[Somewhere Deep in the Forest]
The chamber was silent when Javier was dragged in. Not the empty kind of silence, but the heavy kind which felt pressing, watchful and alive.
He was thrown to the stone floor hard enough that his shoulder screamed in protest. Blood smeared beneath his palms as he pushed himself upright, breath uneven, pride stripped bare.
"You failed," a voice said from the darkness.
Javier lifted his head quickly. "I didn't."
A low chuckle rippled through the shadows.
"I found her," Javier said urgently. "The girl who is related to the Blackthorn curse and I think she is the girl Rogan Hale has been hiding."
That earned him attention.
"She lives alone, unprotected. No guards, no wards strong enough to stop me." His lips curled. "They have kept her ignorant and eak."
"Then why are you here?" the voice asked calmly.
Javier swallowed. "Because when I touched her everything changed."
The shadows shifted.
