POV EMMA BELLE
The Obsidian Spire rose from the jagged earth like a rotted tooth. It was a fortress of shadow and bone, the air around it thick with the sulfurous scent of Council magic. My heart was a frantic bird in my chest, but it wasn't just fear driving me—it was the tether. I could feel the children's terror vibrating through the ground, a low, mournful hum that only a White Queen could hear.
"Quiet," Damon breathed, his voice a low vibration against my back.
We were pressed against the cold, jagged exterior of the Spire's lower levels. The Council's sentinels, hulking warriors with eyes clouded by dark enchantments, patrolled the battlements above. We couldn't fight our way in—not yet. Not while the children were being held with silver knives at their throats.
"Nathaniel, the wards," I whispered.
Nathaniel closed his eyes, his silver hair shimmering in the gloom. He pressed his palms against the obsidian stone. "They're layered, Emma. It's a sensory net. If we move another inch, the entire Spire will scream."
"Then we don't go through the stone," Vincent murmured, his form bleeding into the shadows of a nearby crevice. "We go through the cracks. Félix, you're up."
Félix—my Lixie—flashed a grin that was all teeth and trouble. He looked at me, his green eyes glowing with a wild, reckless energy. "Ready for a little acrobatics, Little Bird?"
Before I could answer, a sudden flare of purple light erupted from the battlements. A sentinel had spotted Vincent's shadow.
"Go!" Damon roared, drawing his axe. "Infiltrate the lower cells! We'll draw their fire!"
The plan shattered into a million jagged pieces. Damon and Nathaniel charged toward the main gates, their Alphas' auras exploding in a display of raw power to distract the Council's guard. Vincent vanished into the stone, a phantom on a mission.
Félix grabbed my waist, his grip iron-strong. "Hold on tight, Emma!"
In a blur of blonde hair and lethal agility, he launched us upward. He didn't climb; he defied gravity. He used the jagged outcroppings of the Spire like a ladder, leaping from one ledge to the next with me clinging to his back. My heart was pounding so hard I thought it would burst, but as my chest pressed against his, something strange happened.
The violet light in my veins didn't explode in a chaotic blast. It began to pulse. It synced with the rhythm of Félix's heartbeat.
Thump-thump. Thump-thump.
We reached a narrow ventilation shaft high above the ground. Félix swung us inside just as a bolt of necrotic energy hissed past the spot where we had been standing. We tumbled into a small, cramped stone chamber—a maintenance crawlspace barely large enough for two people.
Silence fell, broken only by our ragged breathing. The space was tiny, forcing me to sit between Félix's legs, my back pressed against the cold wall and my chest inches from his.
"You okay?" he whispered, his voice a hoarse rasp in the dark.
"I... I think so," I breathed.
The proximity was overwhelming. The smell of him—pine, rain, and that unique, spicy scent of an Alpha in high-alert—filled my senses. In the darkness, his green eyes were two emerald fires, watching me with an intensity that made the air feel thick.
He reached out, his hand trembling slightly as he brushed a smudge of soot from my cheek. "You're glowing again, Emma."
I looked down at my hands. The white light was there, but it was soft, like moonlight on water. It wasn't the violent fire I shared with Damon or the cold steel of Nathaniel. It was… peaceful.
"Lixie," I whispered, my voice trembling. "My heart... it's doing something weird."
He moved closer, his chest brushing against mine. He placed his hand over my heart, and I placed mine over his.
The moment our palms met, the world outside—the screams, the war, the Council—ceased to exist.
I felt it. A deep, resonant hum that started in the soles of my feet and traveled to my soul. My inner wolf, the one Caleb had called a defect, the one that had been silent for nineteen years, suddenly let out a joyous, melodic howl. She didn't growl in defense; she sang.
"Do you feel that?" Félix breathed, his face inches from mine. "Our souls... they're singing the same note."
It wasn't just a bond. It was a recognition. My wolf wasn't just activating; she was waking up to her partner. Félix wasn't just my protector; he was my mirror.
"I've never felt this with the others," I confessed, my fingers tangling in the collar of his tunic. "With Damon, it's like a storm. With Nathaniel, it's a map. But with you... it's like I'm finally home."
Félix's expression crumbled, the cocky rebel mask falling away to reveal a man who was desperately, hopelessly in love. He leaned his forehead against mine, his breath warm on my lips. "I've spent my whole life being the one who runs, Emma. The one who jokes so he doesn't have to feel the rejection. But when I'm with you... I don't want to run anymore. I want to stand still."
He moved his hand from my heart to my neck, his thumb grazing the mark Caleb had left. The skin there began to tingle, the red scar turning into a brilliant, pearlescent silver.
"He didn't reject you because you were weak, Emma," Félix whispered, his voice cracking with emotion. "He rejected you because he was too small to contain a soul like yours. But I... I will spend every breath I have trying to be enough for you."
I felt a tear slip down my cheek. I wasn't the rejected Omega anymore. I wasn't even the White Queen in this tiny, dark space. I was just Emma. And I was loved.
My wolf pushed forward, her spirit merging with mine. I felt a surge of power, but it didn't hurt. It was a warm, golden tide. My eyes snapped open, and I knew they were glowing with a new, permanent light.
"Lixie," I murmured, my voice sounding like the wind in the pines.
"I'm here, Little Bird."
He leaned in, and this time, there was no Damon to interrupt. No Nathaniel to analyze the moment. Just the two of us in the heart of the enemy's fortress.
His lips met mine in a kiss that was both a question and a vow. It was soft at first, a hesitant tasting of the light we shared, but then it deepened into something hungrier, something primal. It was the taste of freedom. It was the taste of the forest.
I wrapped my arms around his neck, pulling him closer, wanting to dissolve into him. The power in my blood flared, but it wasn't kinetic energy this time—it was a beacon.
Suddenly, a loud thud echoed through the walls of the ventilation shaft. The stone beneath us vibrated.
"The children," I gasped, pulling away, though my body screamed for him to stay. "I can hear them. They're right below us."
Félix blinked, his eyes slowly returning from the emerald depths of his wolf. He shook his head, a crooked, lopsided smile returning to his face despite the danger. "Right. Duty calls. But for the record, Emma? That was better than any throne."
He stood up in the cramped space, offering me his hand. As I took it, the silver light from my skin flowed into him, and his green eyes flared with a new, reinforced strength. We weren't just two people anymore; we were a circuit of power.
"Let's go get those kids," Félix said, his voice regaining its rebellious edge. "And then, I'm going to take you back to the mountain and finish what we just started."
I laughed, a real, genuine sound that felt like the first sun of spring. "Is that a promise, Lixie?"
"It's a King's decree," he winked.
He kicked out the metal grate at the end of the shaft. We looked down into a dimly lit cellar where twenty children were huddled together in a silver cage. Two Council Inquisitors stood over them, their hands glowing with the same necrotic rot that had almost killed me.
"Ready?" Félix asked, his body tensing, ready to leap.
I looked at my hands, feeling my wolf standing tall and proud within me. "Let's show them what happens when they touch my pack."
We dropped from the ceiling like twin bolts of lightning—one white, one green.
The war was far from over, and the Obsidian Spire was full of traps, but as I landed in the center of the room, my power exploding in a wave of protective light, I knew one thing for certain.
Caleb had rejected me. The Council had hunted me. But Félix had chosen me. And with him by my side, I wasn't just a Queen.
I was invincible.