Underworld 118_Goddess Of The Underworld

Chapter 118 

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 We waited until both kids were sticky–faced and lost in a movie. Layah stayed curled at the foot of the bed, eyes half–closed, pretending sleep.

 I touched Noah’s wrist and jerked my chin toward the hall. “You too, Levi.” 

 We stepped out and let the door ease shut on the purr of the wards. The corridor outside

 Elliot’s room holds its own hush, a gentled echo the pce keeps for its smallest

 residents. I didn’t realize I was holding my breath until I heard it bounce and thin.

 “We need a family meeting,” I said, voice low but steady. “Today. Us, Xavier, Haiden, Dad,

 Mum, Aleisha, Tommy. No dys.”

 Levi nodded once, no argument, just a quick, assessing flick of his eyes as if he were already cing chairs.

 I didn’t sugarcoat it. “Twice now we’ve heard the word ‘kin.‘ Once from a rogue’s mouth that wasn’t his to use, and again from the seeker–weave at our door. This isn’t random scavenging. Someone is looking for Elliot. Not to devour. To im.”

 Levi’s jaw tightened. “The weave’s construction fits that: follow, taste, wait. No bite. It

 doesn’t want to break the door. It wants the door to open itself.”

 Noah’s gaze slid to Elliot’s lintel, to the faint gleam where his vines braided through Levi’sttice. “We don’t open doors we didn’t choose,” he said, easy and iron at once. Hawk agreed, a silent thud. Mine–to–guard.

 I rubbed a thumb under my ring, an old habit when a decision scraped. “We present this to the family together. We say the word we’ve been circling: these are Soul Eaters. Maybe

 not his blood, but his species. They’re testing our fences without leaving fingerprints.”

 Levi folded his arms, thinking in that neat, precise way he does. “There’s a chance they’re not unified,” he said. “The thread’s vor wasn’t the same as the hands that rode the

 rogues. Same craft, different caster. One faction scouts; another uses wolves like gloves.

 Both want the same thing. Methods diverge.” 

 “Ends don’t,” Noah said. “They want our boy.”

 I felt the barest tremor under my palm where it rested on the wall. The kingdom listens

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 when you decide something; the corridors tighten like muscle, ready.

 “We keep our circle small,” I said. “Just family and the senior leads. We tell the pack there was a seeker on the wards, that we’ve increased protection, that the orphans are safe. No panic. No rumor mill that might drift across borders.”

 Levi tipped two fingers against his temple. “I’ll anchor a secure gate between the war room and our council chamber here. Ward–locked on both ends, keyed to our voices. We can meet as one room with no one moving through public space.”

 “Good.” I let the word sit. “And Elliot?”

 Noah answered before Levi could. “He’s earned a seat,” he said. “We tell him as much as

 we tell anyone. He’s wiser beyond his years and this does involve him.”

 Something eased in my chest I hadn’t named, even as the protective part of me snarled at the thought of sitting our boy down and saying your kind is at the fence.

 Levi’s eyes softened, empathy threaded through analysis. Flint moved in him like a shadow agreeing. Teach, don’t terrify.

 “Speaking of,” Levi went on, back to business, “I want topound what we started this morning. Masking can’t be a trick he does when we remind him. It has to be reflex. Breath in, dim. Breath out, brighten. Like a heartbeat he controls.”

 “Drills,” Noah said, already mapping them. “Short. Frequent. Woven into y. Layah can cue him. Hawk will ride the corridor with the cadence.” He nced at me. “And your gentling charm on his dreams every night until the threads give up.”

 I nodded. Pregnancy makes you an altar to small superstitions; I’ve learned which ones are spells and which ones are just breath. The gentling charm is both.

 “We should also talk to Dad about diplomacy,” I added, surprising myself. “A message into the dark can be safer than waiting for the dark to finish its thoughts. We state inly:

 he’s under our protection. If there is awful envoy, they will request audience under our conditions.” The words tasted like strategy and ash in equal measure. “If they refuse the

 terms, we name them hostile and act ordingly.”

 Levi’s mouth twitched, the kind of humor he uses when he agrees with me and hates the necessity. “I’ll draft the terms. And bind them to a truth–knot. Anyone who swears by

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 them bleeds if they lie.” 

 “Subtle,” Noah said dryly.

 We stood a while in the hush, the Underworld’s heartbeat in the stone and the soft, stubborn rhythm of pancakes settling behind Elliot’s door. There’s a moment in every fight where the fear in you and the fight in you bnce on a knife. We stepped past it.

 Noah straightened. “I’ll ping Xavier. Twilight. We’ll have Haiden off the service road by then. Tommy can pull from border patrol and be there in fifteen.”

 “Make sure Aleisha sits in,” I said. “Her nose for tells is better than my magic some days.”

 A thin bell rang from deeper in the corridor, one of Levi’s new notes, high and crisp as ss tapped with a fingernail. He went still, listening with his whole body.

 “What?” I asked, already feeling Layah uncoil at my spine.

 “The decoy,” he said. “They came back.”

 My gut dropped. “Same thread?”

 “Yes.” His eyes cut to me. “And not alone.”

 Hawk surged, Noah didn’t move, but the stone under his hand spidered with the tiniest hairline crack where power pressed. I gripped his wrist; the crack stopped.

 “Talk to me,” I said, keeping my voice even.

 Levi’s gaze went far and precise. “Three seekers at the false door. The first, the one from this morning, says kin again. The second repeats it like an echo, unsure. The third…” He blinked. For the first time, something like surprise loosened his posture. “The third is smaller. New–woven. It doesn’t say kin. It says child.” 

 My hand found my belly without my permission, palm t to a life that kicked back once as if answering a roll call only I could hear.

 Noah’s head tilted, Hawk parsing cadence. “Tone?”

 “Notmand,” Levi said softly. “Not lure. A… searching. It doesn’t know the shape of what it asks for. It only knows the word it was given.”

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 “Then someone is training new threads,” I said, throat tight. “Teaching them ournguage one word at a time.”

 Levi nodded toward the council chamber. “All the more reason to convene now.”

 I exhaled. “Call them. Lock the gate.”

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Underworld 118