Avelyn didn’t say anything. She raised the cup to her lips, blew into the hot tea, and took a small sip.
“I’ll leave you two to talk. Have fun, and if you need anything, I’m in the kitchen.”
Rosanna waited for Christine to be out of sight, and leaned closer to Avelyn over the table. “Also, only the idea of seeing that old hag every day would give me headaches. I hope you’re better now. Are you better?” She seemed genuinely concerned about Avelyn’s health, which threw Avelyn off guard. The girl was full of contradictions. And hyper. She was so hyper all the time that it made Avelyn feel tired.
“Much better, thank you. Christine is not so bad. She kept me company, and was really nice to me.”
“Hah! Don’t fall for that shit. I’m telling you, there’s something fishy about her.”
“I’d say there’s something fishier about you,” thought Avelyn, but made sure to give Rosanna a pleasant smile.
“I’m not sure why she’s here anymore. Sure, every pack needs an elder, but Christine is ancient. There are at least three other old hags who could take her place anytime. I always thought she should have followed Max’s dad in the Alps when he left. They were inseparable. I’d go as far as to say they had a thing. You know? I think Nikolas Blackmane loved Christine more than he loved any of his three wives. And that’s disgusting, because Christine practically raised him. And then she raised his children. This family is fucked up.” Rosanna emphasized her conclusion with a quick arch of her brows, and reached for a biscuit.
“In the Alps? I didn’t know Max’s father is still alive.”
“I don’t know for sure either. I guess the children know. When an Alpha reaches a certain age and he feels he’s too old to rule, he leaves his pack to his heir and retreats somewhere in the wilderness to live the last years of his life in solitude.”
“Interesting. I didn’t know that.”
“Does this mean the werefoxes don’t have this tradition?”
“No. But they have a shorter lifespan, so they probably don’t have enough time to get bored of ruling.”
Both Rosanna and Avelyn laughed. If it weren’t for the pictures waiting for her on her phone, Avelyn would have enjoyed this whole having-tea-and-chatting business. Rosanna wasn’t that bad, after all, even though Avelyn had made a promise to herself never to trust her. She also found great pleasure in badmouthing everyone who wasn’t present, which, as disturbing as it was, helped Avelyn find out more things about the Blackmanes. Things which no one else was probably willing to disclose. She reached for a biscuit, and the movement made her scarf fall off her arm and her long sleeve ride up a few inches, revealing her wrist.
“Oh. My. God.” Rosanna grabbed Avelyn’s wrist, almost spilling her tea in the process. “Where did you get this bracelet?”
“Max gave it to me this morning. He said it was his mother’s.”
“Exactly! I haven’t seen it in such a long time.”
“Did you know his mother?”
“Not really. I was too young, and I don’t remember much from when Maria was around. I know that she was ill most of the time, and she preferred to stay locked up in her room or in the library. Sometimes, if the weather was particularly nice, she came down in the courtyard and read on a bench. I remember Jocelyn’s mom better. After Maria died, Nikolas gave this bracelet to his third wife, Kassandra, and when Kassandra died too, he never took another bride. It’s beautiful.”
It was, indeed, beautiful in a simple, delicate way. It was made of round, flat rainbow moonstones, and Avelyn loved it the moment Max gave it to her. He had said he wanted her to have it and that he hoped she would take good care of it, because it was the only thing he had left from his mother. “Maria…”
“How did Max’s father meet Maria?”
Rosanna let go of Avelyn’s hand, and poured herself more tea.
“It was before the boarding schools, as you know, and it was complicated for shape-shifters to find human brides. Most Alphas resorted to stealing them, which was one of the reasons you humans decided to start the nasty war we all had to go through.”
“You can’t possibly say we were wrong.”
Rosanna laughed. “Yeah, I know. Nevertheless, it wasn’t easy for us either. If an Alpha didn’t have heirs and something unexpected happened to him, the pack fell apart. It was either absorbed by a bigger pack, or the members scattered in search of other packs. This weakness always encouraged rogue wolves to challenge Alphas and try to conquer their packs. It was never pretty. If the Alpha was defeated, then the new one could do anything he liked with the pack. The only one who could challenge him was the Beta, but it rarely happened. He was free to kill and banish as he liked. Nikolas Blackmane was a great leader exactly because he had no qualms about stealing his women and forcing them into marriage. He didn’t only ensure the future of a pack, but of a whole clan, just like his forefathers. But, don’t worry,” added Rosanna when she saw the look of disgust on Avelyn’s face. “He treated them well. He treated them like they were queens, trust me. They had everything they wanted, and he was always faithful to them for as long as they lived. He never got any mistresses.”
“Well, that changes everything,” said Avelyn sarcastically.
Rosanna smiled. “I know what you’re thinking. Those beasts who stole innocent women and locked them up in high towers, and forced them to bear their children. Boohoohoo! But it was survival. We did nothing but survive and ensure the perpetuation of our species. We did no more and no less than the werebears, the werefoxes, weredragons, wereeagles, and all the other shifters out there did.”
“What other shifters? You mentioned all of them.”
The blonde raised an eyebrow in curiosity. “So, you’re one of those people who think there are only five shifter factions.”
“And there aren’t? There hasn’t been any real proof of the existence of other shape-shifters.”
“Maybe. Not yet. They’re hiding very well.”
Avelyn gave Rosanna a long, thoughtful look, but she couldn’t hide the disbelief in her eyes. “No, I don’t think so.”
“Think what you may. Therianthropologists are working on it.”
“I thought they were only studying…”
“Us?” Rosanna laughed at Avelyn’s hesitation. “We’re not the problem anymore, the five factions. The peace treaty truly offered us what it was supposed to: peace. There are no more confrontations between packs, the Alphas are not challenged anymore, the rogue shifters are almost gone, and taking brides is now more than allowed, it is legal. The real problem is the other shape-shifters. The ones who never got involved in our mess and, consequently, never signed the treaty. People still disappear, don’t they? Whether they are men, women, or children… they sometimes vanish. Who do you think is responsible for all those disappearances that are never solved? Those cases which are never closed?”
“Wow… This is… This is too much to take in.” Avelyn felt confused, and she didn’t know what to believe anymore. What Rosanna was saying had the same level of credibility as any conspiracy theory. This conversation had strayed so much, and it filled her brain with things she really didn’t need to think about right now.
“I totally understand. There are so many implications, so many things to consider. Like, why are they hiding? Who are they, really? Are they dangerous?”
“Okay, stop. I think you’re just making things up now. All we have are myths and fairy tales. If there were other types of shifters, then we would have known by now.”
“Fine. If you want to be one of those close-minded people, be my guest. Something big will happen one day, you’ll see. And you won’t even know what hit you.”
Rosanna was such a bizarre character. Why did Avelyn accept to have tea with her in the first place? She had better things to do than sit there and listen to conspiracy theories. There were dungeons waiting to be explored.
***
It hadn’t been easy to get rid of Rosanna, but it had been even harder to figure out how exactly Caleb and Daniel kept tabs on her when she was in her room. Today, it was Caleb, which sucked because she had a feeling he was more difficult to deceive. Since her first encounter with Val and Rosanna in the library, she had tried to pay more attention to where Max’s lackeys were and from where they used to watch her when she was in different parts of the castle. Sure, when she was in the courtyard, they were around, talking to other pack members or relaxing in the sun. The whole time Avelyn had been with Rosanna in the gazebo, Caleb had been in the garden, on a bench obscured by a rose bush, reading. It took her some time to notice that when she went up to her room, at the third floor, her watcher stopped on the second floor. To test her theory, she went up and down the stairs a couple of times, pretending she was looking for Christine, or she wanted some snack from the kitchen. Indeed, Caleb came down after her from the second floor, always keeping his distance. She was sure she had driven him insane, but she wasn’t sorry. “That’s what you get for stalking a woman. Weirdo.” She came to the conclusion that the lackeys’ headquarters were probably in the room right under her bedroom. Wonderful. It made things so much easier for her and her master plan.
Avelyn locked the bedroom door, went into the bathroom, and turned on the shower. “Hmm… this is not loud enough. I could use some music.” She went to her laptop, browsed through her playlist, and settled for some nice, progressive rock. “That should do it.” She turned the volume up and went back into the bathroom. The loud music mixed with the sound of running water could give even her a headache. She didn’t want to think of poor Caleb and what his sensitive ears were forced to endure from downstairs. She sneaked the same way she had the night before, except that this time she went up to the fourth floor. There was no way she could make sure she wouldn’t bump into anyone, and all she could do was pay attention to her surroundings and hope for the best. She would have preferred to go exploring later, at night, but there was no way she could do it in only twenty minutes, as she had done with Max’s office, and she couldn’t risk Max waking up to see she was neither beside him, nor in the bathroom.
There was no one on the stairs and corridor, so she reached the library with no incidents. It was too much of a beautiful day outside for the wolves to want to stay indoors. Caleb was probably going mad in that room, waiting for her to finish the stupid shower and move her ass either in the garden or the courtyard. Poor guy. The library was empty, as she had expected it to be. She had spent a couple of hours there, and no one had interrupted her, except that one time yesterday when she had overheard Val and Rosanna. She knew Max wasn’t coming to the Schloss before dinner, so she was safe for now. She was almost sure no one would be looking for her in the next hour. There was still the chance that things might not go her way, but she couldn’t succumb to the fear of being caught. It was now or never. She was getting used to the excitement, in fact, which was great. After she managed to escape her prison, she’d need all the adventure spirit in the world to make it to Dunkelstadt, and from there to the next city.
Avelyn climbed the few steps that took her to the second floor of the library, and made a right. At the end of the book rows there was the wooden table under the tall lamp shade. “This must be it.” She double checked the picture on her phone and decided that the door should be right behind the lamp shade. It was dark in that corner of the library even in the middle of the day, so she lit the lamp, hoping it would help her see better. On the contrary, the light fell directly on the table, leaving the part of the wall behind it in darkness. “Interesting.” She turned on the flashlight of her smartphone and started studying the wall. There was an almost invisible line that was connected to a second one at eye level, forming a 90 degree angle, and went down to the floor. She touched it, but it was so discreet that she could barely feel it under her fingertips. “Of course, there’s no handle. Maybe I should push…” She pushed hesitantly, and when she felt that part of the wall budge she pushed harder. With a soft sigh, the small door opened, letting in a draught of cold, stale air. “Here we go again. Dark tunnels and little oxygen.” She stepped over the threshold, bending slightly so her forehead wouldn’t hit the wall, and moved the small, but efficient flashlight around. There was a very small landing in front of her, just enough for a person to fit, then there was a narrow, spiral staircase that plunged deep down into darkness. Avelyn closed the door behind her, not before making sure there was a handle on the other side. Darkness enveloped her, and a chill ran down her spine. It wasn’t as cold as it had been in the tunnels underneath Alma Venus, but it was just as frightening. “Just wait until you get inside the mountain. Then you’ll see what cold really means.”
The descent was uneventful. The stairs were made of metal, so Avelyn had no difficulties climbing down, as they were in perfect condition. At some point, she reached another small landing, but it wasn’t close enough to the first one to indicate she was at the third floor. By her calculations, she must have been at the second or even the first floor. She didn’t have time to investigate such matters, so she simply kept going down. The idea was to make sure that was the way to the dungeons (or, one of the ways), look around a little and try to get used to whatever was down there, then climb back up and set the next part of her plan into motion according to the new discoveries. She knew she didn’t have time to actually explore the tunnels and find her way out. The map showed they had many levels that went deep inside the mountain, and there were four exit points. The thing was huge. Avelyn wondered how much of that maze was destined to prison cells and how much of it was just a way of escape in case of siege, or something. Officially, she was not a fan of medieval constructions anymore. When she reached Italy, she intended to buy a modern apartment in a block of flats which had no basement and no attic.
When she felt the air change, she knew that she was close to her target. After having gotten used to the cling-clang of the iron stairs, she felt stone under her sole. She flashed her light around and saw she
was in a dark chamber which was a bit bigger than her bathroom. She must have been well under the kitchens and the cellar, because no outside noise penetrated the thick stone walls. While she had been climbing down the stairs, she could sometimes hear different sounds through the walls, especially when she had been at the same level with the kitchens. But down here, inside the mountain, darkness ruled supreme.
Avelyn tried to orientate herself on the map, browsing a bit through the pictures until she found one that seemed to show the part of the Schloss where she currently was. She took a few tentative steps towards the middle of the chamber, and looked around. There were two wide tunnels from which she could choose, and she guessed that the one to her right stretched under the Lunar Wing, and the one to her left, under the Nox Wing. As she was standing in that chamber, she was probably right under the Crescent Wing, Max’s office, their bedroom, and the Crescent Tower. “This thing is incredibly well structured.” The thought gave her a feeling of relief, because she was absolutely sure that Alma Venus had given her the exact opposite sensation. Completely at random, she chose the tunnel to her left.
She had been walking for ten minutes, all the while having the impression that the tunnel was slowly descending, when she saw the first cells. They were no bigger than a storage room, and they were all empty, with the iron doors wide open. She had the impression that it smelled of death down there, but it could have well been her imagination. She was surprised it all looked so clean, save for the thick dust that covered everything. After all, what had she expected? Dry blood everywhere? Dead rats? Living rats? Traces of feces and urine? She shook her head and resumed walking. The tunnel took her to a smaller chamber, and Avelyn only needed one look around to realize that from there it split into six smaller tunnels, all packed full of small, empty cells on one side of the stone wall. “Wow! Well… I knew it was a maze, didn’t I?” She stopped to wipe the sweat off her brow and consult the map. She had recharged her phone that morning, knowing she’d need to abuse its battery for the flashlight. It was still half full, but she would have never risked getting herself trapped down there with no light. Obviously, she had no signal.