Nyx's POV
"Nyx," Kieran's echo whispers. "Please. Let us explain."
I freeze in the doorway, my heart hammering.
They look exactly like my Alphas, but something's wrong. Their eyes are too desperate. Their voices too perfect. These aren't real—they're echoes made from my memories and desires.
Everything I want to hear.
Everything I'm afraid to believe.
"No," I say firmly. "You don't get to explain. Not yet."
I close my eyes and reach through the real bonds instead, past these fake versions, to the actual Alphas in their kingdoms.
And I feel everything.
Kieran is in his training room, punching a stone wall until his knuckles bleed. His wolf is tearing him apart from the inside, howling for me. Through his memories, I see him lying awake every night, replaying the moment he rejected me. Over and over. His father's death. His fear of weakness. His mistake.
I'm sorry, his thoughts scream into the void. I'm so sorry.
Cassian sits in his library surrounded by broken books. His brilliant mind is fracturing. Every calculation he ever made is falling apart because he didn't account for the one variable that mattered—his heart. He's figured out what I am. He knows I'm an Omega Sovereign. And he knows his rejection might have killed the only hope their world had.
I was wrong, he thinks, rocking back and forth. About everything. About her. About strength. About love.
Darius is locked in his room, seeing things that aren't there. His dead sister appears to him, over and over, with my face. "You killed me twice," she says. "Once as your sister. Once as your mate." He's breaking under the weight of his own cruelty. His obsession with perfection has left him with nothing but ghosts.
I'm the weak one, he sobs. Not her. Never her.
Riven sits at a council meeting, his perfect mask finally shattered. He's crying in front of everyone, unable to hide anymore. His father screams at him for being weak, for ruining their reputation. But Riven doesn't care about reputation anymore. He only cares that he chose image over the one person who was meant to be his.
I was a coward, he thinks. And I'll never forgive myself.
Zane is having visions so terrible he's vomiting blood. He sees a thousand futures—in most of them, I'm dead because of what they did. In a few, I'm alive but so full of hate that I destroy everything. In only one future does he see hope: me standing with them, all of us together, saving the world from Morvanna.
Please choose us, he begs the Moon Goddess. Please let there be a path where we don't lose her forever.
I gasp and pull back from the real bonds.
The echo-Alphas are watching me, still on their knees.
"You felt them," echo-Kieran says quietly. "The real us. Our pain."
"Yes." My voice shakes. "And part of me is glad you're suffering. Part of me thinks you deserve every second of it."
"We do," echo-Cassian says. "We deserve worse."
"But another part of you still cares," echo-Darius adds. "Still feels the bond pulling you toward us."
I hate that he's right.
I hate that even after everything they did, some stupid part of my heart still wants to forgive them.
"Why should I?" I demand. "Give me one good reason why I should let you back in after you threw me away."
Echo-Riven stands slowly. "Because you're better than we are. Because you have the strength to forgive what we were too weak to accept."
"That's not good enough."
"Because the world needs us together," echo-Zane says. "Because Morvanna will win if we're divided."
"So I should forgive you to save the world?" I laugh bitterly. "That's not forgiveness. That's just strategy."
"Then don't forgive us," echo-Kieran says, and all five of them look at me with identical heartbroken expressions. "Reject us the way we rejected you. Make us feel what you felt. We deserve it."
My hands clench into fists. "You want me to reject you? To make you suffer more?"
"If that's what you need," they say together.
Tears burn my eyes. This is the trial. This is the test.
Can I let go of my pain? Can I risk my heart again?
Or do I choose safety? Choose freedom from the males who already broke me once?
"I don't know what to do," I whisper.
The Guardian's voice echoes through the room: "Then ask yourself this—what would your mother do?"
My mother.
Who tried to make peace. Who believed in balance. Who died trying to unite instead of divide.
"She'd forgive," I say softly. "But she'd also make sure it never happened again."
I look at the five echo-Alphas. "I'm not ready to forgive you. Not completely. Not yet."
They flinch like I hit them.
"But," I continue, my voice stronger, "I'm not ready to give up on you either. Because if I reject you now, I become just like Morvanna—choosing power over possibility. Choosing hate over hope."
I step closer. "So here's what's going to happen. I'm going to keep these bonds. But I'm not yours. Not anymore. You're going to have to earn me. Prove you've changed. Show me that you understand what you did wrong."
"And if we can't?" echo-Cassian asks.
"Then when this is over, when Morvanna is defeated, I'll reject you properly. I'll set us all free." I meet each of their eyes. "But until then, we're stuck with each other. So you better figure out how to be the mates I deserved the first time."
The room explodes with light.
The echoes dissolve, their energy flowing back into my chest. The bonds strengthen, solidifying into something new—not the forced destiny they were before, but a choice I'm making.
The Guardian appears. "You have passed the final trial. You chose neither complete forgiveness nor complete rejection. You chose the harder path—conditional trust. Growth. Change."
My legs shake. "Is that it? Am I done?"
"Almost." She gestures, and a mirror appears. "Look at yourself, Omega Sovereign. See what you've become."
I step toward the mirror.
The girl looking back at me isn't the frightened child in white silk anymore.
She's a warrior in silver armor. Her eyes glow with moonlight. Power radiates from her skin like a second heartbeat.
I'm beautiful. I'm terrifying. I'm everything they tried to suppress.
"Now," the Guardian says, "it's time to leave this temple and face your destiny. Your five Alphas await. Your sister plots. Morvanna prepares her final trap."
"I'm ready."
"Are you?" The Guardian tilts her head. "Because there's one more thing you should know."
My stomach drops. "What?"
"The bonding ceremony is happening tonight. Not in two days. Morvanna moved it up." Her expression is grim. "You have two hours before your Alphas are possessed and your sister claims everything you are."
The world tilts.
Two hours.
Not two days. Two hours.
"But the temple—the journey back—"
"Will take at least four hours on foot," the Guardian confirms.
"Then I've already failed!" Panic claws at me. "I can't get there in time!"
"Not on foot," the Guardian says. Then she smiles. "But you're not traveling on foot anymore. You're an Omega Sovereign. It's time you learned to fly."
She places her hand on my chest.
Power explodes through me—wild and ancient and free.
My body transforms, but not into a wolf this time.
Wings burst from my back. Massive silver wings that shimmer with starlight.
"What—"
"Your mother had this gift too," the Guardian whispers. "Now go. Fly to your mates. Save them. Save yourself. Save the world."
The temple walls dissolve.
I'm standing on a cliff edge with Ember and Tobias staring at me in shock.
"Nyx?" Ember breathes. "You have wings."
"No time to explain!" I grab them both. "Hold on!"
My wings spread wide, catching the wind.
And I launch us into the sky, racing against time toward the Lunar Temple where my fate—and the fate of five kingdoms—will be decided.
Far below, I feel my Alphas through the bonds.
They're getting dressed for the ceremony.
They don't know it's a trap.
They don't know they're about to die.
Hold on, I send through the bonds. I'm coming.
And this time, I'm coming not as the girl they rejected.
But as the queen they created when they broke me.