Chapter 34 The House of the Dead

The iron door hit the stone with a loud bang and the light was gone. I was in the dark. The air was very cold and it smelled like wet dirt and old bones. My heart was a fast drum in my chest. Thump-thump, thump-thump. I put my hands on the wall to find my way. The stone was slimy and cold like ice.

"Leo!" I yelled.

My voice came back to me from the walls. It sounded like a ghost was shouting. I did not hear my son. I only heard the wind blowing in the cracks. I walked down the stairs. One step, two steps, three steps. My boots made a loud sound on the rock.

I turned a corner and saw a small light. It was a soft green light. It was coming from a big room under the floor. I ran toward the light. I saw a small shadow moving in the middle of the hall. It was Leo. He was walking slow. His eyes were open but he did not see me. He looked like he was having a dream while his feet moved.

"Leo, stop!" I cried out.

I reached for him, but I stopped fast. The floor was covered in blue lines. The lines were glowing. They looked like snakes made of fire. I knew what they were. They were the danger lines. If I stepped on a blue line, the walls would move. The big rocks would come down and crush us both.

"Grandson," the deep voice said again.

It came from the big stone box at the end of the hall. It was the place where the old Kings slept. The voice was low and it sounded like rocks rubbing together. Leo kept walking. He was heading right for a big blue line. His tiny foot was in the air.

"Leo! No!" I jumped.

I did not step on the line. I stretched my leg over the blue fire and landed on a gray stone. I grabbed Leo’s shirt and pulled him back. He was very light. He felt like a bird in my hands. He did not look at me. He just looked at the stone box.

"Mama, the man is calling," Leo whispered. His voice was very thin.

"The man is bad, Leo," I told him. I held him tight against my side. "We have to go back to the sun."

I looked at the floor. There were blue lines everywhere. It was like a game, but if you lost, you died. I had to find the safe stones. I looked at the walls. There were holes in the stone. I saw the tips of sharp arrows hiding in the dark. If I made one mistake, the arrows would fly.

I took a step to the right. The stone moved a little bit. Click. I held my breath. I stayed very still. No arrows came out. I took another step. I was carrying Leo now. He was very quiet. He put his head on my shoulder and his skin was cold.

"Keep your eyes shut, Leo," I whispered.

I saw a safe path. It was a thin line of gray rocks. I hopped over a glowing blue snake and landed on a flat stone. My foot slipped on some wet moss, but I did not fall. I kept going. I passed the big stone boxes of the old Alphas. Their faces were carved in the rock. They looked at me with mean eyes.

The green light got very bright. It was coming from the very end of the room. I saw a man standing over the biggest stone box. He was wearing the dirty gray rags of a slave. His back was to me. He was holding his hands up high in the air.

I knew that back. I knew those wide shoulders. It was my father. He was the Beta who voted to kill me. He was the man I branded and sent to the kitchen to scrub floors.

"Dad?" I asked.

He did not turn around. He was doing something with his hands. He was pulling green light out of the walls. The light looked like water. It flowed into his fingers and then into the stone box. He was drinking the magic of the palace. He was taking the power that belonged to the land.

"You are late, Elena," my father said.

He turned around. His face was not sad anymore. His eyes were not full of tears. They were glowing with a bright, scary green fire. He looked strong. He looked like the man who used to hit me when I was a girl.

"You are a slave," I hissed. I stepped over the last blue line and stood on the flat floor near him. "You should be in the kitchen. How are you down here?"

My father let out a mean laugh. He pointed to the silver 'X' on his neck. The mark I gave him was glowing green.

"You think a piece of hot iron can stop me?" he asked. "I am a Beta. I have noble blood. I know the secrets of this house. While you were out fighting a war, I was down here. I was talking to the old ones. I was taking the light they left behind."

"You are stealing the magic," I said. I put Leo behind my back. I felt the White Wolf waking up in my gut. "The land is dying because of you! You are making the trees turn to ash!"

"The land is dying because a girl is on the throne!" my father yelled. He stepped toward me and the green fire in his hands grew big. "A Rogue cannot lead. A half-breed child cannot be King. I am saving the pack! I am calling the protector!"

He hit the top of the stone box with his hands. The heavy lid began to move. Grind. Scrape. The sound was so loud it made my teeth hurt. A black smoke started to come out of the box. It smelled like death and old hair.

"I am calling the Great Alpha," my father said. He looked at Leo with a scary grin. "He will wake up. He will kill the Iron-Tooth wolves. He will kill the Rogues. And then he will put a real man back on the throne."

I saw the smoke start to take a shape. It looked like a giant wolf. It was as big as a house. It had eyes that looked like red coals. It was a guardian made of shadow and old bones.

"You are mad," I told him. "You cannot control that thing. It will eat everyone."

"It will eat the weak!" my father roared.

The giant shadow wolf let out a howl. It was not a sound you hear with your ears. It was a sound you feel in your soul. The stones in the ceiling started to crack. Dust fell on our heads.

My father looked at Leo. The green light in his eyes got very hot.

"The guardian needs a gift to stay awake," my father whispered. "It needs the heart of a King to stay in this world."

He reached into his rags and pulled out a long, silver knife. It was the same kind of knife he used to hunt me.

"Come here, grandson," my father said.

He took a step toward my boy. I stood in his way and my hands turned into claws. I was the Queen of the Shadows, and I was not going to let a ghost take my son.

But then the floor under my feet gave a loud snap. A big hole opened up between me and my father. The shadow wolf jumped into the air and the whole room went black.

I heard Leo scream in the dark.

"Mama! Help!"

I lunged for the sound, but a cold hand grabbed my throat. I was pinned to the wall by something I could not see.

The green light flared up one last time. I saw my father holding the knife over Leo’s chest.

"Do not move, Elena," my father hissed. "Or the boy dies right now."