Chapter 12

FREYA’S POV – THEN ✦

And suddenly, the memory crashed in…

I was twelve again. Mud squished under my boots. Laughter soared from my lungs. Rhea yanked me through the thick summer woods like the world was ours for the taking.

“Come on, slowpoke!” Rhea grinned, her braids bouncing, eyes glinting like she had secrets to share with the moon.

“I’m not slow!” I gasped, my legs burning as I sprinted behind her.

We burst into the clearing, our clearing.

The grass was tall and wild, brushing our thighs. Flowers dotted the earth in bursts of violet and gold. A crooked tree arched at the edge like a guardian bowing low, its trunk scarred from carvings long forgotten.

I collapsed onto the ground, letting the earth hold me. Leaves tangled in my braids. “When I’m Alpha,” I panted, “I’m banning running.”

Rhea plopped beside me, smirking. “When you’re Alpha?”

“Yeah. Why not?”

“You’d fall asleep during war councils.”

“Exactly. Peace by naps.”

We giggled until our stomachs hurt, lying shoulder to shoulder, the sky above drifting with slow-moving clouds like lazy ships sailing nowhere.

Then Rhea rolled over, reached into her pocket, and pulled out a small carved stone, a wolf’s tooth, smoothed by hours of effort.

“Here.” She pressed it into my palm. “A twin to mine.”

I stared at it like it was magic. “You carved this?”

Rhea shrugged like it was no big deal. But it was. Rhea didn’t just make things. She built them—plans, promises, protections.

I clutched it to my chest. “I’ll keep it forever.”

“Promise?” Rhea asked, her voice barely a whisper now, her gaze suddenly sharp and serious.

“Promise.”

We pressed the stones together, just like the old warrior legends, oaths made in childhood, bound in blood and breath.

“No matter what happens,” Rhea whispered, “we stay together.”

I nodded. “Always.”

***********

✦ FREYA – NOW ✦

Stone bit into my cheek. I stirred slowly, the warmth of the memory fading like mist in the morning sun. My arms ached. My throat burned from dehydration. But none of it compared to the hollow crater in my chest.

I’d broken the promise.

I pushed myself up, my joints screaming. No carved stone. No Rhea. Just the cold sting of chains and walls that didn’t speak.

Tears slipped down my cheeks, silent and stubborn. Not sobs. Just grief, the quiet kind. The kind that lives deep, where even screams can’t reach.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered to no one. “I broke us.”

A faint shuffle outside my door. A shift in the air.

Then—thump.

I stiffened. Crawled forward, my skin scraping against the rough floor. My fingers wrapped around something soft, wrapped in cloth.

My hands trembled as I unraveled it.

The wolf’s tooth.

My wolf’s tooth.

The string was frayed, the carving worn. But the faint “F” still etched into the back.

I pressed it to my heart.

And something inside me… something long buried…began to burn.

Not grief.

Resolve.

I stood slowly, my knees cracking. My breath came out jagged, but my eyes sparked with fire.

Then I screamed, my voice cracking against the silence.

“Bring me Elias!”

Boots shifted outside. No immediate reply.

I slammed my fists on the iron door. “I want to see him! You hear me? I won’t rot in here while the world burns!”

A guard’s voice, uncertain and muffled: “Alpha Rhea hasn’t—”

“I don’t care what Rhea wants!” My voice splintered the air. “I want answers. I want the truth. And I will not be silent anymore!”

Silence.

Then footsteps faded.

I didn’t sit.

I waited.

***************

✦ ALPHA RHEA’S POV ✦

The war room was lit by dying embers. Maps cluttered the long table, but I saw none of them.

“She’s demanding to see Elias,” Damon said, his shadow stretching across the stone floor.

I didn’t look at him. “Let her.”

“She’s volatile.”

“She’s grieving,” I said quietly. “And guilty.”

Damon stepped beside me, poured dark wine into a tarnished goblet. “What do you think she’ll do?”

I accepted the drink without thanks. “That depends on what Elias says.”

“Or refuses to say.”

I swallowed the wine in one gulp. Bitter. Cold. Just like the sea crashing below the cliffs.

“Either way,” I murmured, “the fire’s been lit.”

Damon nodded. “And the prisoners?”

“Six of Xavier’s shadows. Three of Beacon’s. All still silent.”

“And Elias?”

I stared toward the storm beyond the window, waves like black teeth tearing at the rocks. “He broke. Or maybe he bent so long ago, we just didn’t see it.”

“He says we’ve become what we swore to burn.”

I gave a dry laugh. “Maybe we have. But at least we burn with purpose.”

I turned to him. “Take her to him. Let her see what she destroyed.”

**************

✦ FAR SOUTH – XAVIER ✦

The temple was carved from bone and stone, built into the side of the cliffs like a wound stitched shut by forgotten gods.

Xavier moved like a shadow through its ancient halls.

The Seer at his side whispered, “The wolf’s tooth has been returned.”

Xavier smiled faintly. “A blade with no handle.”

“She’s waking.”

“She was always the softer one,” he said, almost fondly. “But even soft things cut deep when broken.”

The Seer hesitated. “The prophecy—”

When the gate opens, blood kin will turn. One shall burn. One shall reign. “Yes, yes.” His voice curled like smoke.

“And the gate?”

“Soon,” he said. “But not yet. The sisters must choose. And one must fall.”

*****************

✦ FREYA – ESCORTED TO ELIAS ✦

The guards didn’t speak as they unlocked her cell. Cold air rushed in like breath from the dead.

Her hands were bound, but she kept her chin high.

Stone echoed beneath her boots. The corridor twisted like a wound, lit by torches that bled smoke. Water dripped from somewhere unseen. The scent of mildew clung to her skin.

The deeper they walked, the tighter her chest pulled. Not fear. Not shame. Just the heavy weight of knowing what she might find at the end.

Then… iron doors. Rusted. Stained.

They opened.

Elias sat slumped against the far wall, chained at wrists and ankles. His shirt was torn, blood dried into the collar. One brow split. His hands were swollen and scabbed.

But his eyes opened when she entered. Piercing. Blue. As cold as when they first met.

She hadn’t meant to see him again, not like this.

Not after the night in the forest.

Not after he risked everything to save her from Xavier’s trap.

And she’d thrown it away. All of it.

“You left me,” she said, voice low, steady.

Elias didn’t move. His eyes tracked her like a predator. “You chose him.”

“I thought he was helping,” she whispered. “I thought you were the enemy.”

His laugh was sharp and bitter. “We were all enemies, Freya. Every last one of us. Including you.”

She walked forward slowly and knelt. The stone beneath her knees was damp.

She reached beneath her collar and touched the older tooth, the one Rhea carved when they were still just girls dreaming of thrones.

But it was the second one she unwrapped now. Elias’s. The one he gave her in the woods, when he tried to save her. The one she didn’t deserve to keep.

“You gave this to me.”

Elias looked at it. Jaw tense.

“I kept it,” she said. “Even when I stopped believing in what it meant.”

A pause. A flicker in his gaze.

“I want to help now,” she said. “Even if Rhea hates me. Even if it kills me.”

His jaw clenched harder.

“I should hate you,” he murmured.

“You do,” she said. “But you also know what’s coming.”

His eyes lifted slowly to hers.

“The gate,” she said. “It’s not just a story, is it?”

Elias didn’t answer. But he didn’t look away.

“Help me stop it,” she said. “Please.”

The carved tooth sat between them. Two traitors. Two survivors. One oath hanging in the air, waiting to be made again.

**************

✦ RHEA – WATCHING ✦

Behind veiled glass, high above the cells, I watched.

Two broken pieces, pressed together like they still believed they fit.

“She still carries guilt,” Damon said behind me.

“So does he.”

“Will you trust her?”

I didn’t answer right away. The wind howled through the cliff cracks.

“No,” I said finally. “But I’ll use her.”

************

✦ XAVIER – FINAL LINE ✦

The Seer bowed low. “Freya moves toward redemption.”

Xavier stood at the edge of the temple, staring at the dark sea.

“Then let her walk straight into it,” he murmured, “just in time to watch the gate open.”