Chapter 79: hidden in plain sight

Chapter 79: Chapter 79: hidden in plain sight

Back at the school.

Exam season meant early closure, and the usual afternoon noise had thinned into scattered footsteps and distant voices.

Amelia, Kate, Lila, and Lana made their way back into the hidden bunker beneath the college.

The four of them spread out at once, hands tracing the carved walls, pressing along seams, searching for any compartment or mechanism they might have missed.

Nothing gave.

Kate stepped back, brushing dust from her palms. "I hope the guys are having better luck than we are."

Lana cracked her knuckles, restless energy already showing. "Since the search is basically over, I want to keep practicing with our power."

Lila shot her a sharp look. "Do you want to wreck this place? Marcus will lose it."

"We’ll be careful," Lana insisted.

Kate shook her head immediately. "No. I’m not explaining a destroyed bunker to him."

Lana groaned, then turned toward Amelia with sudden interest.

"Fine. Then show us how you use yours."

Amelia’s expression tightened. "It’s not simple. And it’s not something I can just switch on."

Kate’s brows rose.

"So it can activate at any minute?"

The other three instinctively edged back a step. Amelia exhaled. "No. It only happens when the emotion is strong enough. As long as I keep myself under control, nothing happens."

Lana’s eyes widened with realization. "Ohhh. So that’s why the weather went crazy at Dylan’s wedding. Yikes. That must’ve really hurt."

Lila elbowed her. "Don’t make fun of it. She was genuinely hurt. And traumatized. After everything she’d already been through."

Kate nodded in quiet agreement.

Amelia lowered herself onto one of the chairs against the wall.

"I’m fine now. Or at least... getting better."

Kate studied her for a moment. "And the one that happened on campus had something to do with Jade, didn’t it? Same with the Blacksmith Territory."

Amelia gave a small nod. Silence settled briefly before she tipped her head back and stared upward. "There has to be something in this room we’re still missing."

Her gaze locked on the ceiling. The same angular designs that marked the walls continued across the stone above them—less worn, but identical in pattern.

"What about the roof? We haven’t checked that."

Lana looked around the low space.

"We don’t have anything tall enough to reach it. Unless—"

"No," Lila cut in. "We are not using the power for that."

Kate tilted her head, still studying the ceiling.

"Actually... we might have to."

Lana’s face lit up.

"Yesss."

Lila felt reluctant . "We’ve never carried a person before."

Amelia stood. "Then we try. I’m the lightest. Lift me."

Kate let out a dramatic sigh. "and who decided that? Show off.."

They cleared the center of the room. A spare mattress was dragged directly beneath the densest cluster of carvings. Amelia stepped onto it and looked at the twins.

"I’m ready."

Lila and Lana joined hands.

The air in the bunker thickened. A low vibration ran through the floor. Electric light flickered faintly around their linked fingers. Amelia felt an invisible pressure close around her body, before her feet left the mattress.

Lana’s voice rose with excitement. "This is amazing—"

Amelia wobbled sharply in the air.

"Focus," Lila snapped. "No distractions."

"Sorry, sorry."

They steadied. Amelia rose higher, the stone ceiling drawing closer until her head bumped lightly against it.

"Ow—careful."

She reached up, palms pressing along the carvings, shifting carefully as the twins adjusted her position. Inch by inch she floated beneath different sections of the design, fingers searching for any given response in the stone.

"I can’t find anything," Amelia said at last, frustration edging her voice.

Kate’s reply came from below impatiently. "Then search harder."

Amelia exhaled and spoke under her breath, almost to herself.

"If I were the enemy... how would I hide something from people...?"

The answer surfaced slowly.

They could hide it in plain sight. Not something discreet. Something so open that no one would think to question it.

She backed up a fraction in the air, eyes tracing the patterns again with a different kind of attention. Something in the arrangement tugged at a buried familiarity. Her body moved and she pulled her fist back and punched the ceiling.

Kate’s voice shot upward immediately. "What are you doing?!"

The surface gave far more easily than stone should have. A soft section crumbled under the force. Amelia tore the broken pieces free, revealing a second layer of ceiling behind it. When she pressed her palm against the newly exposed surface, it yielded with a quiet mechanical click—like a hidden compartment responding to pressure.

Kate stared up at her. "How did you know?"

"Luck," Amelia answered, already dropping carefully as the twins lowered her.

Lana frowned, scanning the room. "Nothing’s happening."

Silence stretched for a few tense seconds.

Then the soft grind of hidden mechanisms filled the space.

All four of them turned toward the far wall. The heavy fridge that had always sat flush against the stone shifted sideways on its own, revealing a dark opening behind it—an open passage that had never been there before.

Lila’s voice came out in a stunned whisper. "How did we never notice that? The fridge could move this entire time?"

Lana took some steps towards it, but Amelia caught her arm.

"We don’t know what’s in there. We can’t just walk in."

Kate already had her phone out, thumbs moving fast. "Yeah. I’m texting the guys right now. They need to get here."

Amelia’s gaze stayed fixed on the black opening. she felt that someone is down there, watching, waiting or something. Then two points of light appeared in the dark.

A low, paired red eyes.

Lana and Amelia stepped back at the same time. "Please tell me I’m hallucinating," Lana whispered.

The eyes kept coming closer.

A massive wolf emerged from the passage, shoulders scraping the edges of the opening as it forced its bulk into the room. Its fangs were long, and a deep growl rolled out of its chest, vibrating through the floor.

Kate and Lila scrambled back to join them, voices overlapping in sharp fear.

"How is that thing even here?"

"Has it been living down there this whole time?"

Amelia’s hands closed around the nearest solid object she could find—a heavy metal rod. She shifted in front of the others.

"I’ll distract it. You run."

Lila’s voice was tight. "I don’t think it’s going to let us run."

Amelia’s pulse hammered in her ears.

Can I even use my powers right now?

The girls would get caught in it. And there was no open sky in here. So her powers ar practically useless.

The wolf’s muscles coiled.

"Don’t you dare take a bite out of anyone."A voice cut through the room from the direction of the passage.