The old lift groaned louder the deeper it descended, its rusted tracks trembling like they hadn't been touched in years. Each floor it passed whispered of shadows—the scent of damp concrete, mold, rusted metal… and death.
Seo-Yun didn't care.
Every meter between him and the Alphas felt like a scream of triumph in his veins. His body was weak—trembling from malnutrition, aching from punishment, his stomach a fragile weight beneath the robe—but his mind?
His mind had teeth.
The lift shuddered to a halt in darkness.
No light. No alarms. No welcoming committee.
Just silence.
Seo-Yun pressed his hand to his belly and stepped into the dark.
The tunnels here were older than the compound above. Older than even Kaelith's reign. The scent of rot was thick in the air, and faint symbols had been scratched into the walls by hands long gone. Some looked human. Others didn't.
The deeper he walked, the more unstable the ground became. Pipes burst. Old grates snapped underfoot. More than once, he nearly slipped into the black water that ran through the cracks.
But he pushed on.
Until he heard it.
Breathing.
Not his own.
He crouched instantly, hand tightening around the rusted dagger Leya had given him.
A shape appeared ahead. Small. Thin. Watching.
It stepped into view—
A child.
Not Leya.
Another.
This one was thin as bone, eyes hollow with feral light. A tattoo ran up their neck. Not a prisoner.
A mark of the Forgotten.
The child tilted their head. "You're from upstairs."
Seo-Yun stayed still. "I don't want trouble. I'm just passing through."
"You're carrying."
Seo-Yun's jaw tightened.
The child sniffed. "You'll slow down soon. It always happens. Then they catch you."
Seo-Yun's voice dropped. "Not this time."
The child smiled—not kindly. "Then you better move. They're coming."
Seo-Yun froze. "Who?"
But the child was already gone, slipping between cracks in the wall like smoke.
Then he heard it.
A low, mechanical hum.
Then: footsteps. Heavy. Precise.
No alarms had gone off. No orders had been barked.
They had tracked him silently.
Kaelith had let him run.
And now they were hunting.
He ran.
The tunnels became a blur—light and shadow, stone and dripping steel. He turned corners blindly. Every pulse in his body screamed with effort.
The nausea surged again. He gagged once, stumbled, braced against the wall.
He kept running.
Footsteps behind him now—louder. Closer.
The old tunnels seemed to collapse in around him, choking with dust and noise.
He burst into a wider chamber—one forgotten entirely. There were shattered glass cases, medical equipment burned to slag, bloodstains on every surface.
Seo-Yun barely made it two steps before his body gave out.
He collapsed.
Chest heaving. Stomach cramping. The weight in his belly shifting like a stone.
Too soon.
He couldn't move.
The first figure stepped into the light.
Kaelith.
Unarmed.
Unhurried.
Behind him: two more guards. One dragging something behind them—a body. Lior's.
Broken. Bloody. Barely breathing.
Seo-Yun's scream caught in his throat.
Kaelith crouched beside him. No rage. No fury. Just cold calculation.
"This," he said softly, "is the price of defiance."
He reached down.
Seo-Yun tried to fight—but he couldn't lift his arms.
Kaelith's hand touched his stomach. Softly.
"You ran to protect it," he said, almost admiring. "You risked everything. Betrayed the system. Bled for something that hasn't even opened its eyes."
His fingers pressed deeper—possessive. Claiming.
"Which is why I will make it mine. Fully. Legally. Ritualistically."
He leaned closer, breath warm against Seo-Yun's ear.
"You're going to be moved again. This time, not to a cell. To the sanctum."
Seo-Yun shivered.
"No more chains," Kaelith whispered. "No more beatings."
A pause.
"Just a stage. And an audience."
Seo-Yun's pulse roared in his ears.
"And you," Kaelith murmured, "will give the entire house something to worship."
They dragged him away.
Past Lior.
Past the broken hopes of the underground.
Back toward the light.
Back toward submission with gold cuffs instead of steel.
Back toward a future he would not accept.
Even if he had to die with it inside him.