The Alpha Who Regrets Losing Me Chapter 96 – The Taken Fire

The woman’s words scattered through the hall and sank into the stones, passed between the erased faces on the walls, and touched the fourth line in Elara’s chest like a cold finger. But this ti, you did not co alone. There was no simple observation inside that sentence. It carried the tone of soone who had watched the sa scene for centuries and noticed a small change for the first ti.

Elara did not step back as she looked at the woman. She now knew that the thing before her was not the Moon Spirit. That knowledge did not comfort her. Because a being that was not the Moon Spirit but had been wounded by the sa darkness as it could sotis be more dangerous than the spirit itself. Perhaps the woman was a vessel. Or perhaps she had once been a body forced to beco a vessel. But she was no longer only a woman. She was a wound that had remained inside the archive, learned to rember with the archive, and over ti had begun to resemble the things it rembered.

Kael’s voice ca very low. "What did you do to Darian?"

The woman’s gaze shifted slightly without leaving Elara. "?"

Kael wanted to take a step. This ti, Elara did not stop him. Because Kael had the right to ask that question. But the mist and the emptiness inside the black moon did not allow him to complete the step. The red line beneath his feet flared, then went out. Kael’s jaw tightened, but he did not retreat.

At last, the woman looked at him. "I did nothing to him. He gave his fire."

Kael’s expression hardened. "You’re lying!"

"No," the woman said. Her voice was neither defensive nor angry. "The lie was the thing that told him he could save Seren. I rely opened the door to that lie."

When Elara heard this, old Elara stirred inside her. Because she understood how cruel it was. The strongest way to deceive soone was not to give them sothing entirely false. The strongest way was to feed the desire already burning inside them. Darian had wanted to protect Seren. Rowan had wanted to bring Seren back. Kael wanted not to lose Elara. Rowan now wanted to keep Elara’s path open. The cycle did not catch people from where they were weak, but from where they believed they were strongest.

Rowan’s voice ca quiet but sharp. "You did not turn us against each other. You used the parts we trusted most against us."

The woman’s smile changed slightly. "The path is still clever."

Rowan’s face did not close, but Elara felt how he received that sentence. It was not a complint. It was like a rusty key trying to open an old door.

Elara lifted her head slightly. "What do you want to show us?"

The woman turned back to her. "I do not want to show anything. The archive does."

"Is the archive separate from you?"

That question stopped all the writing in the hall for an instant. The woman’s face was still not clear, but for the first ti, Elara felt sothing break behind her smile. "It once was."

The Moon Spirit stirred very slowly inside Elara. "Be careful."

Elara answered inwardly, "Is she attacking ?"

"No," said the Moon Spirit. "She is reminding."

That answer disturbed Elara more. Because one could fight against an attack. A reminder slipped inside.

The woman lifted her hand. Her fingers did not look real. They seed made of darkened moonlight. One of the hall’s walls opened as if taking a deep breath. A pale light close to red leaked from the stone. Kael’s body tensed at the sa ti. This was not the old Alpha reflex inside him. It was sothing deeper, sothing his blood recognized.

A new room appeared inside the wall. There was no fire inside. But red lights flowed through the black stones like veins. So had gone out, while others were still pulsing very weakly. Beneath each light were only short marks. Pack symbols. Family lines. Records left incomplete.

Kael’s voice barely ca out. "What is this place?"

The woman did not answer. The archive did. "The taken fires."

For the first ti, Talon fell completely silent behind them. Erynd’s breath trembled. Rowan’s gaze shifted to Kael, but he imdiately looked away. It was not pity. Rowan was too intelligent for that. It was more like soone lowering his eyes so he would not look at another person’s family grave opening before him.

Kael walked slowly toward the room. Elara stayed beside him. There was no touch between them, but there was closeness. This ti, what happened was not a glance or skin drawing near to skin. As Kael walked toward his most fragile place, Elara did not pull away. She was ready to see how Darian’s fire had been taken, to understand what that pain had broken inside Kael. And Kael was trying not to lose himself inside that fear. Despite his anger, his grief, and his helplessness, he was resisting becoming sothing that might hurt Elara.

The woman whispered, "Fire does not disappear when it is given. It is stored."

Kael turned to her. "Is Darian alive?"

That question changed the air in the hall. Even Elara held her breath. Because the answer could help them understand not only Kael’s past, but the logic of the entire cycle.

The woman was silent for a few seconds. Then she spoke. "The thing you call life is a narrow word."

Kael’s eyes darkened. "Do not play gas."

The woman’s voice turned cold. "Darian’s body did not return. But his fire is here."

There was no relief on Kael’s face. Sothing worse happened. Hope and pain arrived at the sa ti. Elara thought this was one of the cruelest things that could be done to a person. Certain death could sotis destroy soone, but it closed the matter. Uncertain life stayed on a person like an open wound.

Kael raised his hand toward the weak red light inside the black stone. The light pulsed once more, as if it recognized his presence. In that mont, Elara understood what Kael was thinking. If this was truly the fire left from Darian, Kael thought that by touching it, he might reach the last piece of what remained of his brother. Maybe he could feel him. Maybe he could call him back. Maybe he could receive the answer to the question that had been locked away for years.

Elara spoke very softly. "Kael."

Kael’s hand remained in the air, but his gaze did not leave the red light. "I know."

"No," Elara said. "What you know may not be enough. This place is not only showing you what remains of your brother. It is trying to use him to pull you in too."

Kael turned his head toward her. There was a fire in his eyes trying to restrain itself. "If this is his fire..."

"I understand that."

"No, Elara." His voice did not break, but the fracture inside it could be heard. "You don’t. This is not only a trace. If it is truly a piece left from him, then I am closer to my brother than I have been in years."

That sentence struck Elara. Because it was true. She could not fully know what it ant for Kael to lose his brother. She could not know what it ant to live for years with false stories, to now stand before a black stone and look at the fire left from his brother, to want to believe that if he touched that fire, he could save him. But not knowing did not an she had to step back.

Elara moved a little closer to him. "Then show . But without giving yourself to it."

Kael’s gaze stayed on Elara’s face. A very brief, very heavy silence ford between them. Kael’s hand was still before the stone. Without touching his wrist, Elara brought her own hand beside his. They were not touching, but the distance between them was almost gone. Kael’s breathing changed.

The woman whispered from the hall. "Fire trembles beside the vessel again."

Without turning her head, Elara spoke. "His fire is not for ."

The woman smiled. "Fire never burns only for its owner. It is enough to know how to call it."

Kael slowly lowered his hand. He did not touch the stone. The movent could have seed small. But Elara felt how sothing enormous inside him bent without breaking. Kael had looked at the fire and chosen not to take it. At least for now.

Rowan’s voice ca from behind. "If fires are stored, then paths may be stored too."

This ti, the woman turned to him. "Of course."

The other wall of the hall opened with a pale light tinged with blue. There were no red veins on this side. Instead, there were paths that did not connect to one another. Unfinished lines. Doors that had co close to each other but could not et. Passages that had closed just as they were about to open. Rowan’s breath changed very slightly.

Erynd whispered, "Alpha..." Rowan did not answer.

The woman spoke. "Paths that are not opened do not disappear either. They wait."

Rowan looked at the blue lines on the wall. "Is Seren’s path here?"

The woman’s answer did not co imdiately. "Seren’s path was not opened. But it was desired to be opened. The archive keeps intention too."

That sentence struck Rowan. Elara saw it. Because Rowan had carried the guilt of sothing he had not done for years. Now the archive was telling him that even the thing he had not done was recorded here. Even intention had been caught. Wanting had been dangerous enough.

Elara turned toward Rowan. "This is not your fault."

Rowan’s gaze shifted to her. "Knowing that and feeling it are not the sa thing."

"I know."

A painful line appeared on Rowan’s lips. "Do you really?"

Elara did not answer. Because this ti, Rowan was right. Everyone carried their guilt in another language. Kael feared losing his fire. Rowan feared his path being used. And Elara feared that the thing inside her would one day stop speaking with her own voice.

The Moon Spirit spoke quietly inside her. "And I fear my na being spoken."

Elara heard it this clearly for the first ti. The confession was not small. The coldness inside Elara changed for a mont. "Then we will hide your na," she said inwardly. The Moon Spirit did not answer. But the fourth line cald a little.

The woman smiled as if she had noticed. "This is how it begins. Your human side tries to make peace with it. Then you pity it. Then you protect it. In the end, you forget where you end and where it begins."

Elara turned to her. "Is that what happened to you?"

All the faces inside the hall stopped at once.

The woman’s smile did not disappear, but it hardened. "I was not chosen. I was prepared."

That sentence made Elara’s skin prickle.

The woman continued. "In the first ritual, there was no such thing as a vessel. There was no prophecy yet. No rules yet. I was once only human too. I had a na. I had a voice. I had a mother who gave birth to , and people waiting for to return."

Elara’s breathing grew heavier. The woman’s gaze remained fixed inside the darkened moonlight. "Then they took . Not my body at first, but the things that made myself. They weakened my mory. Silenced my bonds. Separated my fear, my love, my anger, my will to resist one by one. Because they believed the Moon needed an empty vessel to descend into. A calling point. A body alive enough to remain human, but emptied enough not to resist."

The woman’s voice lowered a little more. "I was not the chosen one, Elara. They made suitable. Then they called it fate. And with , this process began."

Talon’s voice ca from behind, and this ti there was no mockery in it. "Who did this?"

The woman tilted her head very slightly. "Witches. Old border families. Then the World Governnt ca and mistook it for science."

Rowan’s face tightened. Kael’s eyes darkened. Elara could not speak. Because the enemy had suddenly stopped being a single institution. The World Governnt was only the newest face. This cycle was much older. Everyone had touched it a little. Everyone had known a little. Everyone had forgotten according to their own interests.

The woman approached Elara. She did not seem to walk. Black moonlight carried her forward. "I did not fail," she said. "They could not complete . Then they feared my incomplete state."

Elara’s voice ca low. "That is why you bound yourself to the archive."

"No," the woman said. "That is why the archive bound itself to ."

That sentence silenced every stone in the hall.

Kael spoke very softly. "Then you control this place."

Without looking at him, the woman answered. "No. I am the thing this place does not want to rember."

When Elara heard that sentence, for the first ti, she could not look at the woman only as an enemy. That was dangerous. She knew it. Because pain did not make a being innocent. But understanding the pain ant seeing the weapon it used.

The woman noticed this. "Do not pity ."

Elara’s voice ca clear. "I don’t."

"Liar."

"No," Elara said. "I am trying to understand you."

The woman’s smile returned. This ti, for the first ti, she looked truly pleased. "Perhaps that is why you did not co alone this ti."

Elara’s brows drew together slightly. The woman lifted her hand. At the end of the hall, a third door appeared. This door was not red or blue. It was not made of darkened moonlight either. It had a paler, more human color. As if old Elara’s warmth had found a place for itself inside the stone.

Writing ford on the door.

The bodies that did not return.

Kael’s voice darkened. "Darian."

Rowan took one step. "Seren."

The woman looked at both of them. "Perhaps."

The fourth line in Elara’s chest quickened.

The woman continued. "The fire is here. The path is here. The bodies were kept sowhere else."

Elara’s breath stopped. "Where?"

The woman smiled.

"In the World Governnt’s first laboratory."

A map opened across the walls of the hall. Old border lines, erased pack territories, witch seals, and modern World Governnt roads overlapped one another. Then all of them joined at a single point. Elara did not recognize that point. But the Moon Spirit did.

Root Facility.

Elara went cold inside. Because in that mont, she understood. Black Moon Archive was not the answer. It was only the door. The real past was still outside. Darian and Seren’s bodies might still be there.