WHAT LIVES BENEATH THE VEIL
Book One: The Unblooded Lamb
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CONTENT WARNING: This series contains explicit sexual violence, human sacrifice, psychological torture, murder of innocent characters (including children and family members), ritualistic killing, and extreme horror. No character is safe. Read at your own risk.
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Chapter Nine: The Gathering Storm
Year 8 – One Month After the Second Sacrifice
The castle had grown used to the cold.
Not the weather—the weather was still bitter, still unrelenting, still killing crops and freezing rivers. But the other cold. The one that had settled into the stones. The one that made servants shiver for no reason. The one that followed Princess Liora wherever she went.
No one named it.
No one dared.
But everyone felt it.
The cooks whispered about it in the kitchen. The guards muttered about it at their posts. The handmaidens exchanged glances when the princess passed, too quick to be noticed, too sharp to be innocent.
Something is wrong with that child, they thought.
But no one said it aloud.
Because what could they say? That the princess was strange? That she smiled too much and cried too little? That she had been seen walking alone after dark, heading toward the east wing, toward the old cellar that no one used?
There was no proof.
There was never any proof.
And so the cold settled deeper.
And Liora watched.
And waited.
And planned.
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Aldric – The Breaking Point
He could not eat.
The food sat on his plate, cold and unappetizing, while his stomach churned with fear he could not name. He had not slept properly in weeks. The shadows under his eyes had darkened to bruises. The other pages had started avoiding him.
Something is wrong with Aldric, they whispered.
He's changed.
He's scared of something.
They were right.
He was scared of her.
The princess had not asked him for anything since the key. She had not threatened him. She had not even looked at him differently.
But he knew.
He knew that she had done something in that cellar. Something terrible. Something that had left a stain on the world that he could feel but not see.
I have to tell someone, he thought.
I have to stop her.
But who would believe him?
A page boy, accusing the princess of… what? He had no evidence. No proof. Nothing but a feeling in his gut and a key that he had stolen and returned.
She would deny it, he realized. And everyone would believe her.
Because she was the princess.
Because she was sweet.
Because she was innocent.
And he was nothing.
He was less than nothing.
He put down his spoon and walked out of the kitchen.
He needed air.
He needed to think.
He needed to escape.
But there was no escape.
There was only her.
Always her.
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Liora – The Observation
She watched Aldric from the window of her chamber.
He was pacing in the courtyard, head down, hands clenched. He looked like a man trying to solve a puzzle with no solution.
He suspects, she thought.
Not enough to act. Not enough to speak. But enough to suffer.
She should have been concerned. A witness with suspicions was a liability. A liability needed to be eliminated.
But she was not concerned.
She was curious.
How long would he last? How long before the fear broke him? How long before he came to her, begging for reassurance, for kindness, for the soft words that would quiet the screaming in his head?
He will come, she thought.
They always come.
She turned away from the window.
She had other things to attend to.
The cellar was waiting.
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Finn – The Warning
He found Aldric in the courtyard, sitting on a bench, staring at nothing.
Finn hesitated.
He had never spoken to Aldric before. The page boy was older, taller, more important. He worked in the great hall. He served the lords and ladies. He was somebody.
And Finn was nobody.
But he remembered what it felt like. The fear. The confusion. The desperate need for someone to tell him he wasn't crazy.
"Hey," he said.
Aldric looked up. His eyes were red.
"What?"
Finn sat on the bench beside him. Not too close. Close enough.
"You look like you haven't slept," Finn said.
"I haven't."
"Because of her?"
Aldric went still.
"Who?"
"The princess."
For a long moment, Aldric said nothing. Then he turned to look at Finn. Really looked. Like he was seeing him for the first time.
"What do you know?" Aldric asked.
Finn looked down at his hands.
"Enough to be scared," he said. "Not enough to prove anything."
Aldric nodded slowly.
"She asked me for a favor," he said. "A key. To the old cellar."
"Did you give it to her?"
"Yes."
Finn closed his eyes.
"Then you're already in too deep," he said. "Same as me."
They sat in silence.
Two boys who had seen something they couldn't name.
Two boys who were too afraid to tell anyone.
Two boys who were already dead.
They just didn't know it yet.
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Liora – The Third Victim
She chose a man this time.
A traveler, like Orin. A loner, like Greta. Someone who would not be missed, who had no family, no friends, no reason for anyone to ask questions.
His name was Corin.
He was young—twenty, maybe twenty-five. He had come to the castle town looking for work as a blacksmith's apprentice. He had found nothing. He was sleeping in the stables, eating scraps from the kitchen, slowly starving.
Liora found him behind the stables, shivering, alone.
"I need help," she said.
He looked at her. Dirty. Desperate. Hungry.
"My cat is lost," she said. "She went into a cellar and she won't come out. I'm afraid to go alone. I'll pay you."
He hesitated.
"Please," she said. "I'm the princess. I can give you food. I can give you work. Just help me find my cat."
He nodded.
He followed.
They always followed.
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Corin – The Cellar
The door was old. Iron. Locked.
The princess produced a key.
"She's down there," the princess said. "I heard her meowing."
Corin looked at the door. Looked at the princess. Looked at the key in her small, pale hand.
Something felt wrong.
But he was hungry. He was cold. He was desperate enough to follow a child into a dark cellar because she had promised him food and work and a chance to survive.
"I'll just be a moment," he said.
The princess smiled.
"Thank you," she said. "You're so kind."
He opened the door.
He walked down the steps.
He did not walk back up.
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The Third Ritual
She waited two hours again.
The pattern was established now. Lure. Trap. Wait. Descend. Perform the ritual. Collect the power. Dispose of the body.
It was almost routine.
Almost boring.
But the power—that was never boring.
It came stronger each time. Thicker. More intoxicating. By the time the third body lay cold on the cellar floor, Liora was drunk on it. Her hands trembled. Her heart raced. Her skin prickled with something that felt almost like life.
More, she thought.
I need more.
I will always need more.
She looked at the body.
Three sacrifices.
Ninety-seven to go.
She was learning.
She was growing.
She was becoming.
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Aldric – The Confession
He could not keep it inside anymore.
The secret was eating him. Consuming him. Turning him into something hollow and scared and small.
He went to the steward.
Not to accuse the princess—he had no proof. Not to confess his own crime—he was too afraid. But to ask.
"The old cellar," he said. "The one beneath the east wing. Has anyone been down there lately?"
The steward frowned.
"No one has been down there in years. It's locked. It's forbidden."
"Could someone have gotten in? A key, maybe?"
The steward's frown deepened.
"Why are you asking?"
Aldric hesitated.
"No reason," he said. "I was just curious."
The steward looked at him for a long moment.
Then he said: "Stay away from the cellar, boy. Nothing good ever came from asking questions."
Aldric nodded.
He left.
He had learned nothing.
But he had confirmed one thing: no one was watching the cellar.
No one was watching anything.
And the princess could do whatever she wanted.
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Liora – The Third Disposal
She burned Corin's body with the others.
The fire was getting easier. She knew exactly how much wood to use, how long to wait, how to scatter the ashes so they would never be found.
She smelled like smoke again.
No one asked.
No one ever asked.
She sat in her chamber that night and thought about the future.
Ninety-seven more, she thought.
At this rate, I'll reach one hundred in a year. Maybe less.
And then the curse.
And then immortality.
And then no one will ever stop me.
She looked at her reflection.
The girl in the mirror looked back.
Innocent. Sweet. Pure.
Not for long, Liora thought.
Soon, the world will know what I am.
But by then, it will be too late.
She smiled.
The girl in the mirror smiled back.
And somewhere in the darkness beneath the castle, the cellar waited.
Hungry.
Patient.
Ready for more.
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End of Chapter Nine