Chapter Thirty-Three: A Past Stained in Shadows

Leon didn't move for a long moment.

The weight of Elena's question hung between them, heavy like the dust in the air.

"Did you bury them?" she had asked.

His jaw tightened, and when he finally spoke, his voice was colder than she had ever heard it.

"No."

Elena exhaled, barely realizing she had been holding her breath.

But then—he continued.

"I didn't bury them, Elena. I killed them."

The Confession

A chill ran through her veins.

Leon wasn't looking at her anymore. His gaze was fixed on the skeletal hand, his expression unreadable.

"Not all at once," he murmured. "Not in a fit of rage. Not in self-defense."

He lifted his eyes then, piercing and dark.

"I killed them systematically."

Elena took a small step back. This was different.

She had always suspected Leon had blood on his hands. But hearing it—**admitted so plainly—**felt like stepping too close to the edge of something deep and endless.

"Why?" she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

Leon tilted his head slightly, as if trying to decide how much to say.

Then—he smirked. But there was no amusement in it.

"They betrayed me," he said simply. "Every single one of them."

Elena's skin prickled.

Leon crouched down, brushing his fingers against the dirt beside the bones. His movements were slow, deliberate.

"I built an empire," he murmured. "Before this town. Before this century. I trusted them, let them in. And they tried to take everything from me."

His fingers curled into a fist, dirt slipping through the cracks.

"So I took everything from them instead."

A Fractured Truth

Elena should have felt afraid.

But she didn't.

Instead, she felt something worse—understanding.

She wasn't sure if it was the eerie silence of the passage, or the fact that Leon had never truly lied to her.

But deep down, she knew.

He wasn't telling her everything.

There was more to this.

And she wasn't going to stop until she found out what.