127
David
As I entered my office, Trent whistled at me and waved a sealed envelope with the Council's emblem over his head. I sighed and shook my head, already knowing what it was.
"Not another one of these," I grumbled.
Trent hummed. "I'm afraid so, David. Not sure what they’re summoning you for this time, but it’s definitely a summons."
Ever since that mediation session, Liberation Front had been going full steam ahead with the smear campaigns against the twins.
I clenched my fists. "Why can't they leave me alone? Don’t they have anything better to do?”
“No, and they don’t really care if you do.” Trent shrugged. "I wish I could do say that wasn’t the case, but it is. They have… a vested interest in you, David.”
I growled at that as I started to pace. “Now, they have a vested interest. And I’m still not sure why.”
I glanced at the envelope. “I want to burn it, but I know we can't ignore them forever."
Trent nodded in agreement. "Ignoring their summons would just give them more reason to complain. We’ll find a way to handle it without compromising your goals.”
I nodded. “Of course…”
We needed to keep the Council mostly compliant and blind while I work on my relationships across the supernatural and human world.
I sighed, resigning myself to the situation. "Alright, let's see what they want this time. I find it… interesting that you can’t open it."
“Neither could Amos.” Trent handed me the envelope.
I reluctantly opened it, preparing myself for whatever demands the Council had now.
“More mediation… talking to the Liberation Front, and the twins want me magically questioned about Lucy’s escape.” I scoffed. “I’ll set it up myself.”
“Bring a lawyer,” Trent said. “And let me know when.”
“Sure.”
"There's something else, David.”
“Is it about the twins?”
“Amos found the entrance to the secret room."
I looked up at him. “You should have led with that. Let’s go.”
I shoved the summons in my pocket and headed back out the door. Trent laughed as he followed behind me, heading to the garage. I climbed into my car and took the lead, heading back to the Estate.
My heart was racing. The secret room could hold answers about what my father’s real plans were, secrets about our pack, and my family history. It could change everything depending on what was in that room.
I couldn’t get to the Estate fast enough. I went through three portals before finally driving up the drive of the estate. I jumped out and rushed inside, looking for Amos. He was waiting in the foyer for me with a smile.
“Trent said you rushed out of the office after he told you.”
“How far away is he?”
He shrugged. “Not far enough for it to matter.”
He glanced at my feet. “I’d change shoes if I were you.”
I hurried upstairs, stripping out of my suit jacket, tie, dress shirt and shoes before yanking on my boots and hurrying back down just as Trent entered.
He scoffed. “To be young and eager…”
Amos led us to the section of the Estate that wasn’t used. I’d been told once that it used to be some sort of visitor’s wing, but no one still alive knew for sure. Amos had been too young to be included in pack secrets and my father’s closest confidants all died in the war. We went through the large doors that I had never been past, then down the hall to a parlor. He pulled a book from the shelf and the bookshelf slid aside. I could feel the magic tingling in the air.
Trent gasped.
“What is it?”
He shook his head. “Nothing… Just a feeling.”
I eyed suspiciously before turning my gaze back to the heavy, ornate doors covered in magical symbols, but they didn’t look like they were in the right order or configuration.
Trent and I exchanged looks as Amos sighed.
“No idea how to get it open, though.”
“There has to be an incantation,” Trent said, stepping closer. “Something that’s supposed to explain this.”
I shook my head as he started casting spells at the door. I joined in. Frustration grew heavy between the two of us. All the spells we tried seemed to bounce off its surface, leaving us no closer to opening it.
“We could break it down,” Amos suggested.
“There’s no telling if there’s a failsafe,” I said coming closer to the door.
I ran my hands over the smooth surface, searching for any hidden mechanisms or clues. And then, as if by some stroke of fate, my fingers brushed against an indentation in the surface. I frowned and hooked my fingers into it. Something pricked me. I pulled back with a hiss, shaking my hand. The lights rippled over the symbols then the surface start to move.
“What did you do?”
I looked at my finger and the small smear of blood. “It took some of my blood I think.”
“Blood magic?” Amos asked with a haunted voice.
“Oh, great,” Trent groaned, turning back to the door. Each of the symbols seemed to rise out of the surface, and there was a few empty slots on the door.
I had never seen anything like it. The symbols were old, like something from a cave drawing or something.
“I’ve never seen anything this old,” Trent said. “It definitely predates the wars… Predates the pack.”
My heart quickened as I examined the door. The symbols felt familiar as if I’d seen them in a dream before. The answer to unlocking this door. Amos and Trent started talking about other things to try.
“We could dig around it or scan the area to see if there’s another way in?”
“Maybe, but…”
I started to tune them out. The longer I stared at them, the less I heard them. My memories stirred. I felt something flickering in the back of my mind.
It was a memory of one night when I was very young. I remember that he was sober that night, or at least as close to sober as he could get. I was sick and he didn’t let anyone else take care of me. He stayed at my bedside all day, reading me stories and poetry when I was awake and the fever was too high.
There was a poem he read to me then… something about moonlight or something. There was one symbol on the door that looked like it was supposed to be a crescent moon.
“It’s a riddle,” I said.
“It’s a bunch of symbols.”
“You think so?” Trent asked.
I nodded. “I just… don’t remember the words very clearly, but it was about… It was a poem about the moon or something like that.”
Trent scoffed. “The moon goddess?”
“No,” I shook my head. “The moon itself.”
I still wasn’t sure if my father ever believed in the moon goddess the way that most werewolves did. He never taught me much about her, so all I ever knew about her was what was in the Council archives.
“You said this door predates the packs,” I said. “The symbols?”
He nodded. “It feels very old. Older than anything I’ve ever encountered.”
“If it’s… older than the packs, then who else could have put it here but a witch?”
He blinked and looked at the door then to me. “You think… that a witch lived in this part of the Estate and put this room here?”
“I think that this Estate used to be a coven house,” I said. “Maybe… Maybe it’s connected to the Moon Goddess?”
Trent looked nervous and he looked back at the door.
“We can only take your lead, but I think you know that if there is any truth to that it will complicate a lot of things.”
I nodded and turned back to look at the symbols. They looked like pieces of a picture. I pushed one of the blocks to the side. The stone ground against itself. The scent of dust filled the air but it moved and hovered in the blank spot.
I moved a few others until I could see a picture coming together. When they five blocks I moved together sealed together and the image of the wolf turned black. It shifted and turned its head up to the top right corner as if looking at something.
“The eyes of the night always look for light,” I said, remembering a line from the poem.
“What?” Trent asked.
“It’s an old story,” Amos said. “Like an epic tale. I have heard it since I was a kid, but you think it has something to do with this door?”
I nodded at the black wolf engraved in stone. “I think it’s got something to do with this, but I don’t remember the rest of the poem clearly.”
Trent hummed. “Perhaps, if look at it more like a puzzle, things will come a little smoother.”
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