CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO:The House Beneath Her Bones

Elianah

They returned before dawn.

The estate stood just as it always had — tall, quiet, heavy with history. But now, it no longer looked like home. It looked like a tomb that had been waiting for someone to open it.

Elianah stood in front of the massive oak doors, her mark still warm from the Solgrave vault. The symbol had stopped glowing, but she could feel it — the anchor was here. Buried deep beneath the floorboards she had walked since childhood. Beneath the room where she once cried as a girl. Beneath the house her parents had built over forgotten bones.

Xadriel placed a hand on her shoulder. "You don't have to go first."

She shook her head. "I do. I've always had to."

Inside, silence reigned. Dust clung to the air, undisturbed. Her mother's old piano sat untouched in the corner. Her father's library door was slightly ajar, like it had been waiting.

"Here," she whispered, leading them to the back hallway — the one that led nowhere.

Only now, it did.

As they walked, the wallpaper peeled away, revealing ancient runes carved into the wooden walls. They weren't decoration. They were seals.

"Elianah," Selene said, kneeling beside a cracked floor tile. "This was a warding sigil. Meant to suppress power — not protect it."

Xadriel knelt beside her. "Then whatever's beneath us… someone didn't want it found."

With a breath, Elianah pressed her palm against the runes.

A low rumble answered.

The floor split open, revealing a spiral staircase made of stone and bone.

The air shifted — colder, older. The kind of silence that tasted like memory.

They descended.

Step after step.

At the bottom, they entered a hidden chamber. Walls lined with mirrors — all cracked. In the center stood a coffin made of obsidian, veined with gold.

No dust. No decay. As if it had only just been sealed.

Elianah's mark flared, and she fell to her knees, clutching her chest.

Images flooded her.

A battlefield soaked in starlight.

A girl in chains.

A dagger made of shadow.

Her own face — younger, bleeding, screaming.

And him.

Xadriel, kneeling before her, begging, "I didn't mean to betray you…"

"Elianah!" he called now, holding her shoulders. "What did you see?"

She looked at him, tears streaking down her face.

"This isn't just an anchor," she whispered. "It's a grave."

"Whose?"

She stood slowly and walked to the coffin, fingers trembling.

And she read the name carved at its base.

> Here Lies Elionys.

The Last Voidbearer.

Slain by Her Bonded.

The world spun.

"I killed myself," she whispered. "To end the war."

But the coffin remained sealed.

Selene stepped forward. "Or maybe not. Look closely."

The lid was cracked.

And something inside… was moving.

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