Chapter 246
Atasha’s POV
Rio finished his report without raising his voice, but I noticed the tension in his shoulders and the way his jaw tightened near the end. He was forcing control over something that unsettled him.
“We were able to confirm that the Demon Fangs you fought seemed to be influenced by something else,” Rio said. His gaze flicked briefly toward the cave entrance, where the poison had turned a living man into rot. The fact that we are currently inside a tent not to far away from it must have reminded him of what happened earlier.
He continued. “The toxins in their system are not normal. Our medics cannot confirm where they came from. They do not match the usual Demon Fang mixtures, and the reaction time is too fast.”
Cassian did not react outwardly, but I felt the shift through the bond. “Define too fast,” he said.
Rio swallowed. “The ones we chased collapsed without warning. They did not die like wolves. Their organs failed within minutes, and their blood changed. It thickened, darkened, then showed traces of green. The same corrosion we saw inside the cave.”
My stomach tightened. I could still see that man melting into poison, hear the hiss as his body dissolved. This was not the same thing, but it was close enough to make my skin crawl. It made me wonder if this was the result of the toxin from the man’s blood.
Rio went on. “The surviving Demon Fangs did not retreat properly either. They moved as if they were being driven, not commanded. Their coordination was off. Their eyes, their breathing, everything looked wrong.”
Cassian nodded, as if he had expected this answer. “Understood,” he said. “Tend to the others.”
“Yes, my lord,” Rio replied.
Cassian’s gaze shifted past him, toward the distant pack grounds where torches burned and northern soldiers still held their positions. “As for Nightfall,” he continued. “Do not let anyone out. No exceptions.”
Rio’s eyes
flickered. “Understood.”
“Someone already took the bait,” Cassian added. “All we need to do is wait.”
Wait.
My thoughts went straight to Renan. To the letter that slipped past the perimeter while everyone else was being watched. To the names Cassian had mentioned before, names that should not have belonged in the
same sentence.
Crimson Howlers and Demon Fangs.
The Crimson Howlers had survived when Cassian and his men nearly wiped them out in the past, but survival came at a cost. Like Nightfall, they had suffered a devastating blow that left their pack fractured and desperate. That desperation pushed them into dangerous choices. Over time, their cooperation with the
munu more frequent until the line between survival and corruption began to blur.
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Chapter 246
155 vouchers.
Cassian looked at Rio again. “Make sure the perimeter holds. If Nightfall tries to test it again, break their hands before they reach the line.”
Rio bowed and stepped away without another word, disappearing into the dark like he had never been there.
When we were finally alone, the space between us disappeared.
I was sitting on Cassian’s lap, his arm firm around my waist, holding me there as if letting go was not an option. I could feel the heat of him behind me, solid and grounding, even as my thoughts spiraled in directions I was not ready to face.
You should tell me what you know about that man,” I said quietly. My plan might have failed, but it had not been meaningless. What that green eyed man revealed was not something I could ignore, and I needed to know how much of it Cassian already understood.
Cassian looked at me calmly. “What makes you think I know anything about him?”
I let out a breath that almost sounded like a laugh. “I might not be clever,” I said. “But I am not that stupid.”
“You agreed to bring me to the South,” I continued. “You let me walk into Nightfall while you stayed in the background, watching everything. You did that because of them. Didn’t you?”
His eyes narrowed.
“The Shadows,” I said. The word felt wrong on my tongue. “That is what this is about, isn’t it?”
Cassian studied me for a long moment.
“I want to know what I really am,” I said, my voice tightening despite my effort to keep it steady. “And right now, you are the only one who can answer that.”
“It is complicated,” he said finally. “And I have not confirmed anything yet.”
“Did you know from the start?” I asked. “When you married me. When you brought me north. Did you already know what I was?”
“No,” he answered immediately. “I did not.”
I searched his face for hesitation and found none. “Then who did?”
“Elder Agape,” Cassian said. “He raised the possibility.”
My chest tightened. “So you have been circling this the entire time.”
“I sent people to investigate,” he said. “I wanted proof before turning suspicion into certainty.”
“And?” I asked.
“We found nothing,” he said. “No records or any reliable references. It is as if it was erased, or buried so deeply that even those who should remember chose not to.”
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Chapter 246
I clenched my hands. “Then tell me what you do know.”
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Cassian’s gaze dropped to my wrists, to my throat, to the places that had been bound and bruised. When he looked back up, his expression was darker.
“I know your healing is not normal,” he said. “It does not behave like a gift passed down by blood. It activates under threat. It adapts. It sustains you through damage that should have killed you.”
My stomach twisted.
“And I know the man who took you recognized it instantly,” he continued. “I have heard about the Shadows from the Elder. He told me about tales… olden tales about supernaturals who thought of themselves as gods. They have established this continent. But for some unknown reason, their records had been erased, completely gone even from the fae’s library. The elder said, he too, had been looking for traces about them.”
I swallowed hard. “And what does it have to do with me?” I asked.
“Apparently…” Cassian paused, his hand on my waist tightened. “The Shadows… they did experimentations and… might be the reason the rest of the supernaturals existed in the first place.”
That made me frown. The supernaturals had long existed. We were creatures created by the goddess herself. “That is what I know,” Cassian said. “I have sent countless people to investigate this matter, even sent people to the Alpha King’s Palace and rummaged through its library. We found nothing.”
“Is the King aware of them?”
“He was…” Cassian said. “His letters said so. However… it seems he was hesitant to talk about it.”
I bit my lower lip. “Then when you told me that the Alpha King is not doing anything to me despite my ability because he can’t figure out what am I yet…” Realization dawned on me. “Was it because… he was thinking about the Shadows?”
He shook his head. “It’s because…” he made a deliberate pause as he met my gaze, his eyes bored inside me. “He has yet to determine if you are going to be an enemy… or an ally.”
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