Chapter 529

Andrei's POV

The mountain finally loomed ahead of me through the mist. Its peak was jagged and dark against the pale morning sky, like a great black claw reaching toward the moon, which was still visible at this hour.

For a moment, I slowed my wolf's footsteps and looked up at the peak.

This was where it had all started. Where the Winter King had built his kingdom of blood and rubies. Where Natalia and I had nearly died trying to escape.

Where I'd pushed that bastard into the portal and sealed my own fate.

But my work was not done. I still had Isaac's corpse to deal with. A ritual to perform. Only then could I receive what was promised. Powers beyond recognition. A kingdom of my own. Unlike the Winter King, I wouldn't fail.

I shifted back to human form and dragged Isaac's corpse behind a cluster of boulders. The body was starting to smell. It was sickly sweet, like rotting roses.

When I approached the entrance to the tunnels, I was unsurprised to find a camp waiting for me. The tents were scattered haphazardly up the mountain. I spotted some crippled forms shuffling about, mixed with Ellen's people.

They must have worked hard. I could see a large pile of rocks sitting near the mouth of the cave.

Ellen was near the entrance. She was crouched in the mouth of the cave, examining something in the dirt. Tools and equipment were scattered around her. Notebooks. Measuring tape. A headlamp was hanging from her neck, along with a respirator mask.

When she heard my footsteps, she looked up, and her eyes widened.

"Andrei?" She stood, brushing the dirt from her knees. “What are you doing here?"

I forced a smile. "I was in the area. Heard you were still working on the excavation. Thought I'd come see what you've found."

Ellen looked me up and down. "You look like hell."

"Yeah. I've been... busy."

"How's Natalia?"

Natalia. The mention of her name sent a jolt through me. For a second, I saw her face. The way she'd looked at me in that cabin. Terrified. Bleeding. Tied up on the floor while I-

"She's fine," I said. The words came out flat and mechanical. It wasn't my choice to say them. It was the Lord's.

Ellen smiled faintly and gestured to the cave. "Well, since you're here, want to see what I've uncovered?"

"Sure."

She pushed her headlamp up onto her forehead, flicking it on, and led me inside. The tunnels were partially cleared now. Where there had once been tons of rubble blocking the passages, there were now rough pathways carved through Support beams had been installed to keep the ceiling from collapsing again.

"It's been slow work," Ellen said as we walked. "But I've made some real progress, thanks to the ones living in the castle above us. They were a great help in getting started on the excavations. The structure is fascinating, actually. The whole

mountaing was formed from an

ancient volcano. There's a massive chamber deep underground that used to be part of the magma

system."

I nodded, although really, I wasn't listening. I was just hoping she'd excavated to

where I needed to go. The rest didn't really matter.

"I found hot springs down there.

1.n

Sulfuric ones. The chemical composition is unlike anything I've seen before." She pulled out a notebook and flipped through pages Covered in diagrams and notes stiff studying them, but I think they might have special properties."

Yes. They did. But not anything that she would know about.

"Anyway," she went on, "we managed to excavate the largest one. The epicenter of that collapse.” Ellen shot me a sidelong glance. “Where you and Natalia killed the Winter King."

"Can you show me?" I blurted out.

Ellen hesitated. "It's a bit of a hike. And the fumes down there are pretty intense. I usually wear my respirator when I go that deep. We'd have to run back and get you one."

I pulled my shirt up around my nose and mouth, not that it mattered anymore. "I'd really like to see," I said.

She studied me again, clearly confused, but eventually, she nodded. "Alright." She pulled her respirator up around her face. “Follow me.”