<h4>Chapter 499: The n Continued</h4>
<strong>Evaline:</strong>
For a few seconds, all I heard through the earpiece was shuffling.
Quiet, muted, almost indistinguishable footsteps. The faint rasp of fabric. Breathing. Someone adjusting their stance. But no voices... none of the students spoke anymore.
Whatever this "offering" ritual demanded, it seemed to silence thempletely the moment they approached that man.
I pressed the earpiece a little more firmly into my ear, leaning closer to the desk as if that might somehow sharpen the sound.
"Come on," I whispered to myself, straining to catch even a sliver of conversation. "Just say something. Anything."
But there’s nothing.
Only the faint shuffling sounds, footsteps, and other movements.
There were no further words spoken. No clues.
Just... silence full of fear.
I nced back at Kieran and Rowan, both watching me carefully while they too tried to catch any sort of further talking between the students.
Rowan stood near the bookshelves, arms folded across his chest, eyes fixed on the screen that showed thest recorded audio spectrum. Kieran was seated on the couch behind me, elbows on his knees, shoulders tight with tension he rarely showed.
"Do either of you have any idea what these offerings could be?" I asked, trying to keep the frustration out of my voice but failing slightly. "Anything at all?"
Both men exchanged brief looks.
Rowan shook his head first. "No. Whatever they are handing over, they are guarding the secret tightly even now."
Kieran exhaled slowly, jaw clenching. "And if it’s connected to that thing they keep calling the ’Great Evil,’ it won’t be something simple."
Great. So we all were clueless.
"I just hope it’s not something... bad." Rowan spoke a secondter.
Before I could speak, the voice of the mystery man finally returned through the earpiece - smooth,posed, and far too self-assured.
"That will be all for tonight," he said. "I’ll leave first. The next offerings are due in two months. Be prepared."
A chorus of subdued murmurs echoed faintly through the connection, followed by hurried steps as the students acknowledged his words.
My pulse picked up.
The trap was ready to snap shut.
A secondter, River’s voice came through, calm but edged withmand.
"Oscar, wait for him to exit the inn. Don’t engage until he clears the door. Jasper and I will enter the basement once he’s out."
"Copy," I heard Oscar reply distantly through the feed.
My breath hitched a little. My hands curled into fists against the desk. This was it. The moment everything depended on.
Then River spoke again, this time directly to me.
"Angel," he said, "I’m ending your connection now. I’ll contact you once we have everything under control."
"Wait-River, leave it on for a litt-"
But the line cut instantly.
A sharp <i>click</i> rang in my ear, reced by silence so final it almost ached.
I let out a long, frustrated sigh. "Damn it."
Kieran leaned back slightly, watching me with a slight twitch on his lips as if he was unable to hold back his amusement at my misery. Rowan lowered himself onto the edge of the desk, his fingers tapping once against the wood.
Without themunication link, the seconds stretched like hours. Every sound in the room felt too loud. Every tick of the clock on the wall made my nerves coil a little tighter.
We waited.
Two minutes.
Three.
Four.
Five.
Rowan suddenly straightened, pushing himself off the desk. "I need some air."
Before either of us could respond, he strode out of the study, his footsteps echoing faintly down the hallway.
I couldn’t me him... I felt suffocated too.
I stood abruptly, energy sparking beneath my skin as I started pacing from one end of the room to the other. The silence ate at me. The waiting gnawed at every frayed thought. My wolf paced inside me as restlessly as my body did outside.
Round one.
Round two.
Round three.
Round four.
I didn’t notice the tension in my steps until I passed Kieran for the fifth time, and his hand shot out, catching my arm and pulling me down...
Right onto hisp.
I let out a startled gasp, my palmsnding on his chest as I stared down at him. "Kieran! What-?"
He looked up at me with maddening calm. "Watching you pace is making me restless."
My eyebrows shot up. "<i>You</i>? Restless? Since when?"
A slow smile tugged at his mouth, the kind that flickered warmth into his eyes even in this tense moment.
I opened my mouth to tease him further, but the sudden vibration and chirp from my phone cut sharply through the air.
River.
My heart lurched.
I scrambled off Kieran’sp so quickly I nearly tripped. Rowan reentered the room at the exact same moment, breath slightly brisk as if he had hurried back the second he heard the ring.
I snatched my phone off the desk.
"River?" I answered immediately.
Kieran stood behind me. Rowan hovered on my right. Both close enough to hear every word.
River’s voice came through steady but carrying a weight that made my stomach tighten.
"We have everything under control," he said. "Jasper and I are going to question the students now. Oscar got the man who took the offerings. But since he tried to shift, they had to drug him. He’s out cold now, so we will need to wait for him to wake up before we could question him. For now, he’s detained under Mark’s watch."
A breath I hadn’t realized I was holding escaped me.
But before relief could settle, River continued. His voice was taut, disbelieving, almost dark.
"Also, we got our hands on the offerings he came here to collect tonight..."
He paused.
And in that pause, I wasn’t sure what to feel. I couldn’t even start to guess what these ’offerings’ possibly could be.
"And?" Kieran asked when River didn’t continue immediately.
"And you are not going to believe," River spoke finally, "what the offerings turned out to be."
The line crackled softly.