WHAT LIVES BENEATH THE VEIL
Book One: The Unblooded Lamb
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CONTENT WARNING: This series contains explicit sexual violence, human sacrifice, psychological torture, murder of innocent characters (including children and family members), ritualistic killing, and extreme horror. No character is safe. Read at your own risk.
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Chapter Thirty-Five: The Mind Expands
Year 9 – Thirty-Two Months After the First Sacrifice
Thirty sacrifices.
The number had weight. Significance. The old texts had made that clear.
At thirty sacrifices, the mind expands. You will hear thoughts. You will see memories. You will know things that others have tried to hide.
The dark will open doors in your consciousness.
Do not be afraid.
Walk through them.
Liora was not afraid.
She was eager.
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Liora – The Thirtieth Victim
She chose a woman this time.
A cook from the castle kitchen. Her name was Gretchen. She was middle-aged, skilled, and invisible. She worked in the kitchen, preparing meals for the royal family.
No one would miss her.
Not immediately. The kitchen would still function—there were other cooks. By the time anyone noticed that Gretchen had stopped coming, her body would be ash.
She was perfect.
But this time, Liora did something different.
She chose the cellar.
The old texts had said that the thirtieth sacrifice should be performed in a place of power. The cellar was the most powerful place she knew.
She approached Gretchen in the kitchen, late at night, when the other servants had gone to bed.
"Gretchen?"
The cook looked up. Her eyes were tired.
"Your Highness?"
"I need your help. There's something in the old cellar. Something I'm afraid of."
Gretchen frowned.
"The old cellar? No one goes down there."
"I know. But I heard noises. Scratching. Whispers."
Gretchen hesitated.
"I don't know—"
"Please. You're the only one I trust."
Liora widened her eyes. Softened her voice. Let her lower lip tremble.
Gretchen looked at her for a long moment.
Then she nodded.
"All right, child. Show me."
Liora smiled.
Thank you, she thought.
You're so kind.
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Gretchen – The Cellar
The princess led her through the dark corridors of the castle.
Gretchen had worked in this castle for twenty years. She knew every hallway, every staircase, every hidden passage. But tonight, the castle felt strange. The shadows seemed deeper than they should be. The air seemed colder than it should be.
It's just my imagination, she told herself.
I'm tired. I haven't been sleeping.
But her instincts—the ones that had kept her alive through fifty years of hard living—were screaming at her to turn back.
Something is wrong, they whispered.
Something is very wrong.
She looked at the princess.
She was walking ahead of her, small and pale, her white dress ghostly in the darkness. She seemed so innocent. So helpless.
She's just a child, Gretchen told herself.
She needs help.
That's all.
She ignored the screaming in her gut.
She kept walking.
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The Thirtieth Cellar
The door was old. Iron. Locked.
The princess produced a key.
"It's down there," she said. "The thing I heard."
Gretchen looked at the door. Looked at the princess. Looked at the key in her small, pale hand.
"After you," she said.
The princess shook her head.
"I'm scared. You go first. I'll follow."
Gretchen hesitated.
Then she took the key.
She opened the door.
She walked down the steps.
She did not walk back up.
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The Thirtieth Ritual
Liora waited only an hour.
Gretchen was old, weak. Her screams faded quickly. Her pounding was soft. By the time Liora descended the stairs, the woman was already half-gone, her mind broken by fear and darkness.
"Why?" Gretchen whispered.
Liora set down her lantern.
She opened her book.
"Because I need your soul. And because you are the thirtieth."
Gretchen opened her mouth to scream.
Liora was faster.
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The Power – Thirty
The fire in her veins became an inferno.
Thirty sacrifices. Thirty souls. Thirty streams of darkness flowing into her, merging with her blood, becoming her.
She raised her hands.
The shadows exploded from her body.
They filled the cellar. They climbed the walls. They covered the ceiling. They pulsed with hunger, with power, with the terrible joy of finally being free.
Thirty, they whispered. Thirty and the mind expands.
You will hear thoughts now.
You will see memories.
You will know.
Rejoice.
Liora opened her eyes.
They were black.
Pure, endless, consuming black.
But she could see.
Everything.
She could see the souls of the dead, hovering in the corners of the cellar, waiting for her command.
She could see the threads of fate, stretching from the castle into the future, branching and twisting and changing.
She could see the darkness inside herself—not as a presence, but as a landscape. Endless. Beautiful. Terrible.
And she could hear.
Thoughts.
Not clearly—not yet. The old texts had warned that the ability would take time to develop. But she could hear whispers. Fragments. Echoes of the minds around her.
...scared...
...something is wrong...
...I need to get out of here...
...she's coming...
...she's always coming...
Liora smiled.
This is what I am now, she thought.
This is what I will always be.
The darkness smiled with her.
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The Disposal
She burned Gretchen's body with the others.
The fire was hot. The smoke was thick. She worked quickly, efficiently, scattering the ashes before dawn.
No one saw her.
No one ever saw her.
She returned to her chamber as the sun rose, smelling of smoke and blood and darkness.
She washed her face.
She braided her hair.
She chose a white dress.
She practiced her smile.
Eyes wide. Innocence.
Mouth soft. Gentleness.
Head tilted. Curiosity.
Perfect, she thought.
She went down to breakfast.
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Darian – The Morning
Darian saw her at breakfast.
She was sitting with her family, eating porridge, smiling at her brothers. Her dress was white. Her hair was braided. Her face was soft and sweet and completely ordinary.
But Darian saw something else.
Something in her eyes.
A darkness.
Deeper than before. Hungrier than before.
And something else.
Something new.
She's different, he thought.
More powerful.
More dangerous.
He looked at her.
She looked back.
For a moment—just a moment—he felt something strange.
A presence in his mind.
A whisper.
I know what you're thinking, the whisper said.
I know what you're planning.
I know everything.
Darian's blood went cold.
Liora?
The whisper was gone.
But the fear remained.
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Finn – The List
Finn added another name to the list in his head.
Gretchen. Cook. Thirty.
He recited the list every night before bed, a dark litany that kept the nightmares at bay.
Thirty names.
Thirty faces.
Thirty souls.
Thirty, he thought.
She's reached thirty.
She's more powerful than ever.
We are running out of time.
He lay in his corner, staring at the darkness.
He did not sleep.
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The Vigil Continues
The castle slept.
The guards dozed at their posts. The servants dreamed in their narrow beds. The nobles snored in their silk sheets.
But three people did not sleep.
Darian lay in his bed, staring at the ceiling, replaying the whisper in his mind.
Finn lay in his corner, staring at the darkness, reciting the list of names like a prayer.
And Liora—
Liora sat in her chamber, reading by candlelight, the shadows dancing around her like living things.
Thirty, she thought.
Seventy more until the curse.
Seventy more until forever.
But first—
The expansion continues.
More thoughts.
More memories.
More power.
She closed the book.
She looked at her reflection.
The girl in the mirror looked back.
But the girl was fading.
Something else was taking her place.
Something older.
Something hungrier.
Soon, she thought.
Soon.
She smiled.
The darkness smiled with her.
And somewhere in the depths of the castle, in a cellar that no one visited and no one remembered, thirty souls whispered her name.
Liora.
Liora.
Liora.
She heard them.
She always heard them.
They were hers now.
Forever.
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End of Chapter Thirty-Five