Nyx POV
The guard stopped at a heavy wooden door near the end of a dim corridor. "Your quarters, miss." He produced a key. Of course there was a key. Then he unlocked it.
I stepped inside.
The room was small but well-appointed. A bed with clean linens. A washbasin. A narrow window that, when I crossed to it, revealed a view of the Council courtyard three stories below. No bars on the window, but the drop would kill anyone without wings or magic.
A comfortable cage was still a cage.
"Someone will bring you dinner shortly," the guard said from the doorway. "And breakfast at dawn, before your… before the Council reconvenes."
Before my verdict, he meant.
"Thank you," I managed.
He nodded awkwardly and closed the door. I heard the lock click into place.
I stood in the center of the room, suddenly exhausted. The events of the day crashed over me all at once—the ceremony, the bonding, Kael running, the Council's accusations, the seer's violation, the blocking spell, the examination.
My knees gave out. I sank onto the edge of the bed, hands shaking.
'Rest,' Frost urged gently. 'You have been through much.'
'They're keeping me prisoner,' I thought. 'My family doesn't know where I am. Kael is out there somewhere, hating me. And tomorrow the Council decides whether I'm worthy of the bond you gave me.'
'The Council's opinion is irrelevant.' Her certainty was absolute. 'I chose you. That is all that matters.'
Is it? I looked at my hands, they still glowed faintly with ice magic, frost forming on my fingertips. If they decide I'm not the prophesied one, what happens then? Can they… can they break our bond?
The temperature in the room dropped sharply.
'They can TRY.' Frost's voice was a growl. ' And they will learn why none have dared challenge a legendary wolf in two thousand years.'
The fierce protectiveness in her tone should have frightened me.
Instead, for the first time since this nightmare began, I felt safe.
'Get some rest, child,' Frost said, her mental voice softening. 'Tomorrow, we face them together. And tomorrow, they will learn that prophecies are not written in stone. They are written in ice and fire and the choices we make.'
Ice and fire.
For some reason, the pairing made me think of Kael. His storm-gray eyes. The way he'd looked at me before he ran.
I pushed the thought away and lay back on the bed, fully clothed, staring at the ceiling.
Tomorrow, the Council will give their verdict.
Tomorrow, I would learn if being chosen by a legendary wolf was enough to overcome a twelve-generation curse and the expectations of an entire world.
Tomorrow, everything will change.
Again.
I closed my eyes and tried to sleep, Frost's presence a constant, icy comfort in my mind.
************
'Child. CHILD.'
Frost's voice crashed through my dreams like an avalanche. I jolted awake, disoriented, my heart hammering against my ribs. The room was pitch black. How long had I been asleep? The window showed only darkness. Middle of the night, then.
'What—'
'Wake up.' Her mental voice was louder now, more urgent than I'd ever heard it. 'Kael is in danger.'
I sat up so fast my head spun, sleep disappearing instantly. "What?!"
I'd said it aloud. In the silent room, my voice sounded too loud.
'There is no time to waste,' Frost commanded. 'He will be dead if we don't reach him Now.'
My chest tightened painfully. I should hate him. He'd thrown me away, called me unworthy, looked through me at the ceremony like I was nothing. But the thought of him dying made something inside me twist with fear.
Damn him. Damn my stupid heart for still caring.
I jumped to my feet and ran to the door, grabbing the handle. Locked. Of course it was locked.
'I can't get—'
'Those powers aren't for decoration,' Frost interrupted impatiently. 'Use them.'
I stared at my hands. They were still glowing faintly in the darkness, frost forming on my fingertips like it had been since the bonding. I'd felt the power—vast and cold and ancient but I hadn't actually used it yet. Not consciously.
'I don't know how—'
'Yes, you do. Stop thinking. Just feel.'
I pressed my palm against the cold metal doorknob and pushed. Something inside me that responded to my desperation, my fear, my need.
Ice erupted from my hand.
The doorknob froze instantly, metal contracting with an audible crack. Frost spread across the wood in crystalline patterns, beautiful and deadly. I felt the lock mechanism inside seize, metal shrieking as it fractured under the impossible cold.
I twisted. The frozen knob shattered in my hand, pieces of metal and ice falling to the floor.
The door swung open.
For a moment, I just stood there, staring at my hand, at the evidence of what I'd done. I just used magic. Real magic.
'Move,' Frost commanded.
Right. Kael is in Danger.
I stepped into the corridor. It was dark and empty. no guard posted. They really had thought a locked door would be enough to hold me.
'Where is he?' I asked, already running down the hallway toward where I thought the exit might be.
'The Hatchery. The fool returned.'
My stomach dropped. 'What? Why would he—'
'To prove himself. To find a wolf that would bond with him.' Frost's mental voice was grim. 'But the Hatchery at night is dangerous for the unbonded. The rogue wolves hunt. And he has ventured into the forbidden section where even bonded humans fear to tread.'
'How do you know all this?'
'I can feel the Hatchery's alarm. The sacred grounds have been violated. Something ancient has awakened.' She paused. 'And I can sense him. Your mate.'
The word hit me hard. 'He's not my—'
'There is no time for denial. Turn left. Take the servants' stairs.'
I turned left, found a narrow staircase, and took the steps two at a time. My bare feet were silent on the stone. I'd fallen asleep in my clothes. the blue dress was wrinkled and uncomfortable, but at least I wasn't trying to run in a nightgown.
'Why can you sense him specifically?' I asked as I reached the ground floor and Frost guided me toward what looked like a kitchen entrance.
'Because the bond between you exists whether you acknowledge it or not. You are fated mates, child. His danger pulls at you the same way yours would pull at him.'
'That's not…we're not…' I didn't even know what I was arguing. That we'd broken up? That he'd rejected me? That fate couldn't possibly be cruel enough to tie me to someone who didn't want me?
'The mating bond cares nothing for your fears or his foolish choices,' Frost said. 'It exists. You will learn to accept it. But first, we must ensure he lives long enough for that acceptance to matter.'
I burst through the kitchen door into the cold night air. The Council grounds were dark, but I could see the gates in the distance.
Even if they didn't guard my cage, there was no way they'd leave the gates unguarded.
'I can't just—'
'You are bonded to me,' Frost said with absolute certainty. 'There is no gate that can hold us. No guard that can stop us. Run, child. And I will show you what it means to be legendary.'
Her power surged through the bond. This was so much power I gasped and suddenly I wasn't just running. I was flying.
No, not flying physically. Moving faster than should be possible, my feet barely touching the ground, ice forming a path beneath me that let me glide across the courtyard like I was skating. The gates loomed ahead.
'Don't slow down,' Frost commanded.
I didn't.
I raised my hands and pushed with that same instinct I'd used on the doorknob.
Ice exploded from my palms, hitting the gates with enough force to blow them open, metal shrieking and frost spreading across the iron in beautiful, deadly patterns.
I shot through the opening into the night beyond, leaving shouts and alarms behind me.
'The Hatchery is two miles north,' Frost said. 'Hold on.'
Then her power flooded through me completely. The world blurred—trees and darkness rushing past faster than thought. One moment I was at the Council gates.
The next, I stood in the heart of the Hatchery's forbidden territory.
The ancient forest section, where trees grew so thick and old they blocked even moonlight. The air was heavy with the scent of earth and decay and something else. Blood.
Kael lay motionless at the base of a massive oak.
"No—"
I dropped to my knees beside him, and my hands immediately went slick with his blood. It pooled beneath him, soaking into the dirt, too much blood, far too much blood.
His clothes were shredded. Deep claw marks tore across his chest, his arms, his side. Bite wounds on his shoulder looked like something had tried to tear his throat out.
His chest didn't move.
"Kael?" My voice cracked. I pressed my ear to his chest, desperate to hear something, anything.
Nothing. No heartbeat. No breath.
I checked his wrist with shaking fingers. No pulse.
"No, no, no—" Panic clawed up my throat. I positioned my hands on the center of his chest and started compressions, counting frantically. "One, two, three, four—"
His blood soaked through my dress, warm and horrifying.
"Come on, Kael. Breathe. Please breathe—"
Five, six, seven, eight—
Tears blurred my vision. I'd been so angry at him. So hurt. He'd broken my heart, thrown me away, called me unworthy. But I didn't want this. I'd never wanted this.
"Don't you dare die," I choked out, pressing harder. "Don't you dare leave like this—"
Fifteen, sixteen, seventeen—
Movement in the shadows made me freeze.
Eyes. Dozens of them, glowing in the darkness beyond the trees. Rogue wolves, massive and feral, their forms barely visible in the black. They circled slowly, watching, waiting.
They'd done this to him. Torn him apart. And now they were waiting to finish what they'd started.
A growl rose in my chest. It wasn't mine. Frost's.
The rogues whimpered and backed away several steps, but they didn't leave. They knew. They could smell death coming.
'They won't approach while I'm present,' Frost said. 'But we have no time for them. Focus on the boy.'
"I'm trying!" I went back to compressions, counting through my tears. "Frost, help me—there has to be something—"
'Stop.'
"No—"
'Stop, child. Physical intervention will not save him.'
"Then WHAT?!" I screamed aloud, my hands still pressed to his chest, unable to accept it. "Tell me what to do!"
'He is too far gone. His heart has stopped. His body is shutting down. By the time we reach help, he will be beyond even magic's reach.'