Chapter 3
At some point, Cassian left the estate.
I realized I hadn't seen him in three days.
It was the longest stretch of time I'd had to myself in two months.
No footsteps.
No orders.
No pair of eyes catching me every time I moved too close to an exit.
I held the silver badge I'd found outside the storage room and made my way deeper into the underground passage.
I had one goal.
Find a way out.
I didn't care what secrets Cassian was hiding.
I didn't care why he had turned into that creature.
I wanted to leave.
The passage went deeper than I'd expected.
The walls were bare and cold.
Dim lights ran along the ceiling, as if guiding someone toward a place that was never meant to be found.
I tried several doors.
The first one—
Access denied.
The second—
Access denied.
The third—
Still denied.
I clenched my jaw.
This estate was exactly like Cassian.
Every part of it was closed off.
Until I reached the end of the corridor.
A heavy black iron door stood there.
The slot in the lock matched the badge in my hand.
I hesitated for one second.
Then pressed it in.
Click.
The door opened.
There was no exit inside.
No escape route.
No hidden laboratory like I'd imagined.
Just one room.
An empty room.
I stepped inside slowly.
The air carried a faint smell of rust.
Not fresh.
Something that had been there for years.
A table stood against the wall.
Bottles of medicine.
Bandages.
Several thick journals.
I opened the first one.
The first page held only a date.
No name.
The second page was the same.
So was the third.
I frowned and kept turning pages.
Then I found one line.
Full moon.
Below it was a list of entries.
Lost control for eight minutes.
My hand stopped.
I read the next entry.
Lost control for six minutes.
Then the next.
No injury.
What was this?
Who had written it?
I set the journal down and moved farther into the room.
Then I saw the wall.
My breath caught.
It was covered in claw marks.
One.
Two.
Dozens.
Hundreds.
They were carved deep into the concrete.
As if something in unbearable pain had dug into the wall with everything it had.
I reached out and touched one.
The rough edge made me pull my hand back immediately.
These weren't marks left by an attack.
If an animal had been trying to escape...
it would have clawed at the door.
The window.
Anything that led outside.
But there were no marks there.
Every one of them was inside this room.
As if whatever had made them had been fighting to keep itself from reaching something else.
My gaze moved slowly across the wall.
Then stopped in the corner.
A sentence had been carved there.
Deep.
So deep it had nearly broken through the concrete.
As if whoever wrote it had used the last of his strength.
Don't let me hurt her.
My heart slammed against my ribs.
Don't let me hurt her.
I stood there for a long time.
Then everything began falling into place.
The claw marks in the study.
The nights he disappeared every month.
The room no one was allowed to enter.
And the way he had looked at me that night...
Not like prey.
Like a man terrified he might become the thing that hurt me.
"No..."
I whispered.
But the answer was already there.
This room wasn't built to hold someone else.
It was where Cassian locked himself away.
I moved farther inside.
A chair stood in the corner.
Beside it lay a set of heavy chains.
I crouched down.
My fingers brushed the lock.
Then I froze.
Because the chains faced inward.
The lock could only be fastened from inside the room.
Not from the outside.
Which meant—
Every time...
he came down here on his own.
He locked himself in.
That man.
The man I had been terrified of.
Every month, he came into this room and waited for the night to pass.
Alone.
No one saw him.
No one knew.
I went back upstairs.
Back to my room.
The next full moon was tonight.
Thud.
Thud.
Thud.
The sound came from the deepest part of the basement.
I tightened my grip on the silver badge and walked toward the black iron door.
With every step, the impacts grew louder.
Chains scraped against the wall.
Once.
Then again.
As if something was fighting to break free.
My hand stopped over the lock.
The next second—
Click.
The door opened.
The smell of blood hit me.
I froze.
Cassian was chained to the wall.
Two black restraints wrapped around his wrists, the metal biting deep into his skin.
He hadn't turned into the massive gray beast.
Not yet.
He still looked human.
Except his eyes had turned completely dark red.
Blood ran from his wrists.
A small pool had already formed on the floor.
Now I understood where the claw marks had come from.
They weren't made by an animal trying to escape.
They were made by a man forcing himself to stay.
"Cassian..."
I said his name.
His entire body went rigid.
The chains stopped moving.
The room fell silent.
Slowly, he lifted his head.
The moment he saw me, his expression changed.
Not surprise.
Fear.
"Get out."
His voice was so rough I could barely hear it.
I didn't move.
"Your wrists are bleeding."
I stepped closer.
The chains snapped tight.
Bang—
The wall shook.
"I said get out!"
It was the first time he'd ever shouted at me.
But I still didn't step back.
Because I saw his hand.
He was trying to pull himself farther away.
Even though there was nowhere left to go.
He was still trying to put more distance between us.
"You won't hurt me," I said.
Cassian went completely still.
A few seconds later, he gave a low laugh.
The sound sent a chill through me.
"You think..."
He raised his head.
His dark red eyes locked onto mine.
"You think I lock myself in here every month because of the full moon?"
My breathing stopped.
Cassian's nostrils flared slightly.
As if he had caught a scent.
Then his gaze dropped to the side of my neck.
The chains pulled tight again.
This time, the iron ring in the wall cracked.
Cassian's face changed instantly.
"Run."
I stared at him.
"What?"
"Elowen."
It was the first time he had said my full name.
There was nothing left in his voice but fear.
"Now."
Crack.
The iron ring split wider.
"Run!"
The next second—
The first chain broke.