Mag-log inRaiden’s Pov Day 16, Afternoon. Eleven days left. The bond lights up like a damn flare and my knees just give out. *I hear you. I’m here. I’m still me. Wait for me.* Nyssa. Clear. Sharp. Still kicking. Still *mine*. “Thank fuck,” I choke out, half laugh, half sob. Senna’s there in a second, grabbing my arm. “Alpha? What the hell just happened?” “She talked. Through the bond. She’s...” My throat closes up. “She’s still her.” Relief hits Senna’s face hard, then worry creeps right back in. “How long till day three?” “Thirty-six hours. Maybe less.” I drag myself upright. “Kael’s gonna move the second she’s mortal again. We’ve gotta be ready.” “Defenses are set. Sentries rotating. We moved the kids and elders south. But Raiden…” She pauses, eyes flicking to the crater. “We’re stretched thin. Forty-two of us against his seventy-three. And half our fighters are running on fumes after two straight days holding the line.” “Then we don’t play fair.” I stare north toward where Kael’s
Nyssa’s Pov Day 16. Eleven days left. God, there’s no time in here. No sunrise, no night, no clock ticking. Just this endless silver fire and a power that’s screaming through me, trying to rip me apart and rebuild me into something I never asked to be. I don’t even have a real body anymore. I’m just… awareness. A burning thought. A soul getting hammered in a forge that was never built for someone like me. The Silver Matriarch, or whatever this thing is, keeps whispering. Over and over. *Let go.* *Surrender.* *Become what you were always meant to be.* And honestly? It would be so damn easy to just stop fighting. To let the fire eat everything. Nyssa Voss, the girl from Greyhaven. The assassin. The idiot who fell stupidly in love with the wolf who burned her whole world down. Poof. Gone. Ashes. Whatever crawled out of those ashes would be flawless. Clean. Unbreakable. No more pain. No second-guessing. No fear. Just purpose. *Dominate. Command. Rule.* It almost sounds like
Kael's PovDay 15, Evening. 12 days left.This rogue camp reeks. Failure, sweat, and that sour smell of wolves who’ve given up. Smells like home to me.Perfect.I weave between the half collapsed tents and piles of scavenged junk, doing a quick headcount. Forty-three so far. Nowhere near enough to storm Raiden’s pack head on, but plenty to stir up some serious trouble.Especially since about half of them are already eating out of my hand.“Kael Shadowfang.” A mountain of a wolf steps right in my path, six-five easy, face like a road map of bad decisions, one ear gone. “Heard you’re building something. Heard you’ve got an offer.”“Depends,” I say, sizing him up. “You chasing coin or something that actually means anything?”“Both.”I smirk. “Smart.” I jerk my head. “Walk with me. Name?”“Vex. Ran with Ironwood till their alpha got himself torn apart in some bullshit territory spat.” He spits into the dirt. “Three years rogue. Sick of living like a damn scavenger.”“How many you got behi
Raiden's Pov Day 15, Dawn. 12 days left. I wake to find Lily sitting beside me, staring at the crater. The little girl shouldn't be here. She should be safe in the temporary camp with the others. But somehow she slipped past the sentries and made the two-mile trek through dangerous territory to sit next to a man watching his mate burn. "She's pretty," Lily says softly. "Like a star." "Yeah." My voice is rough from disuse. "She is." "Is she going to die?" The blunt question hits harder than it should. Children always ask the things adults are too afraid to say out loud. "I don't know." "My mama died." Lily pulls her knees to her chest. "She got sick and then she was gone. Papa said she went to the moon. Is that where Nyssa's going?" "No." I pull the child against my side. She's too thin. Too fragile. Another victim of Kael's poison, sav
Raiden’s Pov Day 14, dawn. Thirteen days left. I set up camp right at the lip of the crater. Close enough that I can see her, really see her. Far enough that the leftover silver energy doesn’t start peeling my skin off in strips. The wolves think I’ve lost it. Honestly? They’re probably not wrong. “Alpha, you need to sleep,” Senna says. Again. Third time in an hour. “You’ve been up for a full day straight, you’re bleeding in like six places, and the pack...” “The pack’s got you.” I don’t take my eyes off the glowing silver shape floating in the middle of all that ruin. “Deal with it.” “Raiden...” “Order, Beta.” She flinches. I never snap rank at her like that. Feels like kicking a puppy. She walks away without another word. I can’t move. Can’t think about anything except Nyssa burning alive in there by herself. Kael said three days. Three days of this… whatever this is. Either she comes out immortal or she comes out dead. And all I can do is watch. Again. Helpless. Ho
Nyssa’s PovDay 14, midnight. 13 days left.The second I step inside that ring of chained-up skeletons, the altar wakes up.These old symbols carved into the black stone start glowing bright, cold silver. Same exact shade as the fire licking across my palms right now.Kael’s pacing around me, slow and deliberate, knife in one hand, the other dragging along the edge of the altar like he’s caressing it.“Last chance, Silver Blade,” he says, voice almost gentle. “Give me the blood willingly. Let me tweak the curse. Raiden gets to keep breathing, you go quick and easy. Everybody wins.”“Except me, obviously.”“You’re dying anyway.” He stops walking. Looks me dead in the eye. “I can see it eating you alive. Hands shaking. Silver creeping up your neck, streaking into your hair. Few more hours and there won’t be anything human left in you.”I let the fire flare brighter. “Good.”He actually laughs. “Good?”“I was never trying to stay human.” My voice comes out steadier than I feel. “Humans d







