POV EMMA BELLE
The sky over the Black Crag was no longer the deep indigo of a mountain night. It was a bruised, pulsating violet, choked by the necrotic smoke of the Council's forbidden rituals. Even from miles away, I could feel the mountain screaming. The ancient obsidian stones, which had stood for millennia as a sanctuary for the exiled, were being hollowed out by a dark, parasitic magic.
"They're inside," I whispered, the words catching in my throat as Félix carried me through the canopy of the Forbidden Forest.
Félix didn't slow down. His breathing was a steady, rhythmic rasp, his body a machine of pure, desperate speed. I could feel his heart hammering against my back—not with fear, but with a cold, focused rage that mirrored my own.
"They can take the halls, Little Bird," Félix growled, his voice vibrating through my chest. "But they'll never take the throne. Not as long as we're breathing."
The golden thread between us was no longer just a hum; it was a roar. It felt like a live wire, pulsing with every stride he took. My inner wolf was standing at the edge of my consciousness, her fur bristling, her eyes fixed on the distant, flickering lights of our home. She wasn't an Omega anymore. She was a predator returning to protect her den.
As we broke through the treeline and reached the base of the mountain, the scale of the devastation hit us. The outer wards—Nathaniel's pride—had been shattered. The stone bridge was littered with the bodies of fallen sentinels and the twisted, blackened remains of Council Thralls.
"Damon! Nathaniel!" I screamed into the bond, pushing my consciousness toward the fortress.
Emma! Nathaniel's voice echoed back, strained and weak. The central sanctum... they've channeled the mountain's core. We're pinned. The High Inquisitor... he's trying to rewrite the soul-mark of the Crag.
"Hold on," I whispered, my fingers digging into Félix's shoulders. "We're here."
Félix didn't take the main path. He knew every crack and crevice of this mountain. He launched us upward, leaping from one jagged outcrop to another, bypassing the main gates where the bulk of the Council's army was stationed. We entered through the ventilation shaft we had used before—the place where we had shared our first real kiss.
The air inside was freezing, smelling of rot and ancient dust.
"Stay close," Félix whispered, shifting me from his back to his side. He drew his daggers, the silver blades reflecting the sickly violet light that was seeping through the walls.
We moved through the lower levels like ghosts. The fortress felt wrong. The stone was weeping black ichor, and the shadows seemed to reach for us as we passed.
"Lixie," I murmured, my hand finding his. "I can feel him. The Inquisitor. He's in the Solar."
"Then that's where we go," Félix said, his green eyes flashing with a lethal brilliance.
We reached the Great Hall just as a wave of necrotic energy blasted through the doors. Damon was there, his amber fur matted with blood, standing over a wounded Vincent. Nathaniel was draped in a shimmering, failing shield of silver light, his face deathly pale.
Opposite them stood the High Inquisitor. He was taller than the others, his robes made of shadow and bone, his staff topped with a skull that was screaming in a frequency only wolves could hear.
"The Abomination returns," the Inquisitor hissed, his gaze locking onto me. "And she brings her pet rebel."
Félix stepped in front of me, his body tensing. "The only pet here is you, old man. And you're about to be put down."
The Inquisitor laughed, a sound like dry leaves on a grave. He raised his staff, and the shadows in the room coalesced into four massive, hulking beasts—shadow-wolves, born from the mountain's own corrupted energy.
"Kill the Alphas," the Inquisitor commanded. "Bring me the Queen's heart. I will feast on the lineage of light tonight."
The shadow-wolves lunged.
"Emma, the core!" Nathaniel shouted, his shield finally shattering. "You have to purge the stone! If the mountain falls, we all fall!"
I looked at the chaos. Damon was locked in a brutal struggle with two of the shadow-beasts. Vincent was trying to crawl toward his daggers, his eyes clouded with poison.
I looked at Félix.
He didn't wait for a plan. He was already a blur of motion, his daggers dancing as he intercepted the shadow-wolf lunging for me. He moved with a grace that was almost supernatural, his laughter echoing through the hall despite the stakes.
"Go, Emma!" Félix shouted, parrying a claw that would have taken his head off. "I'll keep them busy! Do your Queen thing!"
I didn't want to leave him. My wolf was screaming to stay, to fight by his side, to tear the throat out of anyone who dared to touch him. But the golden thread was pulling me toward the center of the hall—toward the obsidian floor where the mountain's soul was anchored.
I ran to the center of the room and slammed my palms against the cold stone.
"No!" the Inquisitor roared, raising his staff to strike me.
But he was stopped. A golden arrow, trailing a line of pure emerald light, slammed into his shoulder. Félix had fired it mid-leap, his eyes fixed on the Inquisitor with a savage focus.
"Focus on me, you bastard!" Félix yelled, drawing his daggers again.
I closed my eyes and reached deep. I didn't just look for my own power; I looked for the mountain's. I felt the pain of the stone, the violation of the dark magic. I reached through the bond, calling on the three kings.
Damon! Nathaniel! Vincent! Give me everything!
I felt their spirits respond. Damon's fire, Nathaniel's ice, Vincent's silence. They poured into me like a river. But it was too much. The energy was chaotic, violent, threatening to tear my physical body apart.
I was drowning in power.
Then, I felt a hand on my back.
It was warm. It smelled of pine and wild rain.
"I'm here, Little Bird," Félix's voice whispered in my mind, even as he continued to fight off the shadow-wolves around us. "Use me. I'm your anchor. I'm your home."
The chaos in my soul settled. Félix wasn't giving me power; he was giving me a lens. He was the calm in the center of my storm. I channeled the combined energy of the four kings through the golden thread I shared with Félix, and the white light that erupted from me was no longer a blast—it was a tide.
The pearlescent light swept through the Great Hall. It didn't just push the shadows; it erased them. The shadow-wolves evaporated into mist. The black ichor on the walls turned back into solid obsidian.
The High Inquisitor shrieked as the light hit him, his staff shattering, his robes of shadow burning away to reveal a withered, terrified old man.
"The White Queen..." he gasped, his voice failing. "The prophecy was... true..."
The light reached the heart of the mountain, purging the necrosis in a final, thunderous pulse. The violet sky outside shattered, returning to a clear, star-studded night.
The silence that followed was absolute.
I fell back, my strength completely spent. I expected to hit the cold floor, but Félix was there. He caught me, his arms a familiar, scorching sanctuary. He lowered us to the ground, his face inches from mine. He was covered in scratches, his tunic torn, but his green eyes were glowing with a pride that made my heart ache.
"We did it," he whispered, his forehead resting against mine.
"We did," I breathed, my fingers tangling in his hair.
Damon, Nathaniel, and Vincent approached. They were battered, bloody, and exhausted, but they were alive. They stood in a circle around us, looking down at the girl who had just saved their world.
Damon knelt first. Then Nathaniel. Then Vincent.
"The Black Crag is yours, Emma Belle," Damon said, his voice a deep, solemn vow. "In blood and in soul. Until the moon falls."
I looked at them, then back at Félix. The jealousy in their eyes hadn't vanished, but it had changed. They recognized the truth. They were the kings of her realm, but the boy with the freckles was the king of her heart.
Félix looked at the others, then back at me. He leaned in and pressed a firm, warm kiss to the mark on my neck—the mark he had promised to seal.
"Get ready, Little Bird," he whispered, his voice full of a promise that made my wolf purr. "The war is over for tonight. But our story? It's just getting started."
I looked out at the stars through the shattered doors of the Great Hall. The Council was broken. Caleb was a memory. I had four kings, a mountain, and a love that had defied the stars.
The White Queen had returned. And the North would never be the same.