The next morning, Elias stormed in the moment she woke and forbade her from doing a single ounce of work. Fin backed him, of course. Nova, not wanting either man to hover over her like she was made of spun glass, promised she'd rest so Fin could get through the mountain of alpha duties piling on his desk.
She did lie down.
For five minutes.
Then her mind started spinning again.
The full moon was eleven days away. They still had no idea how to reach the prophecy, and even if she identified its exact location, that didn't guarantee they could retrieve it in time. Both their betas' lives were tethered to that deadline. The ancestors' warning had already been broken in several places. What else were they missing?
Before she realized what she was doing, she was in Fin's private study— in a new, unripped short silk robe and slippers—examining the dagger that belonged to her. She should have gone to get dressed, but then Fin would assume she intended to work.
Outside of the sore throat she'd woken with, she felt fine. Perfectly capable. She should be allowed to do her pack duties. A flicker of guilt tugged at her, but Elle's life was at stake. She'd be back in bed long before Fin returned that afternoon.
She reached for the first rune book, her eyes flaring faintly.
Someone cleared their throat at the door.
Nova screamed and jumped so hard the daggers she held slipped from her fingers. She hadn't heard anyone come in.
Jax leaned against the doorframe, arms crossed, wearing that look—the one he always got when he was trying (and failing) not to smirk. The same look he'd had the first time Fin accidentally fell off a horse in front of the entire training yard.
"I knew it," he said. His shoulders shook once, and then he stopped pretending and laughed. "Fin said you'd be asleep."
Nova's eyes flared silver—annoyed, unamused, absolutely caught.
"Jax, we have eleven days before the full moon," she rasped.
"We are all painfully aware, Nova."
He still didn't move. Didn't leave. Just stood there like a brick wall in the shape of a gamma.
Then, finally, he sighed. "Go on. Open it. I want to know too."
Nova exhaled, relieved. She reached for the first book in the stack. As soon as her fingers brushed the cover, her eyes flared silver like someone had struck flint inside them.
"Jax—can you channel into me?" she said, breath tight.
He immediately stepped behind her, hand brushing her shoulder, magic pouring into her. He still wasn't convinced she was well enough to be upright, let alone doing this. But the urgency in her voice? He wasn't ignoring that.
Nova flipped through the pages at alpha speed—so fast Jax couldn't even see the words. Her eyes scanned like she was downloading the entire book in seconds. His brows lifted. Even for Nova, this was… insane.
She whispered something—soft, fluid, and in a language older than any kingdom still standing.
But to Nova, she hadn't spoken. She wasn't reading. She was falling.
Fast. Violent. Rushing.
The vision yanked her downward like a plunge off the edge of a cliff. It rushed past her like tumbling through a waterfall—fast, relentless, a violent cascade of images. She recognized the lake immediately, the same place she and Rex had swum, but this time the current didn't carry her outward. It dragged her beneath. Down. Deeper.
Many feet below the surface lay something ancient—an item waiting in the dark. She saw herself reaching for it, the water shifting around her. Gold at first—gold because she was in it—then turning a deep sapphire the moment her fingers touched the object. The vision flashed forward to her grabbing a token near what she had touched.
It lurched forward, skipping ahead like a heartbeat lost. She swam beneath the waterfall… but she wasn't the first one there. Ashbane was.
His hand closed around the object before hers ever reached it.
The book snapped shut with a crack.
A portal tore open in front of them—no spell circle, no chant, just a violent rip in space. Cold air rushed out. A whisper spilled through the opening, thin and merciless, echoing like a ticking clock caught in a cavern.
Tick… tock… tick… tock.
You are very behind.
Your Beta survives… but his Luna is still fated for death.
Jax heard it too. His head whipped toward her, eyes wide, pulse spiking. But Nova didn't wait. She bolted—pure instinct, pure terror, pure purpose—launching herself into the portal before he could grab her arm.
He didn't stop her. He couldn't. Her urgency hit him like a blade through the ribs through the matebond, a tidal wave of certainty and dread.
He leapt after her—but the portal snapped shut behind him with a sound like a jaw locking.
They stood at the Falls of Elaran's Veil.
Nova didn't need to look around to recognize it. Her mind snapped to the memory immediately—being here with Rex, the roar of the falls, the mist like cool silk against her skin. Her bones knew this place before her eyes confirmed it.
Jax's breath caught hard in his throat.
He turned in a slow circle, stunned silent. Dragons wheeled in the far distance, their silhouettes cutting across a sky so bright it looked almost forged.
A beautiful, large lake spread out beneath them with forest surrounding it, in a colossal crater hidden by a ring of jagged mountains. It was lush as an untouched paradise. An oasis carved by ancient forces, suspended between sky and stone.
They stood at the very top of the waterfall, the ground trembling under the crush of water. Mist drifted in soft waves across the cliff, curling around their legs. Below them, the drop stretched at least one hundred feet—straight down into a vast pool of water where the currents twisted like living threads.
Jax exhaled slowly, reverently.
"Gods… Nova…"
It was the most breathtaking place he had ever seen. And they were on the edge of it—on the lip of a world that did not belong to mortals, standing on a cliff that shouldn't exist.
"Jax… do you trust me?" Nova whispered.
"With everything," he answered instantly—no hesitation, no breath between the words.
And when she looked at him, really looked, he had to fight the sudden, reckless urge to kiss her. He almost forgot why they were there.
Nova broke eye contact first.
Then—at Alpha speed—she sprinted three steps and jumped.
Jax's heart stopped.
"Nova—!" he shouted, but she was already gone, a streak of silver dropping off the cliff's edge.
For half a second, he stood there frozen in pure horror.
And then it clicked. This was the waterfall Rex had talked about. This was where he'd brought Nova.
A hundred-foot drop. And Rex had her do this the day after a war?
As Jax dove after her, the betrayal hit him mid-air. His wolf howled in agreement, snarling in his mind as he fell.
Talon: Let's kill that bastard.
Jax: Son of a bitch.
He hit the water hard, the impact knocked air from his lungs, pressure slamming into his bones. He'd been through two wars in his life and it was nothing he couldn't handle. The current seized him instantly, dragging him downward, pulling him into the undertow. He remembered what Rex had said: don't fight the pull.
So he let it take him. He relaxed, angled upward, and surfaced. Then he froze.
The water roared around him. But Nova wasn't there.
"Nova?" He called. No answer.
He dove under, heart slamming, terror shooting through every muscle.
The entire lake blazed gold beneath him. It brightened with every second, shimmering like liquid sunlight poured into the depths. He forced his eyes to adjust through the incandescent water, kicking downward.
And then he saw her.
Nova was swimming hard, cutting through the golden light like a silver comet. Her eyes were glowing bright silver beneath the surface, illuminating the currents around her.
Jax swore into the water and powered after her, closing the distance fast. The depth was unreal; they were sinking at least seventy, maybe eighty feet, a descent even an alpha would struggle with. But she moved with purpose—not panic—like she was tracing exact steps.
At the bottom, her hand reached towards a gold dragon statue, anchored, ancient.
The moment her fingers brushed it, the water convulsed. A deep bass hum tore through the lakebed, rattling his ribs, making his teeth ring. The gold light flared once—then bled instantly into sapphire, the entire lake shifted around them like ink blooming through water.
Through the matebond, Jax felt her lungs burn. She was out of air.
She swam toward something else just as he closed the distance: another gold dragon, identical to the first, its jaws holding a medallion. As soon as she touched it, the medallion vibrated violently. She yanked it free, a chain trailing.
Jax wrapped one arm around her waist and hauled her hard against his chest. His other arm cut upward in powerful, brutal strokes, legs kicking off the rock shelf as he drove them toward the surface.
Fast. Hard. Desperate.
Her grip tightened on him halfway up—reflexive, desperate.
His chest screamed too. His vision tunneled. The sapphire darkened around them. He kicked harder.
They broke the surface in a violent spray of water.
Nova gasped, choking, dragging air into her lungs in ragged pulls. She coughed hard enough to shake her entire body, clinging to him without realizing it. Jax hauled in huge gulps of air too, panting, chest heaving.
He kept his arm locked around her waist, holding her above the water while she recovered, forehead pressed to her temple, breath pouring hot against her ear.
He looked at her—about to scold, to panic, to say something—but the sheer absurdity of what they'd just done hit him all at once.
Nova started laughing first, breathless and shaken.
Then Jax snapped.
He burst out laughing—loud, unhinged, utterly done with the laws of physics and common sense. It echoed across the water, half-relief, half-hysteria.
"That—was—insane," he gasped between laughs, still holding her afloat. "Absolutely ridiculous. What is wrong with us?"
They were close—too close. The kind of closeness that sat heavy in the air, humming beneath the skin. Nova felt the pull between them, she didn't show it. But Jax felt it like a living pulse and he knew she felt it too.
She looked away first.
The entire lake around them glowed now—a vast sapphire mirror throwing blue light across their faces. The waterfall thundered above them, its curtain of water reflecting the same unnatural glow.
Nova turned her gaze toward it.
Jax followed her line of sight, dread sinking into his stomach.
"Don't tell me we are…" he began.
She nodded once.
He groaned into the night air. "Of course we are."
He shifted his grip, his voice low with resigned authority. "Hold on to me, Nova."
She wrapped her arms around his back, fingers locking just beneath his shoulders. He felt the tremor of her exhaustion, the steadiness of her trust—and just beneath it, the tension neither of them dared acknowledge aloud.