INICIAR SESIÓNI barely slept that night.Every time I closed my eyes, I found myself back in the Luna wing with my hand pressed against that strange pillar. I could still remember the way the black symbol had seemed to move beneath my fingers, even though I could no longer see it, and the memory of that warmth remained lodged in my palm as though my skin had memorized it.Maya was determined to stayed with me, but I managed to convince her I was fine. Even after she left, sleep refused to come easily. I kept turning under the blankets, trying to make sense of what had happened, while Vin remained unusually quiet inside me.That was what bothered me most.Vin could be irritating, dramatic, and completely impossible when she wanted to be, but she was never this silent.By morning, I had reached my limit.“What exactly are you hiding from me?” I asked while sitting in front of the mirror, trying to arrange my hair without becoming distracted by m
I pulled my hand away from the pillar so quickly that I nearly stumbled backward, my heart pounding as I stared at the place where the strange black mark had been only seconds ago. I blinked several times, convinced that perhaps my eyes were playing some ridiculous trick on me, but the pillar remained exactly as it had always been, old and weathered with faint cracks running through the stone. There was no trace of the beautiful, mysterious symbol I had just touched, yet I could still feel the strange heat it had left behind in my palm.“What the hell was that?” I whispered, staring at my fingers.Vin did not answer. That alone made me uneasy.“Vin?” I called inside my head, waiting for the sarcastic comment she usually had ready whenever I did something questionable. She was never this quiet, especially when I was standing in front of something that had just made my entire body react as though I had touched a live wire. Instead, I felt her shift
ARIAThe meeting dragged on for what felt like hours before the elders finally exhausted themselves, or perhaps they simply realized that I was not going to sit there quietly and let them dismantle me. Either way, the moment the meeting was declared over, I rose from my seat and walked out of the chamber with Maya following close behind me.I could still feel the heat in my face from everything that had happened, and I was determined not to give anyone the satisfaction of seeing how much their words had affected me. My legs had been slightly unsteady beneath the table, but thankfully nobody had noticed, or at least I hoped they had not.Maya caught up with me in the corridor and lowered her voice.“You were magnificent in there,” she said, her eyes shining with amusement as she walked beside me. “I almost stood up and applauded, but I remembered that I am supposed to be your maid and not your personal cheering squad.”I glanced at her.“You were thinking about applauding?”“I was also
Minutes turned into hours, hours turned into days, and before I knew it, more than a week had passed since I became the Luna of Blackwood.Life here wasn’t entirely boring, which was something I had not expected to admit so soon. I was adjusting because I had no choice but to adjust, although becoming Luna of this pack was proving to be far more difficult than anything I had experienced in Alec’s pack. There were responsibilities I had never imagined, expectations I was still trying to understand, and a council that seemed determined to remind me every chance they got that I was not the Luna they had wanted.The elders continued to challenge Xavier over his decision, and sometimes I found myself reasoning with them silently whenever we sat in the council chambers. Some of their concerns were reasonable enough for me to understand where they were coming from, but most of the time, I could feel the hostility rolling off them whenever I walked into the room.I had refused to give them th
ISOLDE I remembered the first night they came.I had been younger then, arrogant enough to believe that forbidden knowledge could never frighten me. The voice had whispered from somewhere beyond the walls, promising answers to questions I had carried for years. It had shown me fragments of ancient power and taught me things no ordinary witch, seer, or pack mystic should have known.In exchange, it had asked for obedience. I had agreed because at the time, I believed I was choosing power. Now, staring at the shadow behind Aria, I wondered whether I had actually chosen a cage.The vision shifted again and Aria suddenly turned. This time, her eyes met mine.I froze.Her eyes were glowing with a strange light, and something moved beneath her skin like energy searching for a way out. The expression on her face was neither anger nor fear.My throat tightened. I wanted to step away, but my legs refused to move but Aria lifted one hand. The wolves around her remained bowed, but the shadow be
ISOLDEIt was Aria.The eyes opened behind her and I could not breathe as I stared into the black mirror. Whatever had awakened inside that vision did not feel like a wolf, a spirit, or anything I had encountered during the years I had spent studying forbidden magic. The woman standing in the flames remained completely still.Her face was Aria’s, but the woman I was looking at could not possibly be the Luna I had watched laughing beside Maya only moments earlier. There was no uncertainty in her expression, no trace of the softness Aria carried when she spoke to the servants, and none of the hesitation I had noticed since she entered Blackwood.This version of Aria looked like someone the world itself had been forced to recognize.The black flames curled around her body without burning her clothes or touching her skin. They rose higher and higher until they swallowed the sky above the sacred ground, while dozens of wolves remained on their knees around her, their heads lowered as thou







