تسجيل الدخولKael POVThe palace smelled different after a failed assassination.Fear had a scent, sharp and metallic. It clung to the stone halls and settled into the lungs of everyone who passed through them. Servants walked softer. Guards stood straighter. Conversations died the moment I entered a room.Good.They should be afraid.Elara lay unconscious in my chambers, wrapped in wards older than the palace itself, guarded by wolves who would die before letting anyone near her. Maelis had done what she could. The poison was gone, burned out by the mark, but its shadow lingered in the air like smoke after fire.Someone had tried to stop her heart.Inside my walls.Inside my rule.That was unforgivable.I stood at the high balcony overlooking the inner court, hands clasped behind my back, gaze fixed on the crowd assembling below. Nobles in rich cloaks. Council members with careful faces. Captains rigid in armor. Servants pressed to the edges, pretending they belonged there.Every one of them want
Elara POVThe first sign was not pain. It was cold.Not the kind that brushed skin or crept in from an open window, but the kind that slid beneath it, quiet, deliberate, like something had found a way inside me and was settling in.I noticed it while pouring tea.The cup trembled slightly in my hand. Just enough to disturb the surface, a small ripple spreading across the amber liquid. I frowned, annoyed with myself. The night had been restless. Sleep had come in fragments, stitched together with dreams that refused to fade, ancient wolves bowing their heads, blood singing through my veins, Kael’s voice calling my name as if from very far away.You’re tired, I told myself. That’s all.I lifted the cup.The scent was familiar. Calming herbs. A faint sweetness beneath the bitterness. Comfort in a cup. Maelis had left it on the tray outside my door, a neat note tucked beneath the handle reminding me to drink something warm before the morning council briefings.I trusted Maelis.Everyone d
Elara POVSleep came like a lie. It wrapped around me gently, pretending to be rest, pretending to be mercy. I remember thinking, as my eyes closed, as the weight of the day loosened its grip.Then the blood began to sing.I stood on a vast plain of ash-gray stone beneath a sky without stars. No Moon. No sun. Just an endless dark that breathed slowly, as if it were alive. The air tasted metallic, sharp on my tongue, and every breath felt borrowed instead of owned.I wasn’t afraid yet. I felt… expected.The ground beneath my bare feet was warm. Not from heat, from life. I looked down and saw thin cracks spreading through the stone, glowing faintly red, like veins beneath skin.My veins.The understanding settled deep in my bones.This is not a place, something inside me whispered.This is a memory.A low sound rolled across the plain.Not thunder.A breath.I turned.They came out of the darkness one by one, wolves, enormous and ancient, their bodies shaped from shadow and bloodlight.
Kael POVThe Moon followed us. Not in the sky. Inside the stone.I felt it as we walked, pressure without weight, attention without warmth. The palace corridors narrowed as we moved deeper, older rock closing around us like ribs. Torches burned lower than they should have, flames bending as if the air itself was listening.Elara said nothing.That worried me more than any accusation.I led her through a passage few used anymore, carved before treaties, before councils, before anyone decided the Moon deserved obedience instead of respect. The walls here remembered blood and vows. They did not pretend to be clean.When we reached the chamber, I sealed the door with a thought.The wards settled. Quiet. Ours.Only then did I turn to her.She stood with her shoulders straight, chin lifted. Not defiant. Steady. The silver in her mark had dimmed, but it hadn’t gone cold. It never did anymore.“You heard enough,” I said.“Yes,” she replied.Not Tell me. Not Explain.Just yes.I rubbed a hand
Elara POVThe palace never truly slept. Even at night, it breathed, stone settling, torches whispering, guards shifting their weight in endless corridors. Since the Council fractured, the air itself felt tighter, as if the walls were holding their breath.I couldn’t.Sleep had abandoned me hours ago, leaving my thoughts sharp and restless. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw silver fire. Broken sigils. The Moon’s light tearing itself apart.So I walked.Barefoot at first, then slipping into soft shoes, moving quietly through familiar passages. I told myself I needed air. That the silence in my chambers had grown too loud.I did not tell myself the truth.I was looking for Kael.Not because I needed him.Because I needed answers.The palace treated me differently now. Doors opened faster. Servants bowed lower. Guards watched me with something like fear tangled with awe.Untouchable, they thought.Dangerous.They weren’t wrong, but they weren’t right either.I followed the sound of voice
Lyra POVPower never announces itself. It does not arrive with raised voices or shattered stone. It does not demand attention.Power arrives quietly, like a thought you didn’t realize was already yours.I learned that long before Elara stepped into the Council chamber and fractured a ritual older than memory. Long before the Moon screamed. Long before the court tasted fear and mistook it for awakening.True power does not roar. It whispers. And it waits.The first omega arrived at dawn.She knelt where I told her to kneel, head bowed, hands folded neatly in her lap. Her breathing was shallow, controlled, as if she had practiced stillness long before today. Her name was Selene.I knew everything about her already.Her pack’s debts. The brother she hid in the southern provinces. The way she flinched when Alphas raised their voices. The quiet terror she carried like a second skin.She believed she had been summoned for mercy.That belief was useful.“You may rise,” I said.She hesitated







