Evaline:

The mole's last words kept echoing in my mind long after the three of my mates carried his lifeless body away.

"You can't stop it. No one can."

It.

Not him.

Not her.

Not them.

Just… it.

I sat in what looked like a meeting room on the ground floor - a plain rectangular table, a few chairs, a metal filing cabinet with numbers scratched into the paint, and a flickering bulb that buzzed every few seconds. My elbows were on the table, fingers rubbing the ache forming between my eyes.

There were too many questions, but barely any answers.

And the little we did know only made the entire thing darker.

Whoever... or whatever.. was behind the Soul Death cases had been playing this twisted game far longer than any of us had realized. And every time we found a lead, it dissolved in our hands like sand.

The mole hadn't broken.

Not even when River let his temper slip, or when Kieran's voice turned icy, or when Oscar's patience finally snapped.

He had chosen death over the truth.

I exhaled slowly, staring down at the cold metal surface of the table.

The moment the body was secured and handed over to their warriors for transport, we all headed back to the cars. No one spoke. Not even Oscar... and he always had something to say.

The drive home was silent in a way that felt almost unnatural. Like all of us were trapped inside our own minds, replaying the same useless scenes, hoping something new would magically appear.

By the time we reached home and locked ourselves inside the study, tye brothers looked ready to tear the mountain down stone by stone if it meant finding answers.

The heavy silence stretched until Oscar finally broke it.

"We got nothing." His voice was lower than usual, a growl vibrating beneath every word. "Absolutely nothing. After all our work… we are still exactly where we started."

Kieran pushed a frustrated hand through his hair. "Every time we get close, every damn time, we hit another dead end. Whoever this mastermind is… they are always a step ahead."

River sat on the edge of the desk, his arms crossed, eyes darkening. But for once, he wasn't the one talking. He was studying us... studying me... and I could feel his gaze on me even though I was staring at the floor.

I didn't say anything.

Not because I didn't have thoughts.

I did... too many of them.

My brain had been racing nonstop since I stepped out of that cell.

It was River who finally asked, "What are you thinking, angel?"

I blinked and looked up.

Three pairs of intense, expectant eyes rested on me.

My gaze shifted to the whiteboard standing in the corner. I stood up without answering and dragged it across the room until it faced them. Then I grabbed a marker and uncapped it.

"Let's start with what we do know."

I wrote 1 and circled it.

1 - The Secret Academy Group.

"They are involved," I said, turning slightly. "Maybe not directly behind the Soul Deaths, but they know something. They are connected. They have to be after what I heard that night."

Kieran nodded, his lips pressed into a hard line.

2 - The victims have no pattern.

No ties.

No shared activities.

No visible link.

"Which makes it impossible to predict who's next," I murmured.

Oscar exhaled sharply... agreement mixed with irritation.

Then I wrote 3.

3 - Black veins = warning sign.

They appear roughly a day before the victim ends up Soul dead.

"Whether they are caused by something parasitic, magical, or engineered… we don't know yet." I looked at them. "But if we can at least get people to report these signs - without using the words 'Soul Death' and causing widespread panic - we could monitor possible victims in real time."

River nodded slowly. "That part's workable. I can talk to the council about a low-alert health advisory. But…" His eyes sharpened. "Doing this might alert our enemy. They'll know we are catching on."

"I know," I said softly. "But right now, we are always reacting. Never preventing."

I took a breath and wrote 4.

This time I didn't speak right away. Moments later, I finally turned toward Oscar.

"You are wrong about the mole not giving us anything."

Confusion flickered across all of their faces.

I tapped the board.

"He didn't say 'him.' He didn't say 'her.' He said it. Like… like he wasn't talking about a person at all."

River shifted, uncrossing his arms. "Meaning?"

"A force," I whispered. "Or something ancient. Something non-human? Something that doesn't belong to this world or hasn't been awakened in centuries."

Silence.

A cold, heavy silence.

I continued anyway.

"Think about it. These cases first showed up four hundred years ago. If it was a person… they would have to survive unnaturally long. Because neither werewolves nor the witches lives this long."

"Unless there are two masterminds," Oscar said, frowning. "One in the past, one now."

"Yes. Possible." I nodded. "But something about this doesn't feel… human. I keep thinking... what if all this time, we have been chasing a person when really, it's a force? A power that someone is harnessing, or trying to control, or trying to release?"

Kieran's jaw ticked. "A force capable of ripping a wolf from someone's soul."

River murmured, "Or capable of corrupting it."

I nodded. "The black veins. The sudden collapses. The identical symptoms across victims who have nothing in common…" I swallowed. "It feels like something unseen is spreading. Like it's moving from body to body. Like a… like a dark current."

Oscar leaned back in his chair. "If that's true, then our 'enemy' might not even be a person."

"Exactly."

All three of my mates went quiet.

The air in the room seemed heavier now. More suffocating. As if the walls themselves realized the gravity of the theory.

Kieran was the first to speak. "We need confirmation. We need evidence."

"We will get it," I said, trying to steady my voice. "But no matter what the truth is… human or force… they want something. And they are willing to kill for it."

"Or wipe out entire souls," River added quietly.

My fingers tightened around the marker.

"We need to find out what 'it' is before more people die."

Kieran nodded once - a sharp, decisive movement. "Then that's what we'll do."

Kieran pushed off the desk, walked over, and took my wrist, gently lowering the marker from my hand.

"You are brilliant, little mate," he murmured, a ghost of a smirk appearing. "Terrifyingly so."

I would have rolled my eyes if the situation wasn't so grim.

But being wrapped in the warmth of his voice - despite everything - steadied something inside me.

He then turned to face his brothers. "How about we track down the graduated students? Maybe we could locate the ones who were part of the secret group. Though the chances are slim, we should take a chance."

We all collectively nodded.

"And I'll contact the council," River added. "See how we can discreetly issue a warning about black veins."

Oscar pointed a finger at me. "And you," he said firmly but gently, "need to rest. You have training lessons in... less than three hours."

I opened my mouth to argue.

Three sets of narrowed eyes landed on me.

I shut my mouth again.

"Fine," I whispered, already picturing the three hours of torture awaiting me.