CHAPTER 60: BACK TO HIS TERRITORY

I wasn’t sure what happened after the shadows wrapped around me.

The last thing I remembered was the misty gray sky overhead, bleeding into darkness as it swallowed my vision whole. The cold faded first, then the ground beneath me, until there was nothing but black.

When I came to, the world was different.

Before I even opened my eyes, I knew. The biting sting of snow was gone. No more wind slicing into my skin, no more ache in my bones. Instead, I felt warmth sinking into me like a fire built just for my body. A strange heaviness lingered in my limbs, but it wasn’t the crushing weight of exhaustion... it was comfort.

Beneath me was not ice but softness. A bed, no doubt.

My lashes fluttered open, and the first thing I saw was a pair of burgundy eyes staring down at me.

"You’re awake!"

Raye’s voice was chirpy, bright, and too sharp against the haze that clung to me. My head throbbed at the sound, and I winced, raising a hand to my temple.

I blinked several times, trying to chase away the fog. Where am I?

Then it struck me.

If Raye was here... if I could smell this place, feel its familiar warmth pressing into me...

I turned my head. The dark walls glistened faintly under soft lights, familiar in a way that made my stomach sink.

I was back.

Back in the Undercity. Back in the same room I had first woken in when Rion saved me from Levian pack.

"Why am I back here?"

Raye tilted her head, her lips curving in that innocent way. "Alpha brought you back."

Come back, Vivien.

The memory of his voice rippled through me, the same whisper that had threaded through my mind before I lost consciousness. I shivered despite the warmth.

I pushed the blanket aside, my movements stiff. "Where is he?"

Raye blinked. "Why?"

"I want to talk to him."

Her brows furrowed, and she leaned closer. "Maybe you should do that tomorrow. He’s probably resting right now."

I swung my legs off the bed, ignoring her words. My bare feet touched the cool stone floor, and a shiver ran through me. The air smelled faintly of damp earth and the strange, smoky scent similar to what clung to him

. My heart gave an unwelcome flutter at the thought.

Raye shifted anxiously, wringing her hands. "You should rest, Vivien. You passed out due to exhaustion. The healer said-"

"I don’t care what the healer said." My words came out sharper than I meant, but I didn’t take them back.

Her lips parted, but then a moment passed and she sighed and finally spoke, "He’s in his room. Go to the top floor."

"Thanks," I muttered, voice a little coarse, pulling the jacket tighter around my shoulders.

***

The warmth of the corridors fell away the moment I stepped onto the top floor of the castle, which by the way didn’t have walls, only pillars.

The air biting sharper, carrying a draft that swept through the open sides. I drew the jacket tighter around my shoulders. The stone beneath my feet was polished smooth, almost slippery, and I had to step carefully.

I was suspended high above the rest of the castle, the bridge in front of me stretching like a narrow thread between towers.

It connected the main stronghold to a smaller spire that jutted higher than any other structure in the cavern, piercing upward as though trying to scrape the ceiling itself.

Rion’s bedroom.

The design was strange, impractical even—isolated, elevated, unreachable except through this narrow walkway. And yet, the longer I stood there, the more it seemed deliberate. As though the one who ruled here was meant to be kept apart, removed from the rest of the world. Alone in his tower.

It was fitting. Too fitting

.

I walked slowly toward the middle of the bridge.

The air shifted around me, tugging at strands of my hair, and I paused, my hands curling around the stone railing.

The view was impossible to ignore.

The Undercity sprawled beneath me, vast and shadowed, its winding streets wasn’t as busy during the day, but it still looked alive.

The glow scattered like fireflies, fragile and fleeting, painting the dark city with tiny sparks of gold.

My gaze lifted higher, toward the cavern’s ceiling.

I remembered how, during the day, the stone above glowed bright enough to mimic the sun, flooding the city with pale light. Now, in the depths of night, that brilliance was gone. Only thin threads of silver remained, faint veins of starlight woven into the black stone.

It looked less like a ceiling and more like a sky that had been carved into rock. Strange, beautiful, and captivating all at once.

The air tugged at my hair, cool but not biting. I leaned against the railing, my palms pressed to the stone.

Why had he brought me back? Why save me, if he had already bartered me away? The memory of his shadows curling around me lingered like a phantom touch.

I flinched when a voice broke the silence.

"I suppose you don’t realize it’s the middle of the night and you’ve disturbed my rest."

My head snapped around.

The door at the end of the bridge had opened, and there he was.

His silver hair was slightly tousled, his eyes glinting faintly crimson even in the low glow. He walked with unhurried ease, his voice smooth and deep, carrying that familiar blend of menace and playfulness.

My heart gave a sharp thud before I forced myself to stand straighter, refusing to let him see how his presence unsettled me.

"I just woke up," I said quickly. "I didn’t know what hour it is."

He stopped beside me. The space seemed smaller instantly, as though his presence had devoured the air. He towered over me, his body radiating heat I refused to acknowledge, the scent of smoke and shadows clinging to him like a second skin.

He tilted his head, a smirk tugging at his lips. "Let me guess, You came here to thank me?"