Nyx POV
The seer's fingers touched my forehead. And I fell.
Not physically. My body remained frozen in place, ice still anchoring my feet to the stone floor. But my mind, my consciousness, my very self plummeted into darkness.
Then light exploded behind my eyes.
Images flashed too fast to process: my childhood, Kael's face, my grandmother's blue dress, Frost's burning blue eyes, the Hatchery gates, Finn's haunted expression, my mother crying, Kael kissing me in the old mill, Kael walking away—
Stop, I tried to scream, but I had no voice.
The seer was in my head, rifling through my memories like pages in a book. I felt her presence. It was cold, invasive, and wrong. She was touching things that were mine, private, and sacred. I couldn't stop her.
Get out get out get out—
She went deeper.
Past conscious memories into something older. Darker. I saw faces I didn't recognize—ancestors, maybe, stretching back through generations. I felt their emotions: shame, anger, grief, betrayal.
And beneath it all, something else. Something that made the seer's presence recoil.
'What is this?'
Her voice echoed through my mind, confused and almost… frightened?
'What are you?'
Then, as suddenly as it began, it ended.
The seer's hand jerked back from my forehead. She stumbled backward, nearly falling, her milky eyes wide with shock.
I gasped, sucking in air like I'd been drowning. My knees buckled, but the ice around my feet kept me upright. The chamber spun.
And then—
'CHILD.'
The Ice Wolf's voice slammed back into my mind with the force of an avalanche. I never imagined that I would be happy to hear another voice other than mine in my head. The blocking spell shattered. Her consciousness flooded through the bond, furious and protective and absolutely livid.
'They dared. They DARED touch you. Separate us. I will freeze their blood in their veins. I will—'
'Hey,' I thought weakly. 'I'm okay. I'm—'
'You are NOT okay. What they did was a violation. An insult to us both.'
She was right, but I couldn't focus on that. Not yet. The seer was still staring at me like I was something she'd never seen before.
"Well?" High Councilor Veron's voice cut through the chamber, impatient and sharp. "What did you see? Evidence of dark magic? Spell residue? Corruption?"
The seer shook her head slowly. Once. Twice. She couldn't seem to stop.
"Speak, woman!" Theron demanded.
"The girl…" The seer's voice came out hoarse. "The girl is telling the truth."
Silence crashed down.
"What?" Veron's word was barely more than a whisper.
"No sign of black magic has been detected." The seer was still shaking her head, still staring at me. "No spell residue. No corruption. Nothing dark. Nothing unnatural."
My shoulders sagged with relief so intense I nearly collapsed. The ice around my feet cracked and melted, and I stumbled forward a step before catching myself.
'Told you,' The Wolf said with deep satisfaction. 'These fools see only what they wish to see.'
The Council chamber erupted into murmurs, shocked voices overlapping, arguing, questioning.
"That's impossible—"
"But the curse—"
"How could she—"
"SILENCE." Veron's voice boomed, magically amplified. The murmurs died.
He stared at the seer, then at me, his expression unreadable. The silence stretched for a full minute. Two minutes. I watched him think, calculate, scheme behind those cold eyes.
Finally, he spoke. "The Council will deliberate on these findings."
"Deliberate?" The word burst out of me before I could stop it. "She said I'm innocent. What is there to deliberate?"
Veron's gaze snapped to me, sharp as a blade. "You will watch your tone, Miss North."
"You accused me of dark magic." My voice shook, but I couldn't stop now. The wolf's fury was feeding mine, making me braver than I had any right to be. "You violated my mind. You cut me off from my wolf. And now that I'm proven innocent, you want to deliberate?"
"Nyx North—" Theron warned.
"No." I stepped forward, hands clenched into fists. Ice magic flickered around my fingers—the wolf's power responding to my anger. "I did nothing wrong. The legendary wolf chose me. I don't know why, I don't know how, but she did. And you can't stand it because it wasn't what you planned. It wasn't what you wanted. So you tried to find a way to discredit me, to prove I was a fraud or a criminal or cursed—"
"Enough!" Veron roared.
"—and you failed!" I finished. "So what now? What verdict could you possibly—"
"We must determine," Veron interrupted icily, "what to do with you."
The words hung in the air like a threat.
"Do with me?" I repeated slowly.
"The bond is real. We accept that." He waved a dismissive hand. "The examination proved you cast no spell. Fine. But that doesn't change the fundamental problem, Miss North."
"Which is?"
"You are not the prophesied one." He said each word with careful precision. "You were not born under the eclipsed moon. You do not meet the criteria laid out by the seers twenty years ago. And yet you possess the power meant for our salvation."
Around the chamber, Council members nodded.
"So we must decide," Veron continued, "whether to accept you as our prophesied savior despite these… inconsistencies. Whether to invest our resources in training you. Whether to trust the fate of our world to a girl from a cursed bloodline who, by all logic, should never have been chosen at all."
The ice around my fingers grew colder. Sharper.
'Say the word,' she growled in my mind, 'and I will show them exactly what happens to those who question my judgment.'
"When will you decide?" I asked, forcing my voice steady.
"The Council will reconvene tomorrow morning." Veron turned away from me, dismissive. "You will return at dawn for our verdict."
"And until then?"
"You are confined to Council grounds. You will not leave. You will not contact anyone outside these walls." He glanced back at me. "We cannot risk you… disappearing before this matter is resolved."
'They're making you a prisoner,' the wolf snarled.
"You're holding me captive?" I asked incredulously.
"We're ensuring you remain available for questioning," Theron corrected smoothly. "Surely you understand our caution, given the… unusual circumstances."
"You're dismissed, Nyx North," one of the Gamma binders managed to spit out, like my name tasted foul in his mouth. "Someone will show you to your quarters."
Quarters. Like I was a guest, not a prisoner.
I wanted to argue. Wanted to demand they let me go home to my family, who must be terrified, wondering what happened to me.
But the look in Veron's eyes told me argument would only make things worse.
'Choose your battles,' she advised, though her tone suggested she wanted me to fight this one. 'Tomorrow, we will show them they cannot contain us.'
I turned and walked toward the chamber doors, spine straight, head high.
Behind me, I heard the Council erupt into heated discussion the moment they thought I was out of earshot.
"—can't possibly accept—"
"—the wolf chose her, we have no choice—"
"—cursed bloodline—"
"—the Void is coming—"
The doors closed behind me, cutting off the Council's voices mid-argument.
A guard waited in the corridor—a young man with a Delta wolf bond who wouldn't meet my eyes. "This way, miss."
I followed him through winding stone corridors, the legendary wolf's presence a constant, comforting weight in my mind. After the horror of having the bond severed, even temporarily, I was acutely aware of her consciousness wrapped around mine. Protective. Ancient. Certain.
But I couldn't keep calling her "the Ice Wolf" or "the Legendary Wolf" like she was a title instead of a person. She was in my mind now, part of me. Calling her by a label felt wrong, distant and impersonal when we were anything but.
'Do you have a name?' I asked hesitantly through the bond. 'Or… can I call you something?'
'Frost.' The answer came immediately, with a warmth that contradicted the name itself. 'I am called Frost.'
'Frost,' I repeated mentally, testing how it felt. The name settled into place perfectly. Cold and sharp and beautiful, like her. 'I like it.'
'As do I.' I could have sworn I felt amusement rippling through the bond. 'It is far better than "the wolf," yes?'
Despite everything: the accusation, the examination, the imprisonment, I almost smiled. 'Much better.'
'Where are you?' I asked with concern when I couldn't find her where I'd left her.
'Around. I can see through your eyes. I know you're safe.'
We turned a corner, and I became aware of eyes following us. Servants pressed against walls to let us pass, staring openly. Guards at intersections watched with expressions ranging from awe to poorly concealed hostility. Word must have spread already: the cursed North girl, chosen by the legendary wolf, now prisoner of the Council.
'Let them stare,' Frost said dismissively. 'They are gnats. Inconsequential.'
'Easy for you to say, I thought. You're a legendary wolf. I'm just—'
'You are bonded to me.' Her tone sharpened. 'That makes you extraordinary, whether they acknowledge it or not.'
I kept my chin up and my eyes forward as we walked, refusing to give anyone the satisfaction of seeing me falter. If they wanted to stare, fine. Let them stare at the girl who'd stolen their prophecy. Let them wonder what the Council would do with me.
Let them fear what I might become.