The stone wall slid open as though it had been waiting for him. The moment Alex stepped inside, the air changedto something thicker, colder, more ancient. Luca hesitated, glancing back at the moonlit trees, then followed silently.
The cave was alive.
Whispers slithered through the walls, low and unintelligible. The floor was damp beneath their boots, slick with moss and something darker, something Alex dared not name.
"Karen," he called, his voice steady but strained.
No answer.
They moved deeper, Luca at his side, eyes darting to every shadow. Then footsteps. Not theirs, slow, deliberate.
They stopped.
And from the darkness stepped a figure cloaked in black, his face still hidden beneath a hood. The very same man who had taunted Karen.
Alex's jaw clenched. "Where is she?"
The man tilted his head, almost mockingly. "She came to Avalon blind and you? You walked in already cursed."
Luca reached for the small blade in his jacket. "Move."
But the man didn't.
Instead, he laughed.
"She chose you, Alex Knight, just like she chose your father before you."
That stopped him cold. Alex stepped forward. "What the hell do you mean?"
The man reached into his cloak and pulled out an old photograph.
Alex's breath caught in his throat.
It was his mother.
Standing in front of Avalon's gates… holding a child. But that child wasn't him.
"Your family didn't stumble upon this place," the hooded man whispered. "You were born from it."
Alex blinked.
Luca looked between them. "What is he talking about?"
But Alex couldn't answer.
The cave began to tremble again. And from deep within, a scream.
"Karen!" Alex broke into a run, Luca close behind.
Karen's POV — The Ritual Room
Her wrists were bound with glowing vines very much alive and pulsing. The cave had opened up into a wide chamber lined with ancient symbols and torches that lit themselves.
The hooded man's whispers echoed around her still, though he was nowhere in sight.
She knew they were using her for something.
Something old.
Suddenly, the torches flickered and the cave groaned.
And then....Alex's voice.
"Karen!"
She lifted her head. "Alex!"
Then she saw him rushing toward her, eyes wild, Luca right behind.
He cut her loose with trembling hands. "Are you okay?"
But before she could respond the cave sealed shut behind them.
Luca cursed. "We're trapped."
The torches burst into blue flames.
And a voice...not the hooded man's, but the cave itself boomed:
"The debt has been awakened. One of you must pay."