Long chapter....
From the moment the veil fell, silence became a living thing.
Not the kind that invites peace—but the kind that stalks. The kind that suffocates. And no one moved, not even Mara, whose dagger was already lifted, or Damien, whose fingers had wrapped around the hilt of his weapon like a prayer.
But Lucian did not need prayers.
He had the woman with mirror-eyes.
And those eyes—twin voids reflecting everything the room had buried—were now wide open. What they revealed, no blade could cut through.
Mara saw herself screaming into a dark hall where no one ever answered.
Damien saw Kyrell's eyes looking for someone else.
And the others? They saw fragments of memory, sins they thought long buried, touches they regretted, choices that clung to their shadows.
The room became an altar of reckoning. No one dared to breathe wrong.
Lucian stood still, in the center of it all, and his voice came low—like smoke from a dying fire.
"Enough."
One word. And it shattered the trance, not to free them—but to snap the room back to his rhythm.
Then, he turned toward Silas.
The man hadn't moved.
He sat as if already carved into stone. The only sign of life was the slow twitch in his jaw, the subtle drag of breath held too long.
"Do you know what she saw in your eyes, Silas?" Lucian asked, walking toward him.
Silas didn't respond, but his fingers were trembling.
Lucian didn't stop. "She saw your betrayal before you spoke it. Saw the whispers you fed the Council. The poison you slipped into my brother's mind. She saw how long you've wanted me gone."
Still, Silas remained silent—but his gaze screamed: You wouldn't.
And that was his final mistake.
Lucian stopped in front of him and didn't draw a weapon.
He didn't need to.
Instead, he raised one hand—and the woman with the mirror-eyes began to weep.
Not sobbing. Not moaning.
Just two silent black tears running down her face like ink drawn from the sky itself. They hit the marble floor with a sound that didn't belong in the world. And when they touched the ground, Silas began to shake.
---
Then Lucian stretch forth his hands to reveal a scroll and no one except Renak was brave enough to accept the scroll...
Unfurling it,he read the hidden text, uncovered by flame and blood;
"the hunter is cursed"
The prophecy was never his.
The bond belongs to the immortal one.
Should they unite,the veil breaks".
Gasps.Silence.Rage
Elder Thanos'half-charred face twisted and for the first time in a long while,he spoke again..
"You've tempered with the archives.
This is Heresy-".
Lucian didn't flinch.
"That scroll was locked in Silas' personal chambers" he interrupted. "He wrote it,not me."
The air thickened with heat,Elders shifted like wolves backed into corners.
---
And then Lucian looked at Silas with such dark eyes...
Silas pupils dilated. His hands rose as if shielding himself from something that wasn't even there.
Lucian whispered again—soft, like he was telling a bedtime story.
"Judgment is not always loud."
Then Silas's body arched forward, mouth agape in a soundless scream, as if something inside him had been torn loose—not his heart, not his breath—but something far deeper. Something the gods once kept hidden behind bone and skin.
A moment later, he went still.
Dead. No wound. No blood. Just… emptied.
Lucian looked at him like he had never truly been alive to begin with.
Renak in shock 😲 took a step back
"you killed him"
Lucian's gave never broke. "He tried to erase a bond older than your Council's throne.He fed poison into Kyrell's veins and sold my name to those who wanted me dead.what would you have done,Renak"?
No one answered
Because they all knew
And non of them were brave enough to admit what had been done.
---
The others were still frozen. Mara lowered her dagger first—not because she wanted to, but because her wrist refused to disobey her soul any longer.
Damien's grip on his sword loosened, but his eyes never left Lucian.
And Lucian?
Lucian turned to the woman and gently re-veiled her face. Her eyes disappeared beneath the cloth, and the room slowly began to breathe again.
---
Right at that moment the doors slammed open.
Kyrell entered.
No guards or escorts.
He looked like someone who had walked out of hell and refused to burn.
The gold in his eyes flickered with defiance and the blood along his collarbone had dried like a crown.
Lucian turned and for a moment,the world stilled.
Kyrell took a deep breath and spoke "Silas drugged me,He led me to believe Lucian was the monster".
He paused,A Bitter laugh. "He was right.He is a monster,but he's my monster".
He held up the shared of a blooded seal,Silas forged your order's marks.He's been working with someone else".
Lucian stepped forward again and spoke "The brotherhood".
And that was the moment the room fractured.
---
Gasps.screams
The brotherhood was a name carved into the dark--those who wanted to restore the balance of human over vampire,the ones who believed all hybrids should die and that love between species was a curse.
The name was forbidden in council chambers, yet Silas had fed them Lucian and Kyrell.
They both walked past Damien without a glance, past Mara who flinched like her own heart had betrayed her, and only stopped at the threshold.
"Clean this place," he said. "Burn the memory of him."
Then, softer still, "And never… touch what is mine again."