Chapter 120: The Woman Beneath the House
At the same time, somewhere in the West…
The night was heavy, like the breath of the earth itself held still. The air carried a thickness that clung to the skin...warm, perfumed faintly with smoke and myrrh. Crickets hummed lazily outside the walls of the manor, their rhythm a soft tremor beneath the veil of darkness.
The house stood upon a hill of ochre stone, its walls lacquered black beneath the moonlight, its windows shuttered tightly as though guarding secrets meant to stay buried. From afar, it looked abandoned, but a faint ember burned within...a single light glowing low through the cracks of the stone foundation. It pulsed, like a slow heartbeat.
Inside, footsteps echoed against marble floors.
