Chapter 5 5 - The Circle Knows

Lila didn't sleep that night. Not because she wasn't tired-her entire body screamed for rest-but because every time she closed her eyes, she saw him.

The figure in chains. The fire. The whisper that felt more familiar than her own name.

By morning, her fingers trembled as she reached for the black coffee Adrian had left on the kitchen counter. He was gone. Again.

He had a tendency to vanish before dawn and reappear as if nothing had happened. She didn't know where he went, only that he came back darker each time-like the shadows followed him home.

Today, she decided not to wait.

She wasn't some helpless lamb being led to slaughter. And if he wouldn't tell her what this "Circle" was or what she really was, then she'd find out on her own.

She started with the obvious.

The library.

Not a small, cozy room of dusty books like she expected-but a sprawling, two-story cathedral of knowledge. Shelves towered toward the ceiling. Ladders rolled on rails. Everything smelled of ink and secrets.

The moment she stepped inside, the door closed behind her with a hiss.

Lila glanced over her shoulder.

Nothing.

Just her nerves.

She approached a shelf marked Occult Lineage – Forbidden Bloodlines.

"Nice." Her voice echoed in the silence. "Exactly the vibe I was going for."

She scanned the titles.

Veils and Vessels.

The Thirteen Blood Rites.

Heirs of the Shadow Pact.

All handwritten. All ancient.

She pulled one down and opened it carefully.

Diagrams of symbols. Descriptions of blood rituals. An entry with a sketch of a mark that looked dangerously close to the one branded on her chest.

But it wasn't just ink.

As she turned the page, something shifted.

The air grew colder.

The text beneath her fingers rearranged itself-words twisting into fresh meaning, as if recognizing her presence.

Suddenly, the ink bled into a new phrase:

"The Seventh Vessel shall awaken on the cusp of the Blood Moon. Her veins will call to the Chained One. And through her, the gate will open."

Lila recoiled.

She didn't know what any of that meant-but she knew enough to realize it wasn't good.

She slammed the book shut.

"Curious little mouse, aren't you?" said a voice behind her.

She spun around.

A man stood by the fireplace that hadn't been lit seconds ago. Tall. Pale. A wicked smile on lips too red to be natural. His eyes glinted like polished obsidian.

"Who-"

"Don't worry," he said, stepping closer. "I'm not here to hurt you. Yet."

She instinctively stepped back. "You're one of them, aren't you?"

"The Circle?" he purred. "No. They're cowards. I work for someone a little more... ambitious."

Lila kept her hands at her sides, ready to run. "Then why are you here?"

"Because the mark is active," he said, his smile widening. "And once it is... all the pieces begin to move."

His gaze slid down her frame, stopping at her collarbone as if he could see the mark beneath her skin.

"You reek of him," he sneered. "Adrian. That traitorous bastard. Of course he found you first."

"I don't belong to anyone," she spat.

"Oh, sweetheart." He chuckled. "You do. That's the problem."

The fireplace flared suddenly behind him, and he stepped backward-melting into it as though swallowed by flame.

Just before vanishing, his voice echoed one last time.

"They're coming, Vessel. And not even your cursed protector can save you from what's already begun."

---

Lila was still shaking when Adrian returned an hour later.

"You left me," she said before he could open his mouth. "And someone got in. Someone... not human."

He froze.

"What did he look like?"

Lila described him. The fire. The words. The way the library changed when she touched the book.

Adrian looked grim.

"That was Lucan," he said. "The Circle's left hand. A creature of the Old Flame."

"And he's after me?"

"He's after what's inside you," Adrian said. "The Vessel."

"I don't even know what that means!"

Adrian rubbed his jaw, tension knotting his frame.

"There's no easy way to explain. But centuries ago, when the Shadows still walked freely, a war broke out between the Guardians and the Circle. One side wanted to protect the veil. The other wanted to rip it open."

"Let me guess," she said dryly. "You were on the 'protect it' side?"

His silence said otherwise.

Lila narrowed her eyes. "You were with them."

"I was young," Adrian said. "And foolish. I believed we could control what lay beyond the veil. But we were wrong. Horribly wrong."

He met her gaze.

"And the only way we stopped it... was by binding it inside him."

Lila's voice barely came out. "The chained figure in my dream."

Adrian nodded. "He was the last Guardian. The only one powerful enough to contain what the Circle summoned. But it cost him everything. He was sealed-imprisoned beneath the fabric of this world-and the key to his return was broken into seven parts."

Lila swallowed. "Seven Vessels."

"Each tied by blood to the first flame. Each born carrying a mark."

She backed away from him, breath catching. "And I'm one of them."

"The final one," Adrian said. "The one who can unseal him-or destroy him forever."

She shook her head. "Why me? I didn't ask for any of this."

"Because your bloodline is ancient. Because fate is cruel. Because something stronger than both of us chose you."

"And if I refuse?"

Adrian stepped closer.

"Then the Circle finds another way to tear open the gate. And the world ends screaming."

---