Four days. Four days of silence, clean sheets, and the maddening itch of healing wounds. When Eiden finally walked through the main gates of St. Swithin's, he expected suspicion. He expected Akuma's guards. He did not expect a parade.
The courtyard was full.
As soon as he stepped out of the taxi, a cheer went up. It wasn't the polite applause of the elite; it was the raucous, relieved shouting of teenagers who had survived a siege.
"He's back!"
Harry ran up first, beaming. "Eiden! You look... you look alive!"
"Barely," Eiden said with a small smile, adjusting his coat to hide the stiffness in his ribs.
Then, a blur of red and expensive fabric.
Linda pushed through the crowd. She stopped in front of him. She didn't look disgusted. She looked... relieved.
"You," she said, crossing her arms. "You kept us waiting."
"Sorry to inconvenience you, Linda," Eiden said.
"Well," she huffed, looking him up and down. "You look... less like a peasant in those bandages. Try not to get shot again. It ruins the vibe of the school."
She reached out and, awkwardly, patted his arm. It was the closest thing to a hug Linda was capable of.
"Glad you're not dead," she whispered, so only he could hear.
Eiden looked over Linda's shoulder. The crowd parted. In the corner, standing by the old oak tree, was Emily. She wasn't cheering. She wasn't smiling. She was wearing a long, dark coat, her arms crossed tight against her chest. Her face was pale, her expression unreadable. Their eyes met across the courtyard. She held his gaze for a long, Eiden let out a slight smile. Emily looked relived finally.
Eiden escaped the crowd as fast as he could. He had work to do.
He found Margot in the library stacks, pretending to re-shelve books.
When she saw him, she nearly dropped a stack of encyclopedias.
"Eiden!" she hissed, dragging him into the shadows. "I... I have to tell you. I heard... everything."
"Calm down," Eiden said. "What did you hear?"
Margot took a breath, her hands shaking. "I was in the vents. Above Madam Cullin's office. Akuma was there."
Eiden went still. "Go on."
"He... he knows, Eiden. He knows about Liam and Noah. He called them 'Wolves.' He called you a scout." Eiden's jaw tightened. "And?" "And he asked about some 'inventory.' He asked about... 'The Foundation.' 'The Lower Levels.' And... 'The Safe.'" "The Safe?" "Yes," Margot whispered. "He said if anyone goes near it, the guards are to call him immediately. He said the police report about the gas leak was a lie. He said... he said that you shouldn't know the history of this place."
Eiden's mind was racing.
The Foundation. The Safe. A history he wants buried.
This was it. The location of Evergreen.
"You did good, Margot," Eiden said. "You did amazing."
"There's one more thing," she said, her voice trembling. "He was... scared, Eiden. Akuma Cronus was terrified. Of you."
Eiden nodded. "Meet me in the workshop. In ten minutes. Don't be seen."
Ten minutes later, the door to Harry's private workshop clicked shut and locked.
The air smelled of solder and ozone.
Eiden stood by the workbench.
Harry was there, tinkering nervously with a radio.
Margot was there, sitting on a stool, looking anxious.
And Hazel was there, leaning against the wall, reading a book, looking bored.
"Why are we here?" Harry asked, looking at the girls. "I thought... I thought I was helping you." "You are," Eiden said. "Then what are they doing here?" Eiden looked at the three of them. "Harry," Eiden said. "This is Margot. She's the reason you know which teachers to avoid. She's my eyes." Harry's mouth dropped open. "Margot? The... the quiet girl?" "And this," Eiden gestured to the wall, "is Hazel. She's the one who told me where to look for the radio codes. She's my brain." Hazel closed her book with a snap. She looked at Harry and Margot. "Well," Hazel said, a small, impressed smile touching her lips. "I wondered how you were getting your intel so fast. You built a network."
Margot looked at Hazel, shocked. "You... you're helping him too? But you're... you're the smartest girl in the grade!"
"And I was bored," Hazel said simply. "This is much more interesting than calculus."
The three students looked at each other. A nerd, a wallflower, and a genius. They had been working together for a week and hadn't known it. "We're a team?" Harry asked, a slow grin spreading across his face. "We're a pack," Eiden corrected. He leaned over the table. "Listen to me. The game has changed. Akuma knows who I am. He knows what I can do. He's doubled security." He looked at Margot. "Margot found the target. 'The Safe.' It's in the lower levels. beneath the school's foundation." "The basement?" Harry asked. "I have a key for the junction box down there." "Not the basement," Hazel said, stepping forward. "The foundation. St. Swithin's is built on a cliff. If there's a level below the basement... it would be carved into the rock itself. Like a bunker."
Eiden nodded. "Exactly. We need to find the entrance. And we need to open it."
He looked at his team.
"Harry, I need you to loop the security cameras in the lower halls. Can you do it?"
"I... I can try," Harry said, adjusting his glasses. "If I can get to the main line..."
"Margot," Eiden said. "I need the guard rotations. Akuma brought in his own men. I need to know when they switch."
"I can do that," Margot said, her voice steady. "They talk. They ignore me. Everyone ignores me."
"Hazel," Eiden said.
"I'll find the blueprints," Hazel said before he could ask. "The real ones. If Akuma built a bunker, he had to file a permit somewhere. Or hide it. I'll find the anomaly in the architecture."
Eiden smiled. It was a Wolf's smile.
"Good. We move tonight. The King thinks he has me trapped. He thinks I'm just a scout."
Eiden picked up a screwdriver from the table and drove it into the wood.
"Let's show him what a Pack can do."
While Eiden slipped away to meet his new spies, the crowd in the courtyard began to disperse.
Linda smoothed her red coat, watching Eiden disappear into the library. She felt a strange mix of relief and annoyance. He was alive. Good. Now life could go back to normal.
Or so she thought.
"Hey, cousin."
Linda jumped. Emily was standing right behind her. She looked... haunted. Her eyes were dark, and she was gripping her own arms as if she were cold.
"Emily," Linda said, surprised. "I thought... why aren't you with him? He just got back. You were the one pacing the halls for four days, asking the nurses for updates every hour."
"I need to talk to you," Emily said, her voice low. "Privately."
"Can't it wait? I have a manicure appointment and—"
"Now, Linda."
Emily didn't wait for an answer. She grabbed Linda's wrist—a grip that was surprisingly strong—and dragged her toward the main building.
They didn't go to the dorms. They went to the library, but not the main floor where Eiden was. Emily took her to the restricted section, the dusty archives on the upper balcony where no students ever went.
She pushed Linda into a corner behind a stack of old maps and checked the aisle to make sure they were alone. "Okay, okay!" Linda yanked her arm back. "What is going on? You're acting weird. Weirder than usual." Emily leaned against the bookshelf, sliding down until she was sitting on the floor. She looked small. "When Rook had me," Emily whispered, staring at the floor. "When I was in the... room with him... he talked to me." Linda shivered. "That evil bastard? I'm sorry, Em. Try to forget it." "I can't," Emily said. "He told me things. About Father."
Linda rolled her eyes. "Oh, please. He's like a villain, Emily. Villains lie. He probably said Uncle Akuma kicks puppies." "He said Father didn't earn his money," Emily said, her voice shaking. "He said he stole it. He said they had a deal, years ago. Rook provided the capital to build the empire." "So? A business loan. Boring." "And in return," Emily looked up, her eyes piercing, "Father promised to provide him with an army."
Linda froze. The air in the dusty alcove seemed to drop a few degrees. "An... army?" Linda repeated. "We're Cronuses, Emily. We build ships. We trade steel. We don't have... armies." "Don't we?" Emily stood up, pacing the small space. "Look at this place, Linda. Really look at it. St. Swithin's. It's built on a cliff. The walls are three feet thick. There are tunnels. Bunkers. The security guards aren't rent-a-cops; they're ex-special forces. Father has a private militia of sixty men who answer only to him. And many more stationed" She turned to Linda. "Rook said Father built this place to hide something. And he said Father betrayed him."
Linda felt a cold knot in her stomach. She thought back to her phone call with Maverick.
Akuma... he's not just a man, Lin. He's a force. He's a ghost from the shadows.
"Maverick told me something too," Linda whispered.
Emily stopped pacing. "What?"
"When I called him... before the attack. He said Uncle Akuma was... dangerous. He said he made enemies after the Great War. He said this land... St. Swithin's... he refused to sell it for a hundred times its value because of 'memories.' Because of your mother."
"My mother," Emily breathed. "Everything comes back to her. And this land." She looked out through the railing of the balcony, down at the students below. "I think Rook was telling the truth, Linda. About the deal. Father is hiding something here. Something big enough to start a war over. Something that requires an army to protect." "So what do we do?" Linda asked, her voice small. "Ask him?" "No," Emily said. Her face hardened. The vulnerable girl vanished, replaced by the cold, calculating Princess. "If I ask him, he'll lie. He's lied to me my whole life. He trained me to shoot, to fight, to survive... but he never told me what I was surviving against."
Emily looked at Linda. "Eiden is hunting something. I know he is. He's a spy. But I can't trust him. He's using me." "He saved you," Linda pointed out gently. "He saved a 'complication,'" Emily corrected bitterly. "No. We do this ourselves. We are the Cronus bloodline. If there are secrets in this castle... then they belong to us." She grabbed Linda's hand. "We're going to find out what Father is hiding. We're going to find bury this secret. And if my father is the monster Rook says he is..." Emily's eyes flashed with a dangerous light. "...then I'm going to take his empire away from him."