The moment Freya touched the rim of the well, the ground exhaled, a soundless, hollow breath, like the world itself bracing.And then something inside her shifted."Freya, step back a little," Ragnar said from behind her. She was standing too close to that cursed thing.A rush of sensation spiraled through her chest, not wind but memory. Not memory, but magic. It flooded her like smoke through a hollow vessel. The forest around her swayed as though caught in a dream, and the trees warped, shrank, and stretched. Time unraveled into a single, blistering pulse.Then it struck.Not a blast, not an explosion, something colder. A will older than gods. Invisible fingers seized her ribs from behind and shoved her forward, not away from the well, but into it.A scream tore through her lips as Ragnar dashed forward, trying to grab her. Freya didn’t fall into the well. She was devoured.Freya's scream died down. It caught in her throat as air vanished. Her hands flailed, fingers scraping at the
The mountain winds had turned cruel since the battle, threading frost-like veins through the cracked bones of the sanctuary over the whole place. She had noticed what her flame had done. The place or the exact spot where she burned Control had turned pitch black, but that wasn't the end of it. The trees, plants, and existence of life around that spot had also turned pitch black.Freya breathed deeply. It wasn’t the bite of winter that kept her awake. It was something deeper. Older. A whisper beneath her skin, winding through every pulse of her body like molten silver. Her mark throbbed at her collarbone, alive with something urgent.It was calling her. Somewhere dark. She couldn't pin point exactly but something in her has shifted immensely. And it was strong. Consuming. Overpowering.She pulled herself to her feet and began to gather her stuff despite feeling weak. She noticed him before he even stepped at the doorway. Though she said nothing and continued with herself. Freya knew th
The sanctuary held its breath. Even the flames dared not flicker. Smoke coiled like ghost-flesh through the shattered arches, and the air trembled with a silence that didn’t feel empty, but watchful. The runes carved into the ancient stones pulsed weakly, as if anticipating the inevitable.Then... A soundless pressure. A shift. And the Guardian Gate exploded inward in a storm of fractured stone and shrieking wind. Ash surged like a tidal wave, flooding the mountain’s heart. Pillars cracked. Walls buckled. Screams tore the silence apart. Ragnar’s eyes snapped open.He pulled Freya upright in a single motion, shielding her body with his own as the storm crashed into them. Her breath hitched. Her mark burned white-hot, casting fevered light across her skin.Nyra stumbled through the dust, her cloak torn, dust on her temple. “He’s here,” she said. “The Warden has come.”Ragnar turned, his voice a command forged in fire. “Ward the sanctuary! Seal the inner runes!”But Freya didn’t move to
Ragnar was frozen. Not from pain, though he was bleeding. Not from fear, though it twisted around his lungs like chains. But because Freya wasn’t moving.Her body lay limp in his arms, glowing faintly with threads of silver light that shimmered across her skin like veins carved from stardust. Her silver lashes trembled but did not open. Her lips were parted, her breath shallow, and her heart barely pulsing beneath her skin.He held her close, as if sheer force of will might drag her back. Her scent was wild magic now. Not just wolf. Not just flame.Skyrana. Freya. His mate. His undoing. He could feel her pain, though he felt just a fragment because of the matebond, but it was there.“Come back to me,” he whispered, voice deep and raw. “Please.” He didn't know what he was saying. Why was he even saying all that?The wind screamed above the sanctuary, and the flame at the mountain’s heart flared high once more, gold shifting to silver, like it, too, mourned what was unfolding.Nyra knelt
Freya slipped beneath the surface of consciousness like a stone through black water, fast, silent, inevitable.Oblivion didn’t swallow her whole. It studied her, unraveling time in silver ribbons that shimmered and snapped around her limbs. She drifted down, through skies that pulsed like molten glass, the taste of blood and smoke still raw on her tongue.But the blood was too sweet.And the smoke... it was so familiar.When her feet found ground again, it wasn’t solid.She stood in a world neither alive nor dead. A forest of black trees stretched to a ruptured sky, their branches draped in ghostlight that burned without heat. The heavens above were streaked with gashes of violet and crimson, bleeding light like the wounds of gods. It was terrifying and yet beautiful at the same time.The earth beneath her feet smoldered like ancient coals; it was warm, breathing. Each step echoed not through the air but through her bones, like her heartbeat had become part of the land itself. She cou
The cold wind bit harder than before, as if the mountain had turned against her.Freya stormed into the darkness like a blade freshly drawn, sharp with fury and trembling restraint. Once silent and sacred, the air now howled around her with jagged breath. It sliced through her cloak, into her skin, past her ribs. It sank into her bones.The sanctuary stood still and ancient, bathed in moonlight and mist, but inside her, everything screamed.She barely reached her hut before the growl ripped out of her throat.It wasn’t delicate.It wasn’t weak.It was guttural. Violent.Born of betrayal.Freya slammed the wooden door with a force that rattled the frame, then sagged against it, fists clenched so tightly her nails bit into her palms. Her breath stuttered in her lungs, broken and uneven.But all she could feel was him.His hands. His mouth. His voice.The way he looked at her, like she was both his doom and his salvation. And that sinister smirk... She wanted to rip it off his face.Her