All Chapters of BENEATH THE MASK: REVENGE OF SAMUEL HAYES: Chapter 131
- Chapter 140
621 chapters
131
The world around Samuel blurred as he met Lucian’s next strike, his blade colliding with a force that sent sparks flying. The weight of their clash vibrated through his arms, but he no longer felt overpowered.Something had shifted.Lucian’s smug expression faltered as Samuel moved, his body reacting faster than it should. His muscles burned with a power he didn’t fully understand, but he didn’t question it. He let instinct take over, meeting Lucian’s attacks with newfound precision.Lucian twisted away, his expression sharp with realization. “Interesting.”Samuel didn’t give him a chance to recover. He lunged forward, their blades ringing through the narrow alleyway. Guards swarmed around them, but Evelyn held her ground, cutting through anyone who dared approach.“Samuel!” she called between breaths. “We need to move!”She was right. This wasn’t a fight they could win—not here, not now.Samuel feinted left before spinning, slashing at Lucian’s side. The tip of his blade nicked the d
132
The chapel was eerily silent as the group settled in, exhaustion evident in their faces. The battle had cost them dearly, and Samuel could feel the weight of every loss pressing against his chest. But there was no time for grief. Not yet.Evelyn knelt beside a wounded soldier, tearing a strip from her sleeve to bind his bleeding arm. Cassandra sat near the crumbling altar, her eyes dark with thought, fingers absently tracing the hilt of her dagger. The rest of the survivors murmured among themselves, their voices hushed, as if afraid to wake the ghosts that lingered in these ruins.Samuel exhaled, his mind still replaying the fight with Lucian. The power he had felt—it hadn’t been natural. It had surged through him like a force barely contained, something he had never been trained to wield.But it had been his.And now, he needed answers.He turned to Evelyn, who was securing the last of the bandages. “I need to go back.”Her head snapped up. “Back where?”“The tunnels.”Cassandra sco
133
The weight of the sword in Samuel’s grip was unlike anything he had ever held before. It wasn’t just metal—it was alive with power, pulsing beneath his fingertips like a heartbeat. The energy from the vision still lingered, making his skin prickle as the last echoes of his ancestor’s words faded from his mind.The bloodline must endure.Evelyn and Cassandra watched him carefully. The torchlight flickered against the vault’s walls, making the ancient carvings dance with eerie shadows.Cassandra was the first to speak. “So… what now?”Samuel tightened his hold on the sword. “We figure out why my family was hiding this. And what Lucian wants with it.”Evelyn’s gaze flicked to the runes on the blade. “That vision… it wasn’t just some memory, was it?”Samuel shook his head. “No. It felt like a warning.”Cassandra sighed, pacing between the shelves. “Great. Because we really needed more problems.”Evelyn ignored her, stepping closer to the sword. “Samuel, try something.”He frowned. “Try wh
134
Silence hung heavy in the ruined estate. The wraiths had retreated, but their presence lingered like a foul stench. Samuel could still hear their shrieks echoing in his mind, feel the lingering power pulsing under his skin.The golden light had been his doing.It had destroyed them.And yet, he had no idea how.“Okay,” Cassandra breathed, still gripping her blades. “What the hell was that?”Evelyn didn’t speak. She was staring at Samuel, her brow furrowed, calculating.Samuel forced his hands to stop shaking. “I don’t know.”Evelyn’s voice was sharp. “Liar.”Cassandra narrowed her eyes. “Yeah, no way in hell that was normal. That wasn’t magic, not the kind we know. That was something else.”Samuel clenched his jaw. “I said I don’t know.”But the words felt hollow.Because he did know.Or at least, he had an idea.The seal recognizes you.The heir has arrived.He swallowed hard, shoving the thought away. There was no time for this.“We need to find my father’s records,” he said instead
135
The walls groaned, the entire estate shifting as if something massive and unseen had just exhaled. The floor beneath Samuel's feet vibrated, sending a sickening pulse up his spine.Then came the whispering.Not the voices from before.Something different.Something alive.Samuel turned sharply. The door they had entered through was gone—vanished into solid stone.Cassandra swore. “What the hell just happened?”Evelyn didn’t answer. Her fingers tightened around the book as her gaze flicked around the room. She was tense, calculating.Samuel forced himself to breathe. “It’s not an illusion,” he muttered. “The house… it’s changing.”Evelyn shot him a sharp look. “Changing for what?”A deep, guttural growl echoed from the shadows.Then—Something moved.Cassandra yanked a knife from her belt. “Oh, hell no.”The shadows coiled like living things, stretching and curling around the edges of the room. A shape materialized, shifting as if struggling to take form.And then—It stepped forward.
136
Samuel’s breath turned shallow as the voice slithered through the darkness."Heir of the Ruin… step forward."The shadows thickened, curling around the edges of the room, writhing like something alive. The walls groaned under the pressure of unseen forces.Evelyn stepped closer to Samuel. “You don’t have to do this.”“Yes, I do.” His voice was steady, even as his pulse roared in his ears. “If this thing wants me, avoiding it won’t change anything.”Cassandra muttered a curse. “This is a terrible idea.”Samuel ignored her. He took a step forward.The shadows reacted instantly. The room tilted, and for a moment, it felt as if the floor beneath them had disappeared entirely. His stomach lurched.Then—The darkness parted.And suddenly, Samuel wasn’t in the study anymore.He stood in an entirely different place.A grand hall stretched before him, lined with massive, decaying pillars. The ceiling was impossibly high, shrouded in darkness, and the floor was cracked marble, stained with some
137
The silence inside the temple was suffocating.Samuel’s heartbeat pounded against his ribs as he stared at the waiting throne. The dark stone shimmered with an eerie glow, veins of silver light coursing through the intricate carvings. It was ancient, powerful… and calling to him.“Samuel,” Evelyn’s voice was tense, cautious. “Don’t.”He blinked, realizing he had taken a step forward.“I’m not…” He exhaled sharply. “I wasn’t—”“You were.” Cassandra’s tone was sharp. “And we all saw it.”Samuel turned to them, frustration bubbling under his skin. “Do you think I want this? Do you think I asked for any of it?”Evelyn shook her head. “That’s not the point. The magic—this place—it’s pulling you in. You have to fight it.”Samuel clenched his jaw. He was fighting it. But the longer he stood here, the more he felt the power clawing at his mind. It was whispering to him, promising control, dominance.Promising understanding.Cassandra sighed, rubbing her temples. “We need to figure out where w
138
Evelyn and Cassandra hadn’t moved. They stood watching him, their expressions unreadable, though Samuel could see the wariness in their eyes. He took a shaky breath, forcing himself to step back, to create distance between himself and the spot where the creature had been obliterated.“I—” He swallowed, his voice hoarse. “I didn’t mean to do that.”Cassandra’s grip on her knife tightened. “Yeah? Well, you did.”Evelyn shot her a sharp glance but didn’t contradict her. Instead, she turned back to Samuel, her gaze softer but no less serious. “You controlled it.”Samuel shook his head. “No. I—” He hesitated, remembering the brief moment of connection, the rush of understanding. “I don’t know what I did.”“You used the Ruin,” Evelyn said quietly. “It obeyed you.”Samuel clenched his jaw. He didn’t want to think about that. Didn’t want to acknowledge what it meant. But deep down, he knew she was right. The Ruin had reached out to him, and he hadn’t pushed it away. He had embraced it.Cassan
139
“Samuel,” Evelyn whispered again, hesitant. As if saying his name too loudly might trigger something in him. “What… what just happened?”Samuel swallowed, the acrid taste of magic still thick in his mouth. He forced himself to look away from his hands, from the place where the Wraithborn had vanished. “I don’t know.”Cassandra sheathed her knife, though the tension in her shoulders remained. “That wasn’t normal.”“No shit,” Samuel muttered, rubbing his arms as if he could wipe away the lingering power. “None of this is normal.”Evelyn glanced toward the throne room they had fled from, then back to the darkened corridor ahead. “We need to keep moving. We can’t stay here.”Samuel nodded, grateful for the chance to move forward—physically, if not mentally. He didn’t want to think about what had just happened, about the way the shadows had responded to him so effortlessly. As if they had been waiting for him.They continued through the temple, their footsteps cautious, every echo making t
140
Samuel’s hands were still trembling as the last traces of the Wraithborn faded into the darkness. The silence that followed was suffocating.Evelyn and Cassandra stood frozen, their faces pale, staring at him as if he had just become something else—something they feared.“Samuel…” Evelyn’s voice was barely a whisper. “What just happened?”He couldn’t answer. His breath came in short, ragged gasps as the residual energy of the Ruin coursed through his veins. He could still feel it—pulsing, writhing. The power wasn’t gone. It had latched onto him, sinking deeper into his bones, whispering at the edges of his mind.Cassandra took a cautious step forward, her knife still clutched in her hand. “That wasn’t normal,” she said. “That was—”“Wrong,” Evelyn finished, her eyes locked onto Samuel’s. “You controlled it.”Samuel exhaled shakily. “I don’t know how.”Cassandra narrowed her eyes. “Are you sure about that?”Before he could respond, the temple trembled. A low, deep vibration hummed thro