CHAPTER 102: THE UNDERGROUND

Chapter 102: The Underground

The cold stone walls felt like a grave. Liana pressed her back against the old rock, listening to the sound of twenty-three scared supernatural beings trying to stay quiet.

The mountain cave had been their shelter for three days, but now even that felt too open. "They’re getting closer," Kael whispered, his Alpha senses picking up moves far below their waterfall hideout.

"Council search teams swept the valley twice today." Elder Mira looked up from nursing the wounded, her silver hair now more white than gray.

"We need to move deeper underground. Away from their tracking magic." "Where?" Liana asked. "Every safe house is either destroyed or watched." Talia’s eyes suddenly blazed with seer power.

"I know a place. But you’re not going to like it." Two hours later, they stood before a secret entrance carved into the mountainside. The symbols around the entry made Liana’s stomach twist.

"This is where Celeste performed her dark rituals," she breathed. "The witch’s old chambers," Kael growled. "Talia, this is insane." "It’s perfect," Talia insisted. "The Council thinks these rooms are cursed. They won’t look here. Plus, the protective wards are still working."

Elena Moonwhisper stepped forward, her witch senses reading the magic around the door. "She’s right. The walls are strong. Dark magic, yes, but strong enough to hide us." Liana touched the cold stone door.

It felt wrong, like touching a spider web. But behind them, she could hear the faint sound of Council searchers getting closer. "Open it," she decided.

The rooms were worse than Liana remembered. Celeste’s traditional circle was still carved into the floor, stained with old blood. Ancient books lay scattered everywhere, their pages covered in patterns that hurt to look at.

Broken mirrors reflected their faces in twisted pieces. "This place gives me the creeps," Sara mumbled, the young wolf who’d escaped with them. "It should," Elder Mira said quietly. "Great evil was done here. But sometimes, the best place to hide from darkness is in the shadows it already cast."

Kael set up a defensive position near the door while the others made camp in the deeper chambers. Liana found herself pulled to the scattered books, their pages filled with Celeste’s desperate research.

"Look at this," she called to the others. The book in her hands was older than the others, its leather cover worn smooth by centuries of touch. The title was written in a language that changed as she read it, but somehow she understood the words.

The True History of the High Council. "This can’t be right," Liana whispered as she read. "It says the Council didn’t make supernatural species. They stole them." Elder Mira hobbled over, her ancient eyes widening as she saw the words.

"By the Moon Goddess. I haven’t seen this book in sixty years. Where did Celeste find it?" "What does it mean, they stole us?" Kael demanded. Elena joined them, her witch knowledge helping her translate the older sections. "According to this, supernatural beings existed naturally in different dimensions.

The Council found ways to trap them here, cutting them off from their home worlds." "That’s impossible," Sara said. "We’ve always been here." "Have we?" Liana flipped through more pages, her heart rushing. "Listen to this. ’

The wolves of the Northern Dimension held healing magic that could mend reality itself. The vampires of the Shadow Realm could walk between worlds at will. The witches of the Crystal Sphere could change matter with thought alone.’"

"Those are just legends," Kael objected. "Are they?" Elder Mira’s voice was barely a whisper. "I always wondered why our healing magic felt unfinished. Why vampires could only shift to mist instead of truly moving.

Why witch spells needed so many tools and ingredients." The truth hit Liana like a physical blow. "We’re not just magical beings. We’re magical refugees.

The Council cut us off from our true power to keep us weak." "Which means," Elena said slowly, "if we could reconnect with our original dimensions..." "We’d be strong enough to fight them," Liana ended. A soft groan from the corner made everyone turn.

River lay on a homemade bed of cloaks, her small body burning with fever. The dimensional energy that had been growing inside her was finally eating her from within. "She’s dying," Talia said, tears running down her face. "The power is too much for her human body."

Liana knelt beside the little girl, taking her hot hand. River’s eyes fluttered open, but they weren’t the normal brown anymore. They swirled with colors that had no names, showing views of other worlds.

"Mama Liana," River whispered, her voice echoing weirdly. "I can see them. The other places. Where we came from." "What do you see, sweetheart?" River’s grip tightened, and suddenly Liana was pulled into the picture.

She stood in a forest that sparkled with silver light, where wolves ran with fires dancing around their paws. Their screams could heal mountains and call rain from clear skies.

In another flash, she saw vampires moving like living shadows through towns of glass, their touch able to phase through any barrier. Then came the witches, standing in rings around floating crystals, their magic reshaping entire landscapes with pure will. "We were gods," River whispered. "Before they trapped us here."

"How do we get back?" Liana asked desperately. River’s fevered eyes focused on something behind Liana. "The hurdles. They’re not just keeping the ousted ones out. They’re keeping our true power in. If we break them..." "The exiled ones will invade."

"No." River’s voice grew stronger, more urgent. "They’re not really exiled. They’re guards. The Council made them to watch the walls.

But they went crazy from the job. Now they just want to eat everything." Liana felt her world changing again. "So if we break the barriers..." "We get our power back. But the crazy guards will try to eat both worlds. Unless..." "Unless what?" River’s hand was getting warmer.

"Unless someone stays behind to hold the gates open just long enough for everyone to cross back to their home dimensions. Someone with enough power to control the crossing."

"The hybrid children," Liana breathed. "Not just us. Someone who can rule all the bloodlines. Someone who’s connected to multiple mates from different packs. Someone who carries the spirit of an old Luna." Liana’s blood turned to ice.

"You’re talking about me." "You can save everyone," River whispered. "But you have to choose. Save your people and lose your mates, or stay with your mates and watch everyone die when the worlds fall."

Before Liana could reply, the chamber door exploded inward. Three forms stood in the doorway, but they weren’t Council members. They were covered in blood and breathing hard, their eyes wild with tiredness and fear. Jace. Rowan.

And behind them, a stranger Liana had never seen before. "We found something," Jace gasped. "About the walls. About how to break them safely."

"And we know who’s been lying to us," Rowan added, his diplomatic calm completely broken. The man stepped forward, and Liana saw his face clearly for the first time. He looked exactly like Darius, the rogue

Alpha who’d tried to kill them. But his eyes held reason instead of madness. "Hello, niece," he said quietly. "I’m Marcus. Darius’s younger brother. And I’ve been fighting the Council for two hundred years." "That’s impossible," Kael growled.

"Darius died in the attack." "Darius was never the real enemy," Marcus answered. "He was mind-controlled by the Council for decades. They used him to make you all think wild Alphas were the threat." "Why should we trust you?" Liana demanded. Marcus smiled sadly.

"Because I know how to break the walls without destroying the worlds. But it needs something the Council never expected." "What?" "All the mixed children working together. And one Luna ready to sacrifice her mate bonds to become a living bridge between dimensions."

River’s hand squeezed Liana’s weakly. "I told you," she whispered. "You have to choose." Behind Marcus, shadows moved in the tunnel. Council voices bounced off the stone walls.

"They followed us," Rowan said grimly. "We have maybe five minutes before they break through the wards." Liana looked around the room. Her dying mate ties pulling her toward Kael, Jace, and Rowan. River burning up with dimensional fever. Twenty-three magical beings who’d trusted her to save them.

And now a plan that could free everyone, but only if she gave up everything she’d ever wanted. "Tell me the plan," she said to Marcus.

"All of it. Right now." Marcus looked at the approaching Council forces, then back at her. "The limits aren’t just magical. They’re emotional. Built on the ties between mates, between pack members, between family." "So?" "To break them, we need to sever the strongest ties in the supernatural world.

Permanently. And the strongest ties are..." "Mate bonds," Liana finished, her heart breaking. "Not just any mate bonds," Marcus continued. "The strangest ones. The ones that bridge different bloodlines. The ones that could join all supernatural species."

Liana’s view blurred. "You’re talking about my bond with the triplets." "I’m talking about the link that makes you the Guardian of all supernatural beings. Break it, and you free everyone. Keep it, and watch the worlds die." The Council voices were getting closer.

River’s breathing was getting shallower. Her mates were looking at her with increasing horror as they understood what Marcus was saying. "How long do I have to decide?" Liana asked. Marcus pulled out a crystal that pulsed with strange light. "The next full moon. Three days. That’s when the walls are weakest. That’s when the rite can work."

"And if I refuse?" "Then in three days, when the worlds collapse into each other, every supernatural being in existence dies. Along with most of the human world." Footsteps echoed in the tunnel outside.

The Council had found them. "Liana," Kael said quickly. "Whatever you’re thinking, we’ll find another way." "There is no other way," River whispered from her bed. "I can see it. This is the only road that doesn’t end in death for everyone." "We fight," Jace growled. "We don’t give up." "Sometimes fighting means letting go," Elder Mira said quietly. "Sometimes sacrifice is the only victory."

The chamber door shuddered as something powerful hit it from outside. Liana closed her eyes, feeling the weight of every magical life pressing down on her shoulders. When she opened them again, they blazed with purpose. "I need to talk to the Moon Goddess," she said. "Tonight. Before I make this choice."

"The Council will be here any second," Rowan objected. Marcus held up the crystal, which suddenly blazed with light. "Not if we use this. It’s a dimensional base. One jump, to anywhere we want to go." "Where?" Kael asked. Liana looked at each of her mates, remembering their faces.

"The Sacred Grove. Where this all started. If I’m going to destroy our mate bond to save the world, I want to do it where the Moon Goddess can see." The room door cracked. Council voices grew louder. "Everyone hold hands," Marcus demanded. "This is going to hurt." As the crystal’s light surrounded them, Liana heard the Council forces break through the wards.

But they were already gone, pulled through space and time toward the place where her fate would finally be decided.

In three days, she would either save everyone or lose everything. The choice that would change the supernatural world was hers alone to make.