LOGINEmber Frost’s POVThose two words stopped me cold. Had she found it—the thing controlling all of this? I really hoped she had.For a moment, she said nothing.Her eyes still burned red. If she had found the source, why hadn’t she pulled out yet?A knot tightened in my chest.I started pacing. The room was cold, but sweat had already gathered on my forehead. Every second stretched longer than the last.If she didn’t say something soon, I was pulling her out myself.Then Eira hissed, “Oh… so you can transform. You keep surprising me.”Her fingers pressed harder against Henry’s chest.The air around her shifted.“Calm down, Ember,” Elder Anna said quietly. “Your worry is making it harder for her.”A cold pull swept through the space, faint at first, then growing stronger.Elder Anna and Ellan moved closer to check on Eira and Henry.“What’s going on?” I asked, my voice tight.“We don’t know,” Ellan replied, still watching carefully.“I can’t just sit here doing nothing—I need to see what
Ember Frost’s POVI knew almost at once that I wouldn’t be able to finish this by myself.What I found inside Henry was far more tangled than I had expected. Every time I thought I had cleared one part of it, something else slipped out of reach. The longer I stayed, the harder it became to keep hold of what I was doing.A sharp ache ran through my head. My breathing turned uneven.Then, suddenly, something tightened around my throat. It felt like an invisible hand closing around my neck. My body convulsed. I heard voices calling my name, but they sounded distant, blurred, as though they were reaching me from very far away. I tried to answer, but no sound came.Then the pressure broke. A violent pull tore me free.I opened my eyes and jerked back.The room felt strangely cold when I came back. For a moment I could only stand there, gasping, trying to steady myself. I was still caught in the memory of what I had seen—and what had happened—the layers, the resistance, the way everything
Ember Frost’s POVThe darkness had spread deep into the void of Henry’s system. It wasn’t just clinging to the surface anymore. It had settled into every part of him, woven so tightly through his being that it felt like it had always been there. One careless move could upset the balance, and that was a risk I couldn’t take. But standing there and doing nothing wasn’t an option either. So I kept going.At first, I thought it would be slow work—careful cleansing, peeling the darkness away little by little. But the deeper I went, the more that plan began to unravel. What I found wasn’t simple. There was intention behind it, something deliberately set in place.The further I went, the clearer it became that everything was connected by a single design. Not broken pieces, but one network spread across different layers, all drawing from the same hidden source. That realization changed how I moved.I stopped treating it as isolated points of corruption.Instead, I let Lunaris expand outwa
Ember frost’s POVElder Anna gave a short nod and stepped closer.For a heartbeat, nothing changed.Then I felt it. A quiet pull, light but steady, settling somewhere deep inside me. The connection had taken hold. “Please step outside. We need room to work.” Eira moved to stand beside me. Axel stopped so suddenly the others nearly stumbled. “Isn’t she coming? Why does she get special permission? Just because of her status?”He jabbed a finger in Eira’s direction, then swept it back toward me.“This isn’t about privilege. We all care about Sir Henry. Don’t act like you’re the only ones trying to save him.”Axel took a step forward again. “If anyone should be here, it’s all of us,” he said. For a moment, no one else spoke.The last bit of patience I had was gone.“I never said anyone cared less,” I replied.My voice stayed even.“If you were willing to sacrifice yourself for him, I wouldn’t argue that.” He went quiet for a moment.But I didn’t give the silence space to turn into
Ember Frost’s POVNot everyone on the team liked me.Some made it obvious. Some challenged every decision I made. A few looked at me as if I had no place standing among them.The old me would have let that get inside my head.I would have gone over every word and every moment. Did I say something wrong? Did I make things harder for everyone? Did I come across as too soft? Was there something I did that made them keep their distance?And then I would have reached the question that used to trouble me most.What do I need to change so they’ll accept me?Not anymore. I had stopped asking myself that. I still asked myself those first questions. They mattered. I needed to understand what was happening around me and whether I had missed something important.But trying to win everyone over?That was no longer something I chased.Henry was lying inside that cabin, and every moment we wasted standing here arguing was another moment he was slipping farther away.There would be time later for re
Ember Frost’s POVNo one argued with me this time. No one even tried. Whatever differences we had, none of us could stand there and watch Henry die.“That might work,” Ellan said, but his tone didn’t match the words. “There’s still something you’re not seeing.”He stepped forward before anyone could respond. “This is exactly why rushing in blindly will get us all killed.”The air around him shifted as he raised his hand. What he’d been showing us—the shape of Henry’s soul—began to change. At first it just trembled, then it twisted in on itself, losing form. It no longer looked whole… no longer looked human.It turned into something shapeless and uneven, like a mass that had lost all structure. Weak. Barely holding together. The room fell silent.Ellan glanced back at us. “That,” he said, “is what’s left of Henry’s soul.”For a moment, no one spoke. I felt my chest tighten.He went on, more serious now. “It’s not complete. What you’re seeing here… it’s only a piece. A small piece.”Th
Ember Frost’s POVWe had nothing that could truly blow things apart, no bombs, no blasting powder. A few alcohol blocks and a lighter weren’t going to do much against a tree that rose like a tower.I exhaled slowly, then turned to Eira. “You wouldn’t happen to know any fire spells, would you?”She
Ember Frost’s POV“You saw me, didn’t you? I saw you too.” Eira’s voice came from behind me. I spun around, heart pounding, but all I caught was a flicker of her form before it vanished again.“I was standing in front of you before,” she said, her tone calm but urgent, “and now I’m a few steps behi
Ember Frost’s POVI didn’t stop to weigh the risks. None of that mattered. People came first; everything else could wait.Eira raised her hand and released a sharp burst of magic, scattering the shadows that had been creeping toward us with greedy intent. At the same moment, Elder Harriet and I rus
Ember Frost’s POVThe cave wall shuddered.No—it was moving in waves.The moment it realized we had noticed, the so-called cave dropped its disguise. Whatever restraint it had worn vanished in an instant.Rock slid through rock as if the cave had forgotten how solid objects worked. The floor folded







