All Chapters of Blood ,Fire and Frost: Chapter 71 - Chapter 80

Power always reveals itself at the margins first. Not in the obvious places—explosions, broken wards, screams in the dark—but in the pauses between breaths. In the way magic hesitates before obeying. In the subtle recalibration of systems that have existed too long to lie about change. That was where I watched Selene from. Not as a lover. Not as a protector in the way Rowan understood the word. As a strategist. She stood at the center of the Axis now—not metaphorically, not symbolically, but mechanically. The crown had not elevated her above the system. It had locked her into it. Flesh, will, desire, and power braided into a single architecture that responded faster than conscious thought. That speed was the problem. I felt it the moment she woke. The Axis hummed too cleanly, too evenly, as if correcting for something it did not yet understand. Perfect balance was an illusion. Every system req

We felt it when she pushed back.Not as pain—pain is crude, inefficient—but as resistance. A clean refusal that snapped through the lattice like a blade drawn along a nerve. The Axis did not scream. It corrected. That alone told us everything we needed to know.She was learning.That was… inconvenient.I withdrew my awareness from the seam carefully, slow enough not to provoke a secondary reaction. The last thing we needed was for her to realize how close we were. Proximity created urgency. Urgency sharpened her will.No—better that she believe this was only the beginning. A test. A warning.She had passed it.Barely.The scrying array dimmed as I pulled my hand back, runes cooling beneath my palm. Around me, the chamber remained quiet—too quiet for the kind of work we were doing. Stone walls dampened sound. Wards devoured intent. Everything about this place had been designed to make cruelty precise.Behind me, one of the others shifted. I didn’t

Selene POVI don’t call them to me because I’m afraid.That matters.Fear has a taste now—sharp, metallic, unmistakable. It sets the Axis humming too tightly, pulls the world inward like a fist. What I feel tonight is different. Clear. Focused. Heavy with intent.Choice has its own gravity.They arrive without question, without urgency, as if they felt the shift the moment I decided. Rowan comes first, presence warm and solid, the wolf close but controlled. Lucien follows seconds later, smooth as a shadow slipping into place, his awareness already dissecting the room.Neither of them speaks.Good.I stand near the center of my chamber, crown resting on the table beside me instead of on my head. That is deliberate too. This conversation is not about rulership.It’s about my body.“I need to speak,” I say.Rowan nods immediately. Lucien inclines his head, eyes sharp and attentive.I inhale slowly, feeling the Axis listen—not pressuring,

SeleneThe aftershock doesn’t arrive like thunder.It seeps.I feel it first in my skin—an awareness that lingers long after the moment passes, like heat trapped beneath stone. My body isn’t shaking. My breath isn’t ragged. But something fundamental has changed, and the Axis knows it.I walk through the citadel slowly, deliberately, crown steady on my head, posture aligned with will rather than tension. Servants bow deeper than before. Guards avert their eyes and then glance back, uncertain why their instincts demand it.They can smell it.Not arousal—something subtler. Settled. Claimed without being owned.The Axis hums low and constant beneath my feet, no longer reacting to every thought, every flicker of want. It feels… anchored. Like a system that has finally been given a keystone.But that doesn’t mean the wanting is gone.It lives in me now the way breath does—present, necessary, no longer sharp enough to wound. I don’t fight it as I move. I

Selene:I don’t announce the decision when I make it.I let it settle instead—quiet, deliberate, heavy with intent. It moves through me like a shift in gravity rather than a thought, a certainty that takes root beneath my ribs and spreads outward until there’s no room left for doubt.The Axis responds immediately.Not with pressure. Not with a surge.With a low, steady hum that resonates through my bones, deep and patient, like something ancient recognizing a necessary adjustment. Approval. Alignment. A reminder that I am not resisting it tonight.Tonight is not about unleashing anything.It’s about grounding what already exists—about holding the fire without letting it consume me.I leave my chamber without ceremony and follow instinct through the corridors. The space seems to part for me, the stronghold quieter than usual, as if the walls themselves are listening.I find Rowan in the smaller training chamber.The air is warm and carries