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Chapter 8
publish date:
2026-05-29 17:45:23What silas knew
The journal lived under Nell's mattress.
She read it every night by the light of the moon. Small bits at a time. Elara's handwriting was shaky in some places, careful in others. Some pages were stained tears, maybe. Maybe blood.
Lena watches me. She always watches.
Elias says I'm imagining things. But I'm not.
Lena wants something from me. I don't know what.
Yes, I do. I just don't want to say it out loud.
Nell pressed her palm to the page. The mark throbbed.
Who were you? she thought. And why do I feel like I know you?
The next morning, Nell found Silas in the garden before breakfast.
He was carving a bird a small one, wings spread like it was about to take flight. He looked up when she approached and set down his knife.
"I need to know," Nell said, sitting beside him. "No more secrets. No more not now. I need to know everything."
Silas stared at her for a long moment. Then he picked up his stick and wrote in the dirt.
Dangerous.
"I don't care."
You could die.
"Silas." Nell grabbed his wrist. His gray eyes went wide. "Everyone I've ever loved is dead or gone. I've slept on bus station benches. I've been hungry for years. I've been alone for eight years. I'm not afraid of dying. I'm afraid of not knowing."
Silas looked at her hand on his wrist. Then at her face.
He nodded.
He brushed away the dirt and wrote again.
Elara was the Lunar Omega.
Nell stared at the words. "What's a Lunar Omega?"
Silas wrote. Born once in a century. No scent. Wolves cannot refuse her.
"Wolves cannot refuse her," Nell repeated. "What does that mean?"
They kneel.
Nell thought about the wolves in the common room. The way they looked at her sometimes — not with warmth, but with something else. Caution. Awareness. Like they were waiting for something.
"Is that why they're scared of me?"
Silas nodded.
"Did Lena kill her?"
Silas wrote. Yes.
"Why?"
He stared at her. Then wrote.
Because Elara chose someone else. Someone Lena couldn't stand.
"Elias."
Silas nodded.
Lena wanted Elara. Elara wanted Elias. Lena couldn't have her. So she made sure no one could.
Nell's hands shook. "Where is Elias now?"
Silas looked at her. His eyes were wet.
You already know.
The basement.
The voice in the floor.
The chains.
Nell's breath caught. "Lena has been keeping him down there. For eight years."
Silas nodded.
"Why?"
Because as long as he's alive, you'll never stop coming back.
The words hit her like a punch to the stomach.
Everything Lena had done the kindness, the shelter, the soft voice, the warm smiles it was all a trap.
She hadn't been saved.
She'd been lured.
Nell sat in silence for a long moment.
The garden was cold. Frost covered the grass. The dead fountain looked like a grave.
"Lena brought me here because I have Elara's eyes," Nell said. "Didn't she?"
Silas nodded.
"Not for my power. Not for anything I am. Just her eyes."
He wrote. Yes.
"So she could look at them every day and pretend."
Yes.
Nell looked at the house. At the windows. At the door where Lena was probably watching.
"She's not going to keep me here," Nell said. "And she's not going to keep him down there."
Silas stood up. He wrote in the dirt one last time.
What do you need?
Nell looked at him.
"Help me get my father out."
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