Chapter 86
To.. Tr… Ughh… I groaned, grabbing my hair anal letting my forehead fall against the parchment.
The ink smudged under my wrist, staining the edge of my sleeve. I didn’t ca
care. I’d been at this for hours. The candle beside me had burned low, casting long, warped shadows over the scrolls Harden had given me.
I tried again.
Lo Tecrany
The next letter curled the wrong way, and 1 slashed my quill through the entire line in frustration. The parchment was beginning to wear thin from the number of times I’d erased and rewritten the same phrase.
Every day since Harden handed me those cursed documents, I had repeated the same three lines. Over and over. Again and again. Memorize the shape. Memorize the meaning. Let the words settle in your bones, he said.
I wanted to strangle him.
Nothing about this script made sense. The letters shifted when I blinked too long. The ink bled when I paused. One stroke too far and a bhrase turned to something completely different. It felt like the language had a will of its own–and it hated me.
I slammed the quill down, sending a sharp blot of ink across the bottom of the page.
“Useless.” I muttered under my breath.
My hands trembled. My shoulders ached. My eyes burned from the effort of trying to make symbols from a different era become a part of me. But all I had was messy, half–learned fragments.
Harden’s words rang in
in my head—“Remember every word, Elena. Your life might depend on it.”
Then I’m doomed,” I whispered.
The worst part?
There was a part of me that wanted to get it right. Not for Alaric. Not even for the mission.
But for me
Because if I could conquer this script, maybe I wasn’t as replaceable as Amira always made me feel. Maybe I had power too. Something more than a title Alaric gave me. Something real.
I took a deep breath and dipped the quill in ink again. My hand hovered abège the parchment. I stared hard at the beginning symbol- just a curl
arl of two strokes, easy if you didn’t think too hard about it.
My fingers moved, shakily but determined.
Knock Knock.
I froze
The
candle flickered at the sudden sound.
Another knock. This time sharper.
I quickly slid the parchment under the corner of the tablecloth, wiping my hands on my apron as I stood. My heart picked up speed. No one visited me this late. And especially not without warning.
I moved toward the door, hesitating just before I reached it.
Another kwack.
Slawer
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This one geruler.
I swallowed, then opened the door.
It was Ada
She stepped inside before I could even speak, eyes darting down the hallway like she was expecting to be followed. Once the door clicked shut behind her, she turned to me–her expression soft but sharp, like a dagger dressed in velvet.
“You’re awake,” she said.
“I could say the same for you.”
Her gaze swept
the room, pausing at the desk cluttered with papers, blotched ink, and half–torn parchments. The candle flickered behind it, throwing shadows over the mess I’d been making for hours
“What’s this?” Ada asked, already moving toward the table.
I hesitated. “Something Harden gave me.”
She raised an eyebrow and plucked a parchment from the edge, turning it slowly in her fingers. Her eyes narrowed as she scanned the scribbled lines. “This is old magic.”
1:00
“I figured as much,” I said, folding my arms tightly across my chest. “He wants me to learn it. Told me to write the same phrase again and again. Said it’s important.”
Ada’s lips pursed. “And you’re actually doing it?”
“Why wouldn’t I?” I asked, a little sharper than I meant
She set the parchment down gently, like it might explode. “Because you’re already playing a dangerous game. Adding this? It makes you more visible. You’ll glow like a beacon if you get even half of this right.”
I hated how her words made sense.
Still, I didn’t like her tone. Or the way her eyes kept flicking toward the hidden scrolls like she was cataloguing what I knew. She said that I should be known and now suddenly it’s an issue?
I hope she wasn’t jealous that I was doing more work than she ever could in years.
I stepped closer, voice low. “Why are you really here, Ada?”
She looked at me,
unfazed. “Because I needed to see how far you’ve gone. And what Harden is up to.”
“! could ask the
авени you
A long silence.
The air between us tightened, tense and still.
For a moment, I remembered something she once told ine: Trust no one. Especially the ones who knock softly.
And here I was. Letting her in again.
My fingers curled into fists. I was falling into the same trap–again. Letting someone seem harmless just because they shared a secret with me first.
She moved closer to the desk, brushing one finger over a clean sheet. “May 17”
I nodded stiffly
She leaned over the parchment I had failed to complete, brows furrowed. Her lips moved as she studied the script, silent for a long while. Then, she tapped one of the symbols. “This,” she murmured. “This means “truth”
1 blinked. “You can read it?”
“Some of iL
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Her voice was careful. Not guarded, not quite open either. Just… deliberate.
“I had to learn bits of it,” she added, “during a mission in the Eastern Cardinal. Their seers still use this tongue of balance”
“Balance” | echord.
“Power and peace. Control and surrender. It’s ancient, older than the packs.”
script. They call it Ursen, the
I stared at the parchment. The symbol she’d tapped suddenly looked different now–less like a squiggle and more like a key.
She stepped back, arms crossed, eyes scanning my face. “Why is Harden teaching you this!”
“I don’t know.”
“You’re sure?”
I met her eyes. “Are you asking as a spy or a friend?”
Ada tilted her head. “Maybe both.”
I didn’t smile I didn’t trust that answer. Not anymore.
Because something inside me had started to shift–and Ada felt more like a warning than an ally
She walked to the door slowly, pausing with one hand on the handle. “That symbol,” she said softly. “Don’t write it too many times. It’s not just a word. It’s a trigger.”
1 raised a brow. “What kind of trigger?”
She looked back at me, eyes darker than I remembered. “The kind that opens doors you don’t know how to close.”
I swallowed. Hard. “What does that mean exactly?”
Ada lingered in the doorway, one hand still on the handle. Her lips twitched like she was debating whether to leave or stay. Finally, she sighed and let the door swing shut again behind her.
“You’re persistent,” she muttered, brushing past me and returning to the desk. “You want answers. Fine. But y how to keep them to yourself.
“I’m not stupid.”
“No,” she said, glancing sideways. “But you’re still too trusting.”
I didn’t argue
with that. Not anymore.
t you’d better start learning
scribbled a
She gestured for me to sit, and I did, dragging a chair forward beside her. She picked up one of the parchment scraps I’d se earlier, turning it in her hands like she could read what I meant to write through sheer force of will.
“This script,” she said slowly, “isn’t just decorative. It’s built on sound and emotion. That’s why you’re struggling. It’s not meant to be read like a book—it’s meant to be felt.”
That’s not helpful”
She smirked. “I know. Hut I’ll give you what I’ve got. A few of the basic symbols, maybe a dozen or so. It’s not much, but if Harden wants you to write something dally, then you’d best stop scribbling nonsense.”
I reached for a blank sheet.
Ada pulled out a small slip of folded leather from inside her cloak and unwrapped it, revealing a tiny scroll. She unfurled it gently. laying it flat on the desk between us. My eyes scanned the markings–more of that swirling, jagged language. Some curved like vines. Others struck like daggers.
She tapped the first. “1.o. It means breath, or spirit. It’s used at the beginning of most scripts because without breath, nothing begins.”
I nodded, trying to memorize the curve.
Next, she pointed to one shaped almost like a closed eye. “Tec. This means truth. Or revelation, depending on context.”
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Chapter 86
“Like… uncovering something?”
“Exactly. Dangerous to use without care.”
The third symbol was harder to decipher–almost like a twisting flame. “Veri. Life. Not just living, but
I leaned closer. “So these three–breath, truth,
- and life—
Soul:
“Together?” She paused, brow furrowing. “They form a kind of summons. Or awakening. Lo–Tec–Veri is something seers used to start a binding. A pact. It’s an invocation.”
My stomach twisted. I’d been repeating those three symbols again and again for days.
“So I’ve been… invoking something?”
Ada nodded grimly. “Not completely. The power doesn’t respond until the phrase is written with intent. But if you keep going it might.”
Texhaled, unsure whether to be terrified or relieved.
She rolled the scroll forward and pointed to a few others. “This one–Salin. It means shadow, or watcher. And here, Keth. Blood. It’s used in oaths and death rites.
She heutated on the next one.
“What’s that?” I asked.
“Roen. It means “home.” But it can also mean ‘origin. Where your magic comes from. Some people write it to tether themselves when they’re slipping too deep into spellwork.”
“And this one?”
“That’s Enas.” She lowered her voice. “It means ‘enemy. If you see this written alone in any corridor, run.”
Charming
I scribbled them down the way she explained–her script neater, more practiced than mine. Her voice softened as she continued, explaining how some of the letters could change meaning when paired with others. I couldn’t retain it all, but I tried.
“Where did you learn all this?” 1 asked finally,
Ada leaned back, stretching her shoulders. “I had a mentor once. A woman in the West Cardinal. She wasn’t a werewolf. She called herself a dream walker. She used this script to write spells into people’s minds.”
I blinked. “She could plant thoughts?”
Ada nodded. “She taught me some basics. Before she vanished.”
“Vanished?”
“She said if she ever disappeared, it was because someone rea
read her too clearly.”
I didn’t know what to say to that. I looked at the page in front of me again–symbols that now held weight, meaning, danger.
“I can help you more later,” Ada said, brushing her hand over the scroll. “But only if you keep your progress secret. No one else sees this Not the king, not your sister, not even the guards watching your hallway.”
I hesitated
“Why?” I asked. “Why are you helping me?”
Ada’s eyes softened “Because I made the mistake of trusting the wrong man once too.”
A heavy silence fell over us
She stood after that, wrapping the scroll and tucking it back into her cloak.
“Just remember, Liana,” she added as she reached the door, “these symbols are a key. Don’t unlock something just to satisfy your cu
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rosity.”
I nodded slowly. “Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me yet.
Then she slipped out, silent as smoke.
And I was left alone with symbols that could summon things I didn’t understand.. and a mission that seemed more impossible by the hour.
E
