The Forgotten Pulse of the Bond-Chapter 54: BONE MARKERS

"She said your name," Rhett whispered, his voice uneven, eyes locked on Camille’s trembling form.

Magnolia didn’t answer.

She couldn’t.

Her body was still shifting back, the echo of her wolf draining from her bones like lightning fading from storm clouds. The pain was always sharp during a forced transformation, but this one cut deeper, as if something had been stolen mid-shift. Her knees buckled, but she caught herself against the altar, breath heaving.

Camille stirred again, her chained limbs twitching.

"Get those off her," Magnolia said hoarsely.

Rhett didn’t hesitate. He unsheathed his dagger and moved to the shackles. As the blade bit into the enchanted metal, the chains hissed, like they were alive. But they broke. One by one.

Camille’s wolf began to shift back as well, fur retracting, bones snapping. Her breathing was labored, skin damp with sweat. She was thinner than she’d been. Paler. Her cheekbones sharper. But her features were unmistakable. And her eyes,

One was still her own.

The other had turned entirely black.

Magnolia’s breath caught. "Cam..."

Camille blinked slowly, voice raspy. "You shouldn’t have come."

Magnolia pressed her hand to Camille’s cheek. "And leave you with them?"

"They’re gone," Camille whispered. "For now. They gave me to the cave. I... I let them."

Rhett looked around, tension rippling through his posture. "We need to move before they come back."

Magnolia nodded. "Can you walk?" she asked Camille.

Camille coughed, then nodded faintly. "Maybe. If you carry the part of me that’s broken."

"You’re not broken."

Camille looked away.

They exited the chamber together, Camille leaning heavily on Magnolia, Rhett taking the rear, blade still unsheathed.

The tunnels were different now.

The glow had dimmed. The symbols faded.

As if Camille’s release had cut the power that once fed the place.

Still, unease thickened the air.

At the next fork in the path, Camille stopped.

"There’s something else," she said. "This way."

She pointed to the left corridor, narrower, filled with the scent of scorched bone.

Rhett hesitated. "Camille, "

"I need to show her."

Magnolia nodded. "Go. I’m right here."

The path led deeper. The walls closed in tighter.

And then it opened.

Into a circular room.

No torches. No enchantments.

Only bones.

Dozens. Maybe hundreds.

Hung from the ceiling like chimes. Strung together with sinew and wire. Some had runes etched into them. Others were carved into shapes, fangs, claws, crescents.

"They call this the Chamber of Oaths," Camille said, voice flat.

Magnolia turned slowly, taking in the grotesque scene. "What kind of oaths?"

Camille moved to the center of the room and pointed to a skull embedded in the wall. Larger than a wolf’s. Fused to the stone. Its mouth was open, a dagger shoved through the jaw.

"I was told this was Sterling’s brother," she whispered. "He tried to walk away. Refused to join the Hollowfang. They made him their first marker."

Rhett’s face tightened. "And the rest?"

"Traitors. Weaklings. Or those who didn’t shift strong enough."

Magnolia stepped toward one of the lower chimes and gently touched it.

It sang.

A single, haunting note.

She felt it in her chest.

And then a vision slammed into her.

She saw wolves chained in rows. Children. Barely shifted. Crying out for mothers. Flames surrounding a ritual circle. Sterling’s voice chanting. A boy in the center, eyes empty. Lips sealed by stitches.

Then a girl’s scream.

Camille’s.

Magnolia jerked back.

Camille caught her. "I didn’t want you to see that."

"You were there."

"I was the one screaming."

Magnolia pulled her close. "Not anymore. You’re safe now."

Camille smiled weakly. "Are we ever?"

The bones began to rattle.

All of them.

A wind rushed through the chamber.

No door open.

No exit exposed.

Just breath.

Breath that did not belong to them.

Rhett raised his blade. "Get behind me."

Camille didn’t move. "It’s not them."

"Then who?" Magnolia asked.

Camille pointed to the skull in the wall.

"It’s him."

The skull’s eye sockets began to glow. Not red. Not gold.

Green.

Sickly. Pulsing.

The bones fell silent.

Then one spoke.

Not with a voice, but with magic.

It vibrated.

Then screamed.

The room filled with howls, not physical, not real, but echoing inside each of their heads.

Camille dropped to her knees, clutching her temples. "He’s still alive. In pieces. In bone."

Rhett pulled Camille into his arms. "We leave. Now."

Magnolia turned, searching for the corridor.

But it was gone.

Stone had sealed the entrance.

"No," she muttered, pressing her hands against the wall. "It wasn’t like this, "

A voice answered.

From the skull.

"You trespass on pact-bound land. Your blood stains our foundation."

Rhett stepped forward. "We’re not your enemies."

"All who abandon the bond are enemies."

Magnolia growled, stepping between the voice and Camille. "We didn’t abandon anything."

"You broke the chain. She was ours."

Camille rose to her feet slowly, her hair wild, eyes flickering between black and green. "I’m no one’s anymore."

The bones began to rise.

One by one.

As if pulled by invisible strings, they reassembled, into the shape of a wolf. A massive one. Its ribs clicked together. Its claws gleamed.

The skull in the wall dislodged and dropped into the body.

The Bone Wolf stood.

Magnolia didn’t hesitate.

She shifted.

Her violet wolf form tore through her, cracking bones and muscle into raw power.

Rhett followed.

Two wolves against one undead horror.

The fight was savage.

Claw against claw. Magic against instinct.

The Bone Wolf struck first, its paw slamming Magnolia into the wall. Rhett lunged, tearing into its ribs, only for a shard of bone to slice his shoulder open.

Camille watched, trembling.

Then she screamed.

The locket around her neck flared.

And every bone in the chamber stopped moving.

Time paused.

Magnolia rose from the rubble.

Rhett pushed to his feet, panting.

Camille stepped forward.

"I renounce the pact," she said, voice echoing.

The bones cracked.

"I reclaim my name."

They began to fall.

"I am Camille Blake. I am not your vessel."

And the Bone Wolf collapsed, dust rising like ash into the air.

Silence returned.

Magnolia shifted back slowly, body aching, blood running down her arm.

Camille stood trembling.

And then fainted.

Rhett caught her before she hit the floor.

Magnolia moved to the wall.

The sealed stone was crumbling.

A path opening.

The chamber had accepted her.

Because of Camille.

Because of truth.

She turned back to Rhett.

"We’re not done."

Rhett looked up, his arms around Camille’s sleeping form.

"No," he said. "We’ve just started a war."