Bullied No More: Rise of the Forgotten Heir

CHAPTER 7: WHEN BLOOD ANSWERS BLOOD

“Stop.” Elias barely recognized his own voice.

Seraphine froze mid-step in the tunnel, alarms still screaming somewhere far behind them. Victor turned sharply, one hand braced against the wall, blood dripping onto the stone.

“You need to keep moving,” Victor said. “They’ll regroup.” “I said stop,” Elias repeated.

The blood-mark on his shoulder burned hotter, pulsing like a second heart. Seraphine studied him carefully. “You’re in shock.” “No,” Elias said. “I’m listening.”

Victor frowned. “Listening to what?” Elias closed his eyes.

At first, it was just pain. Then rhythm. Then direction. Voices. Not words intent. Threads tugging at something deep inside him, pulling outward.

“They know where I am,” Elias said quietly. Seraphine’s jaw tightened. “Of course they do. That’s what the mark”

“No,” Elias interrupted. “That’s not all it does.” He opened his eyes.

“They’re not just tracking me,” he said. “They’re calling.”

The tunnel lights flickered violently. Stone groaned. Victor stiffened. “Elias. Whatever you’re feeling don’t answer it.”

Elias laughed softly. “Too late.” The mark flared. Pain ripped through him, dropping him to one knee. Victor lunged forward, but Elias threw up a hand instinctively.

The air hardened. Victor slammed into an invisible barrier, eyes wide. “You’re projecting.”

“I don’t know how to stop,” Elias gasped.

Seraphine backed away. “That mark isn’t a leash,” she said slowly. “It’s a key.” The tunnel split. Not cracked opened.

Stone folded inward like paper, revealing a circular chamber humming with ancient energy. Symbols ignited across the walls, responding to Elias’s presence.

Victor stared. “That room was sealed centuries ago.”

Elias staggered to his feet. “I didn’t mean to You didn’t open it,” Seraphine said. “You were invited.”

A figure stepped out of the chamber. Then another. Then several more. They wore no uniform. No insignia. Some looked barely older than Elias.

Others looked ancient. Scarred. Sharpeyed. Dangerous. All of them bowed. Elias’s breath caught. “What are you doing?”

A woman with close cropped silver hair spoke first. “Answering the call.”

Victor whispered, “That’s not possible.” The woman looked at him coolly. “It is if the blood recognizes itself.”

Elias shook his head. “I didn’t call anyone.”

“You didn’t mean to,” she replied. “That’s how we know it’s real.”

Seraphine’s voice was tight. “Who are you people?”

The woman’s gaze flicked to her  contempt flickering. “The ones your Council buried.”

Another man stepped forward, eyes glowing faintly. “Exiles. Bastards. Unclaimed heirs.”

Elias swallowed. “Why me?”

The woman knelt. “Because you were marked.” “And?” Elias asked.

“And you didn’t break,” she said. “Most do.” Victor moved to Elias’s side. “This is dangerous.”

“Yes,” the woman agreed. “That’s why it matters.” The chamber doors sealed shut.

The alarms outside went silent. Elias felt it then  the stillness. Like the city itself was holding its breath. “What do you want from me?” Elias asked.

The woman stood. “Leadership.”

Elias laughed  sharp, disbelieving. “You don’t even know me.”

“We know what you survived,” the man said. “We know what you refused to become.”

Seraphine crossed her arms. “He’s untrained. Unstable. And already marked for death.”

“Good,” the woman replied. “So were we.”

Victor looked at Elias. “Say no.”

Elias looked at the people around him. At their scars. Their hunger. Their hope. “My mother,” Elias said quietly. “Did she know about you?”

The woman hesitated. “She helped hide us.”

Elias closed his eyes. That settled something inside him. “If I lead you,” Elias said slowly, “people will come for us.”

“They already are,” the man replied. “And if I fail?” Elias asked.

“Then we fall with you,” the woman said. “That’s the risk of believing.”

Silence stretched. Seraphine scoffed. “You’re forming a faction in the middle of a war.”

Elias met her gaze. “No. I’m ending one.”

Victor snapped, “Elias”

Elias raised a hand. The room stilled instantly. Even Victor froze. Elias felt it the pull, the alignment, the terrifying ease with which they responded. Fear crawled up his spine.

This is how tyrants are born, a voice in him whispered. He swallowed. “If you follow me,” Elias said, “you don’t hurt the innocent. You don’t trade lives like currency. You don’t become what hunts us.”

The woman bowed her head. “Agreed.” One by one, they followed.

Victor stared. “Do you realize what you just did?”

Elias nodded. “Yes.”

“What?” Victor demanded. “I chose,” Elias said. The chamber shook.

A shockwave rippled outward  not destructive, but declarative. Far above, bells rang across the hidden city. Seraphine’s eyes widened. “That was a proclamation.”

Elias frowned. “I didn’t proclaim anything.”

“You don’t have to,” she said. “The city felt you.”

A sudden pain tore through Elias’s chest. He gasped, clutching his shirt. The blood-mark burned brighter then split.

Lines branched outward, forming a symbol far more complex than before. The woman went pale. “That’s not possible.” Victor whispered, “The mark evolved.”

Seraphine took a step back. “That symbol hasn’t appeared since”

“Since the first civil war,” the man finished grimly.

Elias looked down at the glowing mark. “What does it mean?”

No one answered. Then a voice echoed through the chamber not Julian’s. Calmer. Older. Infinitely colder. “So,” the voice said, amused. “The lost heir finally speaks.”

The symbols on the walls inverted. The chamber doors began to open  not outward, but downward. Seraphine whispered, “That voice” Victor went rigid. “Council Prime.”

Elias’s blood ran cold. “The one who ordered my mother’s execution.”

The voice chuckled. “She was very brave. Very foolish.”

Rage flooded Elias’s chest, sharp and blinding. “You took her,” Elias said. “Yes,” the voice replied. “And now I’m taking you.”

The floor dropped away. Elias fell. The last thing he saw was Victor lunging forward too late  and Seraphine watching him fall with something dangerously close to regret in her eyes.

Darkness swallowed him. And deep below the city, something ancient smiled  because the heir had finally stepped into the war.