The Human Among Wolves Chapter 116

Aurora

The knock came again.

Soft. Three times.

Not frantic, not forceful—just patient.

We froze.

Kael turned first, every muscle in his back coiled tight. “Don’t move,” he said quietly.

Zayn had already drawn his knife, the blade catching a glint of firelight.

A fourth knock. Louder.

Then—

“Aurora?”

My blood ran cold.

It was Mira’s voice.

Warm. Familiar. Exactly right.

“Mira?” I whispered before I could stop myself.

Zayn shot me a look sharp enough to cut. “Don’t,” he hissed.

But it sounded so real.

The tone, the way she drew out my name—like she always did when she was half-annoyed, half-worried.

“Aurora, it’s me,” the voice called again, softer now. “It’s freezing out here. Please, open the door.”

Kael stepped between me and the sound, his hand gripping the hilt of his knife. “That’s not her,” he said, low and certain.

My heart pounded. “You don’t know that. Maybe the spell broke. Maybe they found us.”

Zayn shook his head, eyes never leaving the door. “No one could’ve tracked us this deep. No one knows where the cabin is. Except us.”

Then the voice again—closer, like her mouth was pressed right against the wood.

“Rory, please. I know you’re in there.”

She even used the nickname. My nickname.

The sound of my pulse filled my ears. “How could it know that?” I whispered.

Kael didn’t answer. He motioned silently for Zayn to take the left side of the door while he took the right.

“Maybe she tried calling,” I said, my voice shaking. “Maybe the signal came through now—”

Zayn’s voice cut through, flat and calm. “Don’t rationalize it.”

“But it sounds like her.”

He turned his head, eyes meeting mine in the dim light. “That’s what it wants.”

Silence again.

Then Mira’s voice cracked, trembling, like she was crying.

“Rory, I swear it’s me. Please. Something’s out here.”

I took a step forward before I even realized it. Kael’s arm shot out, stopping me cold.

“Don’t,” he said, his voice steel.

My throat felt tight. “She sounds scared.”

Zayn’s expression didn’t change, but I heard the edge of something in his tone—fear, maybe, or fury at what he already knew. “Ask her something,” he said quietly. “Something only Mira would know.”

Kael nodded once. “Do it.”

I swallowed. My palms were slick with sweat. “What did you say to me the first night I moved into the dorms?”

Silence.

Then Mira’s voice came again, perfectly smooth.

“I said your side of the room smelled like pine and nerves.”

My heart clenched.

That was exactly what she said.

Kael’s jaw tightened. Zayn’s eyes flicked to him, uncertain for the first time.

My throat tightened. “It’s her,” I said, barely above a whisper.

Zayn’s eyes didn’t waver. “No. It’s not.”

“How could it know that?”

Kael moved toward the latch slowly, deliberately. “It’s trying to get us to open it. That’s all this is.”

The voice came again, urgent now. “Please, Rory. You know me. You know me.”

I shook my head, half in denial, half in hope. “It sounds just like her.”

Zayn’s voice dropped to a whisper. “That’s the point.”

Kael raised a hand, motioning for silence.

For a moment, there was nothing. Just our breathing and the faint pop of the fire.

Then—

A soft scrape.

Like nails dragging slowly down the wood.

The sound crawled up my spine.

Kael moved closer to the door, careful, his hand hovering near his knife. “Back away,” he said quietly.

“I just want to come in,” the voice said again.Only this time, it didn’t sound like Mira. It sounded like someone trying to remember how Mira should sound.

The tone warped mid-sentence, stretching, cracking, too high before snapping back into place.

Zayn’s fingers brushed my wrist—his way of keeping me still. “It’s mimicking,” he whispered.

I stared at the door, heart pounding. “Then what do we do?”

“We wait,” Kael said.

Outside, the voice started to hum.

A low, tuneless sound that made the air in the room vibrate.

It went on for too long.

Then, in perfect rhythm, it said again—

“Aurora. Open. The. Door.”

Kael’s hand twitched toward the bolt, but he stopped himself.

Zayn’s knife gleamed faintly in the firelight, his voice barely a breath. “If it gets in, you run. Understand?”

I nodded, though my body felt locked in place.

The voice pressed closer to the door, right against the wood now.

“Let me in,” it whispered. “It’s me. Please, Rory. Please.”

The last please fractured into two voices—one Mira’s, one something else.

Both speaking at once.

I backed up until my shoulders hit the wall. The pendant against my chest pulsed once—faint, but sharp enough to sting.

Zayn noticed. “It’s reacting again.”

The humming outside stopped.

Silence fell again.

Complete, suffocating silence.

Kael waited.

Zayn didn’t lower his knife.

Then—slowly—the shadow under the door began to move.

It stretched, sliding along the floorboards, too dark, too thin, creeping toward the center of the room.

I couldn’t breathe.

Kael reached for the lantern, hand shaking slightly. “Stay back.”

The flame inside flickered, sputtered—then went out.

The fire dimmed to embers.

And in that perfect, lightless silence, Mira’s voice spoke one last time.

Not from outside.

From the wall behind me.

“I said it smelled like pine and nerves.”

I spun around.

Nothing.

Just the wall.

But the chill in the air was enough to tell me—it had been inside for a moment.

Then, as suddenly as it started, it was gone.

The silence returned.

But it wasn’t the same.

Kael relit the lantern with shaking hands, his face pale in the light.

Zayn stood perfectly still, jaw locked tight.

No one said a word.

Finally, Kael spoke—his voice rough. “No one answers the door again. No matter what it sounds like.”

I didn’t argue with him.

Didn’t tell him he was being dramatic, or paranoid, or that the idea of never opening the door again made my skin crawl.

Because after hearing Mira’s voice come out of the wall, I kind of wanted to rip the door off and burn it.

Instead, I sank back down near the hearth. The fire was little more than a low orange glow now, licking weakly at the logs Kael had brought in. The air tasted like smoke and cold metal.

My stomach chose that moment to growl.

Loud.

All three of us heard it.

Zayn’s head turned first. Kael’s mouth twitched like he almost smiled, but it died before it reached his eyes.

“How long since any of us actually ate?” Kael asked quietly.

I thought back. The drive. The walk. The cabin. The witch. The fight. The mimic. The not-night.

“Yesterday?” I guessed. “Maybe. I don’t even know what day it is.”

Kael dug through his bag and hauled it over, crouching by the table. “We ration,” he said. “Small, slow. We don’t know how long this holds.”

He pulled out what was left—two protein bars, a small pack of dried fruit, a bottle that was maybe a quarter full of water. It looked pitiful all lined up like that.

He broke one bar into three pieces. “Eat,” he said simply.

I took mine, even though my throat felt tight. Zayn just stared at his for a second.

“Not hungry,” he muttered.

Kael shot him a look. “This isn’t voluntary. Eat.”

Zayn’s jaw flexed, but he shoved the piece into his mouth anyway like it offended him personally. I picked at the corner of mine, forcing myself to chew, even though it tasted like cardboard and dust.

For a moment, the simple act of eating felt almost normal. Ridiculous, given everything, but normal.

“If this spell is stuck on one hour,” I said, after swallowing, “how are we still tired? Hungry?”

Kael leaned back on his heels, considering that. “Because whatever this is, it isn’t a real time loop. It’s more like—”

“A cage,” Zayn finished. “The outside is frozen. We’re not.”

“Exactly,” Kael said. “We’re still burning through energy. The spell just keeps us in the same… frame.”

I stared at the empty wrapper in my hand. “Great. So we get weaker while this thing stays the same.”

We ate the rest in silence. He made us share the last protein bar, split the water between three cups. It wasn’t enough; my tongue still felt dry afterward, but it was something.