The city was a living thing at night. breathing smoke, whispering secrets through the wind. Far above the restless streets in a tower of black glass and steel, Darius Valen stood alone. The rain traced jagged paths down the windows behind him, but his gaze didn't follow them. His attention was fixed on the shadows pooling in the corner of his office.
"You're late," he said without turning.
A thin figure stepped forward, the air around her humming with something unnatural. The seer's eyes were white and clouded, like frost had taken them. "You already know why I'm here."
Darius adjusted his cufflinks, his movements precise, controlled. "Say it anyway."
Her voice was a hiss, yet it carried like thunder.
When the caged fire meets the frozen wolf,The crown will bind, or it will break.Blood will stain the hunter's moon,And love will be the sharpest blade.
Silence stretched between them. Outside, a siren wailed and was swallowed by the rain.
Darius finally turned, his expression carved from ice. "Where is she?"
The seer's throat bobbed as she swallowed. "Two blocks from your border. She doesn't know she's crossed it. She doesn't know what you are."
He stepped closer, his presence filling the room like a storm. "And if I leave her there?"
"She dies before the next moonrise," the seer whispered. "But if you take her—"
"Then I decide her fate," he cut in.
The seer lowered her gaze. "If you take her, you set the wheel in motion. There will be no undoing it."
Darius reached for his phone. "Life is motion. Stagnation is death."
He made one call, his voice a cold command. "Find her. Bring her to me. Unharmed… mostly."
The seer flinched at the way he said it—like her life was already a possession, like he was claiming something that had never been his.
Outside, the rain fell harder, washing the city in silver streaks. Somewhere in the maze of streets below, a woman named Alara was about to take the wrong turn.
And the frozen wolf was waiting.