Shadows in Silk

Althea POV

They dressed me in white.

Of all the cruel little choices they could’ve made, that one was the most pointed. The gown was silk-thin and sleeveless, slit high to the thigh, bare down the back. Innocent on the surface. A virginal contrast to the storm I carried in my blood.

My feet were bare. My power was not.

Cassian and Xanden were kept out of the chamber, their magic sealed behind a barrier of shimmering black wards. I couldn’t hear them. Couldn’t feel them. That alone was enough to make my rage simmer.

The Council didn’t speak as I entered. Their gazes slid over me like razors. Nine thrones, nine judgments wrapped in silk and shadows.

High Lord Thaniel smiled like a viper. “You’re looking well, Lady Lake.”

I said nothing.

“You understand,” Lysarien said, stepping forward, “that the Trial is not merely to determine your power, but your alignment. Harmony is not about strength. It is about restraint.”

I raised a brow. “You’re trying to figure out if I’ll burn the world down with my mates.”

“Would you?” she asked softly.

“No,” I said, stepping closer. “I’d drown it.”

The silence cracked like lightning.

Lysarien didn’t blink. “Then let the waters rise.”

⸻

Phase One: The Mirrorwalk

They led me to a chamber of glass—walls, ceiling, floor—all mirror.

But these weren’t reflections. Not truly.

They were versions.

In one, I saw myself alone—regal, cold, dressed in a crown of coral and bone, ruling without Cassian or Xanden. Unbonded. Untouchable.

In another, I saw myself enslaved. Bound in chains of gold, siren voice sealed, power drained by those who feared it. I screamed behind those glass walls—and no one came.

But the cruelest reflection…

…was the one where I chose Cassian and not Xanden. Or Xanden and not Cassian.

In each version, one of them was dead.

That illusion almost broke me.

Until I heard it.

A whisper in my mind.

We’re here. Hold the line.

Cassian.

Then Xanden, softer: Don’t believe them. You know who we are. You know who you are.

I pressed my hand to the mirror and breathed, You’ll never make me choose. We were never meant to be divided.

The illusions hissed. Cracked. And shattered.

Glass fell around me like snow. I stood in the center of the storm, untouched.

Phase One: Complete.

⸻

Phase Two: The Tempter’s Veil

This time, the chamber turned into an illusion so real I could smell the sea.

I stood at the edge of a cliff, and a man stepped from the shadows.

He had Cassian’s body.

Xanden’s eyes.

But neither soul.

He smiled like sin. “Althea. You’re meant to be worshipped. You could have any man, any world. Why bind yourself to them?”

I stepped forward.

“Because they see me,” I whispered. “Not what I can give. Not what they can take. Me.”

His smile turned cruel. “Even if their love turns possessive? Even if one breaks from jealousy? You know how demons are. You know how fae change.”

“Then we break together,” I said, and stepped straight into him.

My magic surged.

Water and fire. Moonlight and fury.

He screamed as my power unraveled him at the seams.

Phase Two: Complete.

⸻

I stood in the center of the trial chamber, glowing with my magic, my siren skin faintly shimmering beneath the thin white gown. My heart was steady.

Not because the trial was easy.

Because the hardest part was not letting them see how much I wanted to run back to my mates.

But I wouldn’t run.

Not this time.

High Lord Thaniel stood slowly. “Well then,” he said, his voice unreadable. “Let us begin the next phase.”

Cassian POV

The barrier was opaque to anyone else. But not to me.

Not to the King of Hell, forged in smoke and shadow, with eyes that could peel back illusion and see what others dared not.

I saw her.

Althea.

Standing alone, barefoot, wrapped in that godsdamned slip of a dress. Beautiful. Unbowed. Dangerous. Every inch the siren queen she was meant to be.

My hands burned where they pressed to the barrier.

“This is a trap,” I growled. “They aren’t testing her. They’re hoping she cracks.”

“They don’t know her,” Xanden said beside me, his tone cool but laced with steel. “They don’t understand that fear doesn’t weaken her. It forges her.”

I watched as the mirror illusions played out. My chest went tight at the version where I was gone—where Xanden was gone—where she stood alone in a palace made of silence.

“They want her to believe we make her weak,” I said.

Xanden’s jaw flexed. “We make her unstoppable.”

The moment she shattered the glass and stood tall, radiant in her defiance, I felt something primal break loose in me.

That was my mate.

Mine.

And anyone who touched her with even a whisper of malice would burn for it.

⸻

Xanden’s POV

Cassian paced like a caged beast, power coiled tight in every line of his body. But I stood still. I couldn’t look away.

Althea, in that trial, was breathtaking. Not just for her beauty—but for her courage. She faced down illusion after illusion, each one sharper, crueler than the last.

I flinched when I saw the reflection where I was gone and only Cassian stood beside her. And again, when it was reversed.

They knew our fears. Our vulnerabilities. The Council crafted these trials to carve us open.

But she didn’t break.

She chose us.

Even when the Tempter appeared—shifting between our shapes, whispering poisoned promises—I saw her smile.

Small. Certain.

And then she incinerated him.

I felt a chill sweep over me. Not from fear—but awe.

Cassian let out a breath beside me, eyes glowing like embers.

“She’s changing,” he said.

I nodded. “Or becoming who she was always meant to be.”

The barrier flickered.

And when it settled again, we saw her still standing. Alone—but not broken.

I reached out, resting my hand on the glass, wishing like hell I could touch her.

“We’re coming, love,” I whispered. “Just hold on.”