They found her just after sunrise. Standing barefoot at the ward line like she belonged there. No blood. No weapons. No threat in her stance. But something in the air shifted the moment she stepped across the barrier—like the earth itself held its breath. She wore a simple gray cloak, hood down, white braid hanging over one shoulder. Her eyes were the first thing I noticed—pale gold, but not like a wolf’s. Lighter. Brighter. Unsettling. She didn’t flinch when Caspian and Kieran blocked her path, both flanking her in seconds with a kind of silent, feral precision. “I’m not here to fight,” she said. Her voice was clear, accented—but old. Like a dialect that didn’t exist anymore. “Then explain why you crossed into Alpha territory without invitation,” Kieran growled, not bothering with pleasantries. She tilted her head. “Because the one I’m looking for doesn’t know who she is. Yet.” My chest went tight. She turned slowly—and looked right at me. “You have your mother’s defiance.”
“I don’t trust myself.” The words slipped out before I could stop them. We were alone in the training vault beneath Caspian’s estate—sealed with warding sigils older than most bloodlines, and colder than the look he’d given the Council when they tried to muzzle me. The walls down here weren’t stone. They were etched memory, carved deep with the history of wolves who’d trained in secret, bled in silence, and carried magic no one dared to name. “You don’t have to trust yourself yet,” Caspian said, stepping into the center of the circle. “You just have to learn not to fear yourself.” He sounded calm. Too calm. I paced along the edge of the warded ring, eyeing the mark on the floor beneath my boots—the one that matched the symbol burned into my skin. “You saw what I did to Mora.” “She lived.” “Barely.” He didn’t flinch. “Because you held back.” That stopped me cold. I turned toward him. “That was me holding back?” “You don’t understand the scale of your power,” he said simply.
Some part of me knew walking into that council chamber was a mistake. I felt it in my gut—the heaviness behind my ribs, the twitch in my fingers like the magic was already waiting for a reason. A spark. A trigger. Something to light the fuse. Caspian had wanted me to delay. Said whatever we found in the ruins could wait. But the Council summoned me, and when the Council summons you, you show up—power surging or not. They didn’t like delays. They liked obedience. I’d never been good at that. The chamber was cold. Stone walls, high ceiling, no warmth. Just judgment. The Elders sat in their thrones like carved statues, robes too pristine, expressions too blank. Except for Elder Thorne. His smile always made me want to bare my teeth. Kieran stood to my right. Ronan is to my left. Caspian stayed near the entrance, arms crossed, unreadable. Cian hadn’t come. Said he’d punch someone if they looked at me wrong. Honestly? I would’ve welcomed it. "Seraphina Nightbane," Elder Thorne said
I didn’t sleep. I couldn’t. The power pacing inside me wouldn’t let me. It kept twitching under my skin like a second pulse—stronger than my heartbeat, louder than my thoughts. By sunrise, I was raw. No dreams, no rest. Just the hum of magic I didn’t understand and the weight of three Alphas who swore they wouldn’t let me drown in it. I wasn’t sure if that was a comfort or a curse. I found Ronan waiting in the eastern wing—alone, leaning against the window with a book in one hand and a scowl in the other. He didn’t look surprised to see me. Didn’t look away from the pages either. “You’re up early,” I said, my voice still rough from disuse. He flipped a page. “You haven’t been sleeping.” It wasn’t a question. “No.” Another page turned. I waited, unsure why I’d even come. Maybe I wanted someone to look me in the eye and tell me I wasn’t losing my mind. Maybe I wanted to see if the quietest Alpha in the room finally had something to say. “Are you going to tell me what that th
I didn’t know what I was supposed to do with all of this. The power, the burning weight of it in my veins, it was all too much. Too raw. Like something I was supposed to carry, but the edges kept catching on everything around me. Every step I took, I felt it pushing against the skin, pushing out the pieces of me I wasn’t ready to lose. I wanted to scream. But the only sound I could make was silence. I isolated myself. The fortress felt like it was closing in on me, the walls pressing down, the eyes of my pack, my Alphas, watching me like I was a flame that might ignite anything near me. And maybe I was. In the dead of night, I walked the halls, the ones where no one went. There was no one there. Just the sound of my own footsteps. The familiar ache in my chest. The mark pulsed beneath my skin, a constant hum that kept me awake. I didn’t understand it. I didn’t understand how I could feel so much power and yet be so empty. Like I’d crossed into a place where I didn’t know who I w
The moment I touched the door, the ground groaned like it knew something was waking.Not a trap. Not magic in the way the seers would explain. This was older. Primal. Like the stone itself remembered me.I pulled the handle, and the air shifted.Warmth hit me first. Then sound.A voice I didn’t know but had always heard, buried deep in my chest. Whispering truths I didn’t want. Calling me by a name I couldn’t say out loud.Daughter. Flameborn. Weapon.Inside the chamber, there were no relics. No bones. Just walls scorched black and symbols etched in ash. In the center: a circle. Old blood marked the edge, dried so dark it was nearly black. I stepped into it.And the ground moved.