LOGINNeris's POV"You're staring."I say it without turning around, watching the courtyard through the same window I used to clean every morning before dawn, back when nobody noticed me long enough to earn a name beyond "the servant girl.""I'm allowed to stare," Evren says, coming to stand beside me. "You just walked back into this academy carrying an ancient relic and enough authority to make twelve Alpha bloodlines answer to you. Staring seems reasonable.""It's strange," I admit. "A month ago I couldn't walk through that courtyard without someone finding a reason to remind me I didn't belong here.""Things change."Below us, the courtyard has been rebuilt in pieces, students moving through the reconstruction with a different energy than I remember, some carrying supplies, others simply working alongside instructors who once wouldn't have acknowledged my presence in the same room. A group of younger students spots me through the window and, instead of scattering the way they used to, se
Neris's POV"Impossible."Kessel's voice cracks for the first time since I've known him, all his careful composure finally abandoning him as he stares at what I've become.I rise slowly from the chamber floor, and the ancient presence settled inside me doesn't feel foreign anymore, doesn't feel like something separate fighting for control. It feels like the rest of myself I never knew was missing, finally returned."You said every prior vessel either died or lost themselves," I say, my voice carrying a resonance that wasn't there before, layered with something vast and certain. "I did neither.""That should not be possible." He backs toward the chamber's edge, and for the first time, I see something in him I've never seen before, not calculation, not patience.Fear."You built this entire chamber assuming whoever claimed the relic would need you to interpret its power," I say, understanding settling into place with a clarity that feels less like realization and more like remembering s
Chapter 47: The Last TrialNeris's POV"They're already inside."Lucien's voice is tight as we crouch at the edge of the chamber entrance, the same hidden passage beneath the ruined arena that started all of this weeks ago, now crawling with Kessel's forces stationed at every visible approach."How many," Cassian asks, his injuries still healing but his focus absolute."More than we can fight through cleanly. He's expecting resistance.""Then we don't fight cleanly." Evren checks his blade one final time, something steady settling behind his usual reckless energy now, tempered by everything the last night has already cost him. "We create enough chaos that Neris can slip through to the relic while they're busy dealing with us.""That's not a plan, that's three people throwing themselves at overwhelming odds," Lucien says."It's the only plan we have time for." I meet each of their eyes in turn, understanding settling into something calm despite the fear still coiled tight in my chest.
Neris's POV"He's gathering them now."Lucien's voice is grim as he lowers the small device he's been using to intercept fragments of Council communication for the past hour, exhaustion carved into every line of his face after a night that shows no sign of ending."Gathering who," I ask, though the sinking feeling in my chest already suspects the answer."The twelve ruling Alphas. Exactly as the chamber beneath the academy was always designed for, except Kessel's accelerated the timeline considerably since the bridge." He sets the device down, meeting my eyes. "They're converging on a secondary location now, since the original chamber's too compromised to use safely. Somewhere fortified, considerably better defended than an academy full of students.""To do what," Cassian asks, still favoring his injured side though his voice carries more strength than it did hours ago."To use the relic," Lucien says. "Not simply as a testing artifact this time. As a weapon.""Explain," I say, dread
Neris's POV"Evren, look at me."He doesn't. His black eyes stare through me, past me, focused on something none of the rest of us can see, his body coiled and trembling like a predator deciding whether the room is worth the effort of destroying."That's not him anymore," Lucien says, backing away carefully, urging Cassian to do the same despite his weakened state. "Whatever's in control right now, it isn't Evren.""Then I need to reach the part of him that still is." I hold my ground, my own wolf pressing forward protectively even as every instinct screams to retreat. "The voice said the fragment came from my bloodline. If that's true, I should be able to follow it back.""Follow it back how?" Cassian's voice is tight with pain and worry both. "You can't exactly walk into someone else's mind, Neris."You can, the voice says, quiet and certain. It requires only intention, and the same connection you used to stabilize him the first time. Touch him. Let the mark guide you inward instead
Neris's POV"Something's wrong with my arm."Evren says it too calmly for what I'm seeing, sleeve pushed back to reveal skin already darkening along his forearm, veins standing out black beneath the surface like ink spreading through water."Since when?""Since the compound attack, maybe. I thought it was just bruising." He flexes his fingers, wincing. "It's gotten worse the last hour. Feels like something's clawing from the inside."Cassian, still weak from the bridge, pushes himself upright despite Lucien's protest. "Let me see."The mark beneath the darkened skin resolves slowly into something unmistakable — three interlocking crescents, faint but unmistakably the same shape burned into my own collarbone."That's not possible," I say, my chest tightening. "That's my mark.""Kessel said he'd already reached you," Cassian says grimly. "This must be what he meant."Evren's jaw tightens, sweat beading at his temple despite the cold morning air. "Reached me how? I haven't left anyone's







