Chapter 714: A Trace Of Liam II

Mira looked up at her.

Irina gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze. “Lock the door. Don’t open it for anyone unless you’re absolutely certain who they are. If you hear anything strange, stay hidden and don’t try to investigate. I’ll come back as soon as I can.”

Mira searched her face for a moment, then nodded.

“Okay.”

She offered a small smile, one that still carried traces of fear but was steadier than before. “I’ll be fine. Don’t worry about me.”

Irina returned the smile, though the tension in her eyes remained. “You’d better be.”

Mira let out a quiet laugh, and for a brief moment, the room felt a little less heavy. Irina appreciated it more than she showed. She had spent so much of the day thinking about Liam’s disappearance that she had almost forgotten how important it was to make sure Mira understood that her rescue had not been temporary. Whatever happened next, Irina would not willingly hand her back to Eldric.

After giving Mira a few final instructions, Irina checked the room and made sure the windows were secured. She did not know whether Eldric had people watching the house, but she had no intention of taking unnecessary risks. Once she was satisfied that Mira had a place to hide, she approached the door and rested her hand on the handle.

For a moment, she hesitated.

Liam’s face appeared in her mind, accompanied by the memory of his calm, confident smile whenever he believed he had discovered something important. She could almost hear him teasing her for worrying too much, telling her that everything would work out while secretly preparing three different plans in case it did not.

Her fingers tightened around the handle.

“Just hold on a little longer,” she whispered.

Then she stepped outside.

The night had settled over Elaris.

Walking through the village after dark was an entirely different experience from moving through it during the day. The streets that had once been filled with villagers carrying baskets, children playing near their homes, and people exchanging greetings were now almost deserted. Most of the residents had already gone to bed, their doors locked and their windows shuttered against the cool evening air. Only a few lamps remained lit, casting weak pools of yellow light across the damp ground.

Irina closed the door quietly behind her and began walking.

She did not rush.

At least, not outwardly.

Her pace was measured, her shoulders relaxed, and her expression showed no obvious signs of urgency. To anyone watching from a window, she might have appeared to be taking a late-night walk. Yet her senses were working constantly, examining every sound, every movement, and every scent that drifted through the air.

Her werewolf bloodline gave her advantages that ordinary humans could scarcely imagine. The darkness did little to hinder her vision, and even the faintest sound could attract her attention when she concentrated. More importantly, her sense of smell could distinguish traces that would be meaningless to most people.

That was why she had decided to search the village herself.

Voss would be examining the ground and looking for physical evidence. He could identify concealed entrances, disturbed soil, and suspicious structures that might lead underground. But Irina could investigate in a different way. She could follow scents, detect people who had recently passed through an area, and perhaps discover something that Eldric had overlooked.

If he had moved Liam through the village, there might still be traces left behind.

If he had carried something out of a hidden shelter, the scent might linger.

And if Liam had been near any of those places, Irina might recognize him.

She continued down the narrow street, passing one house after another. Occasionally, she stopped beside a wall or near a patch of disturbed earth, lowered her head slightly, and took a careful breath. Most of what she detected was ordinary: damp soil, old wood, cooking smoke, animals sleeping in their shelters, and the familiar scents of villagers who had walked the streets earlier that evening.

Nothing useful.

She moved farther into the village.

The deeper she went, the quieter the surroundings became. Even the occasional rustle of leaves seemed unusually loud in the stillness. Irina passed the small clearing where children sometimes gathered during the day, then moved along a row of abandoned structures that had stood empty for years. She examined the ground around them, searching for signs of recent digging or footprints that did not belong.

Again, nothing.

Her frustration grew, but she forced herself to remain patient.

She could not afford to overlook something important simply because she was desperate to find Liam. Eldric had survived for fifteen years by concealing the truth in plain sight. If Irina wanted to defeat him, she had to think beyond her anger and examine every possibility.

She turned down another street.

And then she saw the familiar house.

Eldric’s house.

Irina stopped.

The building looked almost indistinguishable from the others surrounding it, yet the sight of it immediately stirred the anger she had been trying to control. She remembered his smile when he opened the door, the way he had threatened Liam without the slightest hesitation, and the casual manner in which he had demanded Mira’s return as though she were a possession that belonged to him.

Her fingers curled slightly.

For a moment, she considered walking straight to the door and forcing her way inside again.

But she stopped herself.

That was exactly what Eldric wanted. He had already demonstrated that he was willing to use Liam as leverage, and another confrontation without a plan would only give him more opportunities to manipulate her.

Irina took a slow breath and concentrated.

Her werewolf senses expanded as she focused on the house. She could smell the damp wood, the dust that had accumulated around the building, and traces of old cooking smoke drifting from somewhere inside. There were also the familiar scents of the village, faint and overlapping, left behind by the people who had passed through the area over the years.

She searched more carefully.

Where was Eldric?

The scent she expected to find was almost absent.

She could detect that he had been there earlier, but the trail was faint, as though he had left some time ago. There was no strong indication of his current presence inside the house, and nothing suggested that he had recently returned.

Irina’s eyes narrowed.

That was strange.

She had seen him enter the house earlier. She knew he had gone inside after their confrontation, and she had no reason to believe he had left through the front door without her noticing.

Perhaps there was another exit.

Perhaps he had gone somewhere else after waiting for her to leave.

Or perhaps she was simply searching in the wrong place.

She moved closer to the building, taking another careful breath.

Then she stopped.

Something else had entered her senses.

It was faint.

So faint that, at first, she wondered whether her mind was playing tricks on her. She drew in another breath, concentrating on the scent as it drifted through the damp night air.

Her eyes widened slightly.

She knew that scent.

There was no mistaking it.

Liam.

For a split second, her entire body reacted before her mind could catch up. She turned sharply toward the source and took several quick steps forward, her heart suddenly beating harder in her chest.

“Liam?”

The name escaped her lips in a quiet whisper.

She moved again, following the faint trace, desperate to confirm what her senses were telling her.

But after only a few steps, her legs stopped.

Irina stood motionless in the middle of the street.

Her expression slowly changed as she forced herself to think.

No.

There was no way this could be Liam himself.

The scent was far too faint, and it did not seem to lead toward a person. It lingered around the area in a way that suggested something had been left behind rather than someone had recently passed through.

She closed her eyes and took another breath.

Then she understood.

It was Liam’s clothing.

A faint trace of his scent remained on a piece of fabric that had been somewhere near Eldric’s house, and she had recognized it because she had spent so much time around him. The familiar smell was unmistakable, but it was not strong enough to indicate that Liam was standing nearby.

Irina slowly opened her eyes.

The hope that had risen inside her moments earlier was replaced by something colder.

Why was Liam’s scent here?

Had Eldric brought something belonging to him back to the village?

Had he deliberately left an item behind?

Or had Liam been close enough to the house for his scent to linger before he disappeared?

Irina stared into the darkness, her senses still searching for any trace that might answer her questions.

For the first time that night, she felt as though she might finally be standing close to something important.

But she had no idea whether it was a clue that would lead her to Liam…

Or a warning of what Eldric had already done to him.