Nyx POV
The Council chamber was designed to intimidate.
I stood alone in the center of a circular stone floor, and above me, arranged in a semicircular platform like judges at a trial, sat the High Council. Ten men, all of them bonded to powerful wolves. I could feel the power of their magic pressing down on me. Deltas, Gammas, Betas. And at the center, in a chair slightly higher than the rest, High Councilor Veron, an Alpha Wolf binder.
All of them are old enough to be my grandfather.
All of them were staring at me with expressions that made it clear they'd already decided I was guilty.
'Should I stay?' I asked the Ice Wolf silently. The legendary wolf had brought me here but refused to enter the chamber with me.
'This is your fight,' she'd said. 'You must learn to stand alone before you can stand with others.'
Easy for an ancient wolf to say. She wasn't the one being stared down by the most powerful men in our society.
My hands were shaking. I clasped them behind my back so they wouldn't see.
"Nyx North."
High Councilor Veron's voice cut through the silence like a blade. Authority radiated from every syllable, and I had to fight the instinct to drop my gaze to the floor.
"Yes, High Councilor." My voice came out steadier than I felt.
"Explain to the Council what occurred at today's ceremony."
"I attended the Coming-of-Age ceremony, as is every eighteen-year-old's right." I swallowed hard. "The legendary wolf chose to bond with me."
Someone on the Council, one of the Gamma binders snickered. The sound made heat rise to my face.
"Except it wasn't just any wolf, was it?" This voice came from my left, High Councilor Theron, the man who'd presided over the ceremony. He leaned forward in his seat. "It was the legendary wolf. The one prophesied to save us from the Void. The one meant for—"
"The prophecy mentioned no name," I interrupted before I could stop myself.
Silence filled the room.
Veron's eyes narrowed. "You dare interrupt a High Councilor?"
My mouth went dry. "I—no, I'm sorry, I just…the wolf said—"
"The wolf said many things." Veron's voice was cold. "And we will address those claims in due time. But first, Miss North, let us address the more pressing question."
He stood, and the movement drew every eye in the chamber. When he spoke again, his words were precise. Calculated.
"What magic did you use to steal Kael Stormborn's destiny?"
The question hit me like a physical blow. For a moment, I couldn't breathe.
"I—what?"
"Don't play ignorant." Another Council member spoke. He was younger than the others, maybe in his fifties, with a Beta wolf bond. "We all know what happened today was impossible. The North family is cursed. You yourself know that no wolf has chosen your bloodline in twelve generations."
"Which means," Theron added, his voice heavy with implication, "something changed between your arrival and the bonding. Something unnatural."
My heart was racing now. "I didn't do anything! The wolf chose me…I didn't—"
"The wolf was meant to choose Kael Stormborn." Veron's voice rose, echoing off the stone walls. "A child born under the eclipsed moon twenty years ago. That was the prophecy. That was the sign. And Kael was the only candidate who met that criterion."
Murmurs of agreement rippled through the Council.
"So I ask you again, Miss North." Veron descended from his platform, walking toward me with slow, deliberate steps. "What spell did you cast? What dark magic did you employ? Were you perhaps seeking revenge for your family's curse by destroying the life of our prophesied savior?"
"No!" The word burst out of me. "I would never..,I didn't—"
But even as I protested, doubt crept in. Because he was right about one thing: I wasn't born under the eclipse. I didn't meet the criteria. So why had the wolf chosen me?
'Because you are mine,' her voice whispered in my mind, fierce and certain. 'Because our bond was forged long before any prophecy. Because they are fools who see only what they wish to see.'
'Then tell them that,' I thought desperately. 'Come in here and tell them yourself.'
'No. You must speak for yourself, child. I will not always be here to shield you.'
Veron was close now, close enough that I could see the contempt in his eyes. "Your silence speaks volumes, Miss North."
"I'm not silent." I forced myself to meet his gaze, even though everything in me wanted to look away. "I'm trying to tell you—I didn't cast any spell. I didn't do anything except show up. The wolf chose me. I don't know why—"
"Convenient," someone muttered.
"—but she did," I continued, voice rising. "She spoke to all of you. She said she chose me before I was born. She said the prophecy never named anyone specifically. Why won't you believe her?"
"Because," Veron said quietly, dangerously, "believing her would mean accepting that twenty years of preparation, twenty years of grooming our prophesied savior, was for nothing. That the seers were wrong. That the Council was wrong."
He leaned closer, and I could smell tobacco and old leather.
"And we are never wrong, Miss North. Which means someone must have interfered. Someone must have corrupted the natural order." His eyes bored into mine. "Someone like a desperate girl from a cursed family with nothing to lose."
My hands had curled into fists. Ice magic—the wolf's magic flickered at my fingertips, cold and sharp and begging to be released.
'Easy,' she warned. 'Do not give them reason to fear your power. Not yet.'
I took a shaking breath and forced my hands to unclench. "I understand this isn't what you expected. I understand it's… unprecedented. But I swear to you, I cast no spell. I used no dark magic. The wolf chose me, and I don't know why, but I'm not going to apologize for it."
The words came out braver than I felt.
Veron studied me for a long moment. Then he turned back to the Council. "What say you? Shall we test her claim?"
"Test how?" Theron asked.
"There are ways to detect dark magic. Traces it leaves on the soul." Veron's smile was cold. "If Miss North is innocent, she has nothing to fear from an examination."
Panic spiked through me. I didn't know what kind of examination he meant, but the way he said it made my skin crawl.
'Hello? Are you still there?'
'Hold steady,' she commanded calmly. She was way too calm for my liking.
But I didn't have time to think. The Council was nodding, agreeing, and Veron was already gesturing to someone I hadn't noticed before—a woman in dark robes standing in the shadows at the edge of the chamber.
A seer.
The seer stepped forward, her dark robes whispering against the stone floor. Her milky eyes fixed on me with unsettling precision—unseeing but somehow seeing too much.
"This won't hurt," she said in a voice like dry leaves scraping over stone. "If you're innocent."
She raised one pale hand.
The bond snapped shut.
I could still feel it there, like a door slammed and locked—but closed. The constant presence of the Wolf's consciousness, which had filled my mind since the ceremony, vanished. My mind became empty. Silent.
Alone in a way I hadn't been since the bonding.
'Hello?' I reached desperately for her. 'Hey!'
Nothing. Just empty silence where she should be.
Panic clawed up my throat. I'd only been bonded for an hour, but already the absence felt wrong—like part of my soul had been carved out, leaving a raw, aching void.
"What have you done?" The words came out strangled. My palms were slick with sweat. My heart hammered so hard against my ribs I thought it might crack them. "What did you do to the bond?"
"Nothing permanent." The seer smiled, and it didn't reach her dead eyes. "A simple blocking spell. Your bond remains intact. I'm simply ensuring it cannot… interfere with my examination."
She took another step closer.
"Assuming, of course, you have nothing to hide."
Around the chamber, Council members leaned forward in their seats, watching. Veron's expression was unreadable. Theron looked almost eager. A few others seemed uncertain, but none of them spoke up. None of them stopped what was happening.
I tried to step back and found I couldn't move. My feet were frozen to the stone floor—literally frozen. Ice had formed around my shoes, anchoring me in place.
"Stay still," the seer commanded. "This will be easier if you don't resist."
'I can't do this alone,' I thought desperately. 'Please—'
But there was no answer. No ancient, certain voice to guide me. No strength flowing through the bond to steady me.
I was eighteen years old, standing alone before the most powerful people in our world, and I'd never felt more powerless in my life.
The seer's hand reached toward my forehead.
I closed my eyes and prayed to gods I wasn't sure existed that whatever she found or didn't find wouldn't destroy me.
Her fingers touched my skin.
And the world turned inside out.