Alpha Xander's Undoing Chasing my Unknown Mate Back novel Chapter 41

Chapter 41

*Rory*

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There was a kind of silence that could only exist at night. The kind that seeped into your bones and made even your heartbeat sound too loud. That was the kind of silence that wrapped around me now as I stood with Matt in the darkened hallway of the east wing. Every light had been turned off hours ago, the security lights buzzing faintly overhead, casting eerie shadows that made it feel like the walls were breathing.

Matt pressed his shoulder to the cold stone wall, scanning the corridor ahead while I kept watch behind us. I’d never snuck into anywhere before, not really. Not like this. Not into a place so forbidden it had practically been wrapped in metaphorical chains since Eden’s death.

But I had to know.

After what Zerina showed me, after what she said—that Eden knew something–I couldn’t sleep without trying to find out what it was. And this room, sealed and untouched, was the last place Eden had ever called her own. Whatever she’d written in that journal… whoever she’d feared… it might still be here.

Matt gave me a slight nod. “Are you sure you want to do this?”

I nodded. “I need to.”

He pulled out the keycard he’d lifted from the maintenance locker. I didn’t ask how he’d gotten it. Probably better that I didn’t know. It beeped softly as he held it to the scanner, and after a heartbeat that stretched forever, the lock clicked.

The door creaked open.

We stepped inside.

The room smelled like dust and lavender. Like something once loved but long since forgotten. The moonlight trickled through the tall windows, painting long streaks across the floorboards. Everything was exactly how I remembered it–and yet not. Her bed was still neatly made, untouched since the day they packed her things. Her desk sat by the window, papers scattered across its surface, a few books still stacked on the shelf.

“They didn’t clear it?” I whispered.

“No one’s been allowed in here since she died,” Matt said, voice low. “They locked it. Called it sacred. A memorial.”

1 swallowed hard and moved toward the desk.

We didn’t talk after that. The air was too thick, too reverent. It felt like speaking too loudly might wake ghosts. I ran my fingers along the edge of the desk, my heart hammering against my ribs as I pulled open drawers, shuffled through papers.

She was here.

Her energy lingered in the soft scent of perfume clinging to her scarf. In the slight tilt of her desk chair, as

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Chapter 41

though she’d just stood up and would return at any moment.

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Matt moved toward the wardrobe. I saw him pause, then bend, his fingers curling around something on the floor.

“Rory,” he said, holding it out. “This was wedged under the dresser.”

A notebook.

Tattered. Partially burned along one edge, like someone had tried to destroy it but hadn’t finished the job. My hands trembled as I took it.

Eden’s handwriting curled across the first page–elegant, sharp. Familiar.

“I feel it again. Something’s wrong. I know they’re watching.”

I sank onto the edge of her bed, flipping through page after page. The words became more erratic, more frenzied.

“The changes are getting worse. The headaches. The burning. The way the wind hums louder at night.”

My blood ran cold.

“I saw a symbol again today. Someone carved it into the door of the lecture hall. Same one I keep sketching without realizing it.”

I turned the page.

There, drawn in dark ink, was a crude but unmistakable version of the four known Gift symbols–Earth, Water, Sky, Flame. But right in the center, not matching any of them, was another.

Jagged. Chaotic. A swirling knot that seemed to vibrate off the page.

Underneath it, one word:

Chaos.

I stared at it, my breath gone,

Matt leaned over my shoulder. “That’s not one of the four.”

“I know,” I whispered. “But Zerina… she mentioned it. The gifts we know–those are the elemental ones. But there’s something else. Something older.”

Matt frowned, “You think Eden was… gifted?”

I flipped back a few pages. Read the line again.

“The changes are getting worse.”

“She was either gifted,” I said softly, “or she knew someone who was. Someone dangerous. Someone who

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Chapter 41

didn’t want her talking.”

:

Matt’s hand clenched into a fist. “That night… she knew something.”

I nodded. “And I think she was trying to write it down. I think she knew it was coming.”

We sat in silence, staring at the ruined notebook like it might bite.

And then I heard it.

A sound that didn’t belong to us.

Matt tensed. “Did you-?”

I nodded, already on my feet.

Footsteps.

Faint but deliberate.

I closed the notebook and shoved it into my jacket.

Then came the soft jingle of keys.

Matt’s eyes went wide.

“We have to hide,” he whispered.

But there was nowhere to go.

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The room was too open, too sparse. The wardrobe was too small for two, and hiding under the bed felt like something out of a bad horror movie.

Then the doorknob turned.

Slow. Quiet.

The sound of metal scraping into the lock.

A key.

Not a card. A key.

I grabbed Matt’s hand and pulled him toward the side of the wardrobe, pressing our backs to the wall just as the door creaked open.

A shadow filled the room.

I held my breath.

The shape didn’t speak. Didn’t move toward the bed.

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Chapter 41

Just stood there.

Watching.

…

:

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The air was so tense I thought my lungs might burst. My heart thundered loud enough I was sure it would give us away.

The shadow shifted.

A footstep.

Closer.

I clenched Matt’s hand tighter.

The figure stopped near the desk.

There was a pause. Then paper rustling.

They were searching.

For the notebook?

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