Destined {𝕄𝕀ℕ𝕊𝕌ℕ𝔾}

Chapter Eighty-Six

1855

A strange sound in the middle of the day awoke Myungsoo from his fitful slumber. The day of his Mating Ceremony was fast approaching, and still, Jinsun had not resolved his issue. With every day that passed the dread in the pit of his stomach only grew.

Something terrible was about to happen.

A sudden urge to get up forced him out of his bed; he crept towards the door, popping his head out. Down the hall, Chan, accompanied by a tall, robed man, disappeared around the bend. He bit his lip and after a moment of contemplation, he slipped out and followed after them.

The hallways felt too quiet, his footsteps too loud. It was difficult to avoid the guards – Chan and his assistant could walk by unnoticed, and yet he had to wait for them to pass before he could filter in behind them.

They walked down a corridor that was darker than the rest, and Myungsoo's stomach flipped; something about this hallway didn't feel right at all. He walked slowly, surveying the area carefully. He couldn't see Chan or the robed man anywhere, and the hallway wasn't that long.

His eyebrows furrowed; where had they gone? He gasped when he heard footsteps approaching from back the way he'd come. He pressed himself against the wall as closely as he could, ears peeled to listen for who it might actually be. As he took a step back, however, he could hardly stifle his gasp as the wall fell away behind him.

He toppled backwards, landing on his backside as the wall slid back into place in front of him. He stared at it, wide-eyed, quickly standing up. Rushing towards it, he pushed against the wall, but it wouldn't budge. He bit his lip; this had to be where Chan and the robed man had gone – and he was stuck there. If they came back and found him...

Fear started to overwhelm his body as he began to tremble. He groped the wall and the ground around it, but he had no idea how he'd even managed to enter in the first place. He closed his eyes; there was no time to panic. He'd figure it out if he could just calm down.

That's when he heard it – in the seemingly never-ending darkness that stretched beyond the pale light of a torch down the hallway, the sound of ragged breathing. Lots of ragged breathing, so intense they seemed to bounce off the walls and echo endlessly.

Myungsoo gulped; what could... what could that be? Straightening his back, he crept forward, slowly, silently, gnawing on his bottom lip. He was filled with an indescribable urge to turn and flee, his stomach churning with every step he took.

Some sort of instinct that was equally as strong told him to keep moving, to find whatever it was that was hidden there; it was evident that Chan did not want anyone finding this place – not even him, his betrothed.

He peered down the corridor anxiously, but even his sharp eyes weren't strong enough to pierce the thick darkness that had settled upon him. And so he continued to walk, one step at a time, hand pressed firmly against the wall – there was so little light that he would have been better off with a scarf over his eyes.

He walked for what felt like an eternity – there was no way to tell how long he'd really been walking – until, at last, at the very end of the corridor, flickering light made itself known. He nearly collapsed in relief; he'd never been more glad to be out of darkness before in his life.

However, when he breached the light, the sight that met his eyes was one that belonged only in nightmares. The pungent smell of blood was so strong he nearly reeled backwards; his eyebrows furrowed. How hadn't he smelled it before? He turned, and spotted the runes lining the entrance he'd entered.

Then that was how.

He looked around himself anxiously, eyes catching on the various pools of blood on the ground; even for a vampire, that was too much. Pressing his hand to his mouth, he suppressed the gag that rose up his throat.

"What is this?" he whispered, eyes lifting from the pools of blood. He staggered further into the room, and froze in his steps when he realized what the source of all the blood was. Inside one long, heavily barred cell – it was definitely silver, there was no doubt about it, were countless bodies.

All of them breathing. All of them alive.

He stumbled backwards, eyes wide – these were... These were children. He could hardly contain the disgust and the fear twisting his gut as he took yet another step closer. All of them wore bloody clothes, their faces pale and clammy. What had happened here...?

As he stepped closer still, he noticed the bite marks on all of their necks – bite marks he knew all too well; vampire bites. And yet they did not look like vampires, and the silver—

"Oh my god," he breathed, stumbling back, nearly falling into one of the pools of blood on the ground.

"These Accords promise peace – no more destroying pack homes, no more raids, no more... No more hunting of werewolf children."

The werewolf children Jinsun had spoken of – the children he'd said he'd had to bury, the ones vampires had killed... they weren't really dead. They were all here – and it wasn't just something Chan condoned... he was the one behind all of it. How did he pull it off? Why did he—

A hand settled on Myungsoo's shoulder and he jumped away, eyes blowing wide when he noticed who stood beside him. Chan's expression was grave, and more dangerous than he'd ever seen it; it was the first time since he'd moved into this castle that the Vampire King struck terror in him and not just some anticipatory dread.

His limbs locked up as he stared at him with wide eyes. "Myungsoo," Chan said, his voice lower than it had ever been. Behind him, the robed man stood still, face shielded by the drooping hood of his cloak. For a long while the only thing he could hear was the steady drip, drip, drip of blood hitting the stone floor.

"I... I..." Whatever words Myungsoo could have said died on his tongue, his mind racing so fast he could hardly find which ones made the most sense.

"What are you doing here, Myungsoo?" Chan's eyes were hard, and the said male swallowed thickly, clasping his hands together in hopes of quelling the trembling.

"I couldn't sleep, and so... and so I wandered around the castle, but I tripped and... ended up here. I didn't know how to get back out, and then I heard breathing so I thought someone needed help, and then..." His eyes slid back towards the werewolf children; he could only hope Chan wouldn't see through his lie.

Chan's expression did not break as he turned to the robed man. "Rearrange the schedule. Our Mating Ceremony will be held tonight."

A/N: I sat down and planned out the rest of the book and-- if everything goes to plan, there will be a total of 96 chapters 0.0 we're almost done, wow

Lots of love,

~Emilie