“We are bonded by choice, not fate.”
Mia’s POV
The kiss didn’t change the world—but it changed me.
For the first time since the Trial, I felt still. Centered. Like the shadows hadn’t swallowed me whole after all. Damian held me like I was sacred, like I was his moon even when the sky was clouded.
“You said something once,” I whispered.
He looked down, brushing hair from my face. “I say a lot of things.”
“No,” I said, a smile tugging at the edge of my mouth. “You said that the bond didn’t make us perfect. It just made us possible.”
“We’re more than prophecy—we’re people. And I still want forever with you.”Mia’s POVIt was the first night in weeks where I wasn’t required to wear a crown.Not a literal one—I never wore one—but the weight of leadership. Of prophecy. Of keeping the world from falling apart.Tonight, I didn’t want to be Queen.I just wanted to be his.The war council had ended an hour ago. Sybil was busy calculating realm fractures with Austin. Nyx and the Fifth had taken to the sky for sparring, her fire trailing behind them like twin ribbons. The Sixth had disappeared somewhere—again.And me?
Mia’s POVThe silence in the war hall wasn’t peaceful—it was waiting.Heavy.Ancient.Like the air remembered what had once happened here and was holding its breath for what was about to happen again.I stood in the center, palms pressed against the cold edge of the obsidian table, staring at the six chairs that circled its heart. None of them were labeled, but they didn’t need to be. Each bore a sigil carved in elemental stone: flame, fang, moon, void, bone, and storm.Five of them were filled.The sixth, newly claimed.The seventh—still missing.Behind me,
“The prophecy was never about preventing the end. It was about surviving what came after.”Mia’s POVThe sun had barely crested the horizon when I felt the shift.It wasn’t the usual crackle of magic brushing across the packlands or the steady pulse of the mate bond humming under my skin. This was deeper—older. A presence moving beneath the surface of the world, not above it. It was something I felt in my blood, not just my mind. It pulled at me, like an old name I’d forgotten how to pronounce.I stood on the obsidian balcony of the war tower, wrapped in the thin robes I hadn’t bothered to change since last night. The wind pulled at my hair, cold enough to sting, but I didn’t move. I just
“To rise, you must burn. To rule, you must bleed.”Nyx’s POV — Ashborn Path, Second TrialThe obsidian mirror loomed ahead of me, tall as a tower, smooth as still water, and twice as cold. My name was carved beneath the reflection in letters too sharp to have been chiseled by hand.NYX LUMINA GRAY Daughter of Flame and Storm Fell before the Second DawnI stared into it. My reflection stared back—smaller, quieter, afraid. Not the version of me that fought shadow beasts or survived the first Phoenix Trial. This one looked lik
“We are bonded by choice, not fate.”Mia’s POVThe kiss didn’t change the world—but it changed me.For the first time since the Trial, I felt still. Centered. Like the shadows hadn’t swallowed me whole after all. Damian held me like I was sacred, like I was his moon even when the sky was clouded.“You said something once,” I whispered.He looked down, brushing hair from my face. “I say a lot of things.”“No,” I said, a smile tugging at the edge of my mouth. “You said that the bond didn’t make us perfect. It just made us possible.”
“The strongest light is born from the deepest dark.”3,127 years ago – The Hidden Temple of Aetherion3rd POVThe moon was red that night. Not a hunter’s moon, nor a blood omen.This was something older.The sky itself seemed to bleed as the stars flickered one by one, retreating into silence. Winds howled through the high cliffs of Aetherion, tearing through the sacred trees that had not bent in a thousand years. Even the air, thick with divine magic, was still and waiting.Selene—goddess of the moon—stood barefoot at the edge of the Trial Circle. She was younger then, her silver hair loose around her shoulders, her violet eyes shadowed with something no god should carry: