Jax stood near the window of Fin's private study, arms folded, watching the others without really seeing them. Rex and Hyran were examining Nova's dagger and bow on the table. Aeron was pretending to read a book, though his eyes hadn't moved in minutes. Fin paced — the kind of pacing that meant his wolf was two seconds from tearing through the floor.
Then Fin's voice slid into Jax's mind.
Fin:Nova and Elle were mindlinking this morning. Nova knows she is dying.
Jax went still. The world narrowed to a single point in his chest.
Fin's jaw tightened.
Fin:She said she's heard it already. I am assuming the ancestors told her. Or the spirits. Or the visions. She sounded annoyed. Like she didn't want to hear it again.
Jax:Does she understand why she's dying?
Fin:She said soul severing, but I don't think she understands that it can be fixed. She sounded like she had accepted it even.
A cold, sharp anger slid through Jax's blood. His wolf snarled at the thought of her simply accepting death.
Jax:No. Absolutely not. We fix this immediately.
Fin didn't argue.
Jax:Did she say anything else?
A beat of silence.
Fin:No. That's the problem. She didn't confide in me about any of it. Or with what upset her yesterday. It's like she's trying to protect me and not telling me things I want to know.
Jax:Then we fix that too. On both sides. This is on us for not telling her what we know.
Fin looked at him across the room — not angry, not defensive, just grim.
Aeron finally looked up from his upside-down book. "By the way your faces look, I assume something catastrophic is happening."
Neither Jax nor Fin answered, but the expressions on their faces told everyone who it was about.
At that moment, Nova walked in. Her hair fell in soft thick waves — that impossible silver-white blonde, still damp from washing off the morning's dagger-throwing drills. Her large green eyes were sharp and clear again, and the olive tone of her skin had started to finally return after being lost for over a week. She wore a light blue cloak over a hard shell training suit Aeron had made for her. The simplicity somehow made her look even more stunning.
She looked far better than she had any right to.
Rex's breath caught. Fin went utterly still.
And Jax's lungs simply forgot how to work, his eyes fixed on her like she had just stepped out of legend.
Strikingly beautiful. Enough to silence an entire war council with one step across the threshold.
Her expression shifted instantly to surprise. She had expected to see Fin. And yes — Jax, even though she desperately wanted to avoid him.
She had not expected Rex.
She had not expected Aeron.
And she definitely had not expected Hyran.
The full group stood there like they were preparing for a royal expedition rather than whatever she imagined this meeting was supposed to be.
Hyran and Aeron looked far too excited — the kind of excited that suggested they'd been waiting their entire lives to jump through a forbidden portal.
Hyran practically vibrated. Aeron looked like he had already mentally packed supplies, snacks, and a backup portal in case the first one exploded.
They were going.
And the gods themselves could not have stopped either of them.
Rex felt Nova's surprise through the matebond and answered her thought before she even realized she had formed it.
"I've already made peace with this being a bad idea," Rex said solemnly.
A heartbeat passed.
Then his mouth split into a grin.
Nova rolled her eyes, shaking her head.
As he shifted his weight, the matching ring on his finger caught the light — the twin to hers. She noticed immediately, though she tried very hard not to. She did not ask. She did not stare. She gave it a single, painfully brief glance and forced herself to look away as if the ring might burn her if she acknowledged it too long.
It was subtle. Rex saw every second of it.
His grin nearly broke into something smug at how adorably flustered she was trying not to appear. He could tell she truly remembered nothing from yesterday — and her attempt to hide her reaction only made it worse.
Fin also felt her confusion brush against the matebond. He turned and gave her a look that said, without a single word, Obviously I am going.
Aeron could have read it from across the room.
Jax gave her the same look a heartbeat later — steady, unblinking, certain.
Nova attempted neutrality. She tried so hard to keep her face calm, to pretend she wasn't anxious the moment her eyes landed on Jax. But the anxiety hit her chest like a blow. Sharp. Immediate. Impossible to hide.
All three of them — Rex, Fin, and Jax — felt her unease ripple outward.
Only Jax knew exactly why. He had wanted to speak with her before this, last night even, but she had been unconscious. They needed privacy. He and Fin needed to speak to her together and finally tell her what they intended — that she would not be forced to choose between them. That they fully intended to share her.
Aeron cleared his throat with far too much enthusiasm for someone about to deliver bad news.
"Nova, your powers are bound," he announced, as if unveiling a holiday gift. "We were informed you were not aware of that." He shot a pointed, accusing look straight at Fin.
Fin's jaw flexed. "She's aware now," he said, defensive but controlled.
Nova frowned. "I don't feel it, if that's true."
Aeron lifted a finger. "Your powers were unlocked when you met your fated mate. Which is why you started glowing in the dark one day in Malloran's remedial class for the dumb. A class you should not have been in to begin with, but do not get me started on that."
Fin nearly snorted.
Jax slowly turned his head toward Aeron. His expression softened, a sad smile ghosting across his mouth. He remembered that day clearly — the day he carried her out of Malloran's classroom unconscious, which would soon become an unfortunate pattern. He remembered introducing himself when she woke, touching her face to check for fever. The sparks he felt when their skin met. The confusion afterward, wondering why fate had not tied them together despite everything his instincts screamed.
Aeron's voice cut cleanly through Jax's thoughts.
"They were supposed to unlock fully," Aeron continued, "but they did not."
Hyran stepped forward with a calmer tone. "We are working on it. We have several theories."
"And we will need to obtain your cure for Marra," Aeron added.
Nova's head snapped toward him. "How did you—"
"The Moon Goddess possessed you and told us," Aeron said flatly, as if reciting a weather report. Callous, blunt, completely unfazed.
At this point, Nova simply nodded once, like this revelation barely registered on her scale of daily chaos.
"Can someone channel into me?" she asked softly.
Her voice snapped all three men out of their spiraling thoughts.
Fin and Jax responded before the sentence was even finished — gold magic surged from both of them in perfect unison, flowing into her silently. Pure instinct.
Then Nova turned to the book.
A vision struck her — silent, sharp. Only seen by her and no one around her was aware.
But on their end, they saw something completely different.
The book cracked open. Her hands moved in a blur so fast the eye could barely track the motion. The book was thick — far too thick for any normal person to get through in a week, let alone this.
"She did this last time," Jax said. He was the only one whose jaw hadn't dropped.
"Gods…" Hyran breathed, stepping closer. "She retains all of it?"
Fin stared at her as if seeing her for the first time. The realization hit him with humiliating force. He had never actually watched her read a book. He'd seen her read ancient writings, but not read an actual book. Something so simple. He wondered if she did this every time.
And then, without warning, she reached the last page. Nova froze.
Her eyes unfocused. Her breath stalled. She went completely still.
Then she inhaled once, lifted her chin, and spoke a single phrase in Draken-Vorah — crisp, ancient, resonant.
Whispers threaded through the air, heard by Nova, Jax, and Fin.
Queen of Shadowclaw, you are behind.
You have failed this task more than you have succeeded.
A second voice rose beneath it, older, firmer, carrying the weight of a sentence already pronounced. A chill swept across the floor.
A word of caution, the one who hunts your blood will reach the entrance at dusk. His steps do not falter. He grows stronger. His wolf is locked upon you.
Should he reach the lake when you do, you must go with him or the Shadowclaw King dies.
Then, soft as breath against the nape of her neck:
You have been warned.
The air split open. A portal flared to life, silver and blazing, the exact color of her magic.
Runes around it spiraled like a breath drawn by the gods themselves. With it, freezing air exploded into the study. Snow blasted across the floor. Inkpots cracked. Papers froze mid-flutter and fell as brittle sheets of ice. The window shattered in a spiderweb of fractures from the sudden temperature drop.
A rasping inhale followed, like a spirit dragging air into lungs that no longer existed.
Tick… Tock… Tick…Tock
Your Beta Luna remains slated to die.
Delay a single task by one day… and her fate is sealed. Retrieve the compass gifted from the Gods and her end may be rewritten.
Another broken inhale, sharp and inhuman, tore through the room.
You, too, are marked for death. Faster than fate intended.
Your thread thins. Your fate nears its end.
A death from a severed soul will be painful.
Nova's eyes flashed green — irritated, done, unimpressed — before flaring back to silver.
Jax and Fin both saw it.
The whispering shifted again, colder.
This task is not for the weak.
A burden meant for you alone.
Only step through if you are prepared to die.
You have been warned.
The portal pulsed and Nova didn't hesitate. She broke into a sprint and ran straight through, ignoring every warning, driven by the same brutal urgency she had felt the last time Elle's life hung in the balance.
The others surged after her.
Fin and Jax locked eyes mid-stride — and in that single look, Jax understood precisely what Fin had been trying to articulate earlier.
He had felt it through the matebond. Nova wasn't afraid. She wasn't shocked. She wasn't even worried.
She was annoyed that she had to hear again that she was dying. Annoyed because she didn't want to waste time talking about herself when Elle's life was on the line.
She already had accepted she was going to die and didn't want to keep being told it.
She just hadn't told a single person.
Snow whipped sideways as they sprinted through the blizzard behind Nova, the cold slicing at their faces, visibility dropping to almost nothing. The wind howled around them — but even through the roar, Jax's voice slid into Fin's mind.
Jax: The ancestors warned her of death yesterday, at the Falls of Elaran's Veil.
Fin cut him a hard look through the storm, eyes narrowed against the snow.
Fin: Why was this not brought to my attention? She was upset after yesterday.
Jax kept his face composed. But the truth burned at the edge of his mind was heavy. The kiss, having her in his arms where she belonged finally. The heat of the moment was so consuming that somehow they started making love. It was mindblowing and intense even if it was short… he was about to mark her and she pushed him away. His dick throbbed in protest just thinking about it. His wolf also howled in his mind.
Jax: She was upset with me. Not because of that. Yesterday, when they warned her. She ignored it. Same as now.
Fin didn't demand details or ask what Jax had done. He didn't even flinch. He understood, boots pounding through the snow beside him. It was strange how both of them were okay with sharing her. It continued to surprise them both how easy it was.
Fin: We talk to her as soon as we retrieve whatever this compass. No more delays.
Jax: Yes. Both of us.
Fin: Done. I did not realize she had been warned before. Not until this morning.
Another gust of whiteout wind slammed into them, forcing them to duck their heads and push harder. Ahead of them, Nova was a glowing blur in the storm — running straight toward death without hesitation.
Snow blasted sideways in a blinding white sheet, the world reduced to nothing but wind and ice. Their footprints vanished the moment they made them. Every breath crystallized instantly — even though their magic had already surged, forming a thin shimmering shield around each of them to keep the cold from cutting into their skin.
They didn't even realize they were doing it yet. Instinct. Survival. Chase.
Through the storm, Jax's voice cut into Fin's mind.
Jax: How many times do you think she's heard some variation of that?
Fin ran beside him, breath steady, expression carved in stone.
Jax: Yesterday and today with me present. Plus that fortune teller months ago.
Fin: Gods… Kaelith said it to her during her pack initiation.
Jax: And her Luna ceremony. Add that too.
Fin: I am wondering if she heard something with Rex yesterday. We need to know what happened before we got there.
A gust of wind slammed into them. Their magic shields flared brighter to hold it back.
Fin: Elle mindlinked her that it was urgent and dragged her into that privacy room again.
They locked eyes through the storm.
Jax: Thank the gods they still haven't figured out we can hear their mindlinks. We are on borrowed time with that.
Fin: We need Aeron to disable the runes on that room. Quietly. They must not know.
Another wave of icy wind hit them, their shields flaring gold.
Jax: I'll back you on that.
Ahead of them, Nova was nothing but a distant silver blur, sprinting across a world of endless white like the cold couldn't touch her at all.
Both men pushed harder — magic brightening around their bodies as they ran after her.
The wind howled around them, white swallowing the world, their magic shimmering in thin gold barriers against the cold. Jax's voice slid back into Fin's mind as they pushed forward through the endless snow.
Jax: How was training? Can she throw a dagger now at least?
Fin released a breath, visible only as a faint shimmer against his magic shield.
Fin: Gods… horrible. Neither of them knew how to throw one. Neither thought to mention it. We did basic level targets today.
Jax nearly stumbled from pure disbelief.
Jax: How in hell did Draven not teach them? They were doing three-on-ones with real blades.
Fin: Draven forced them into defense for every task. Never offense. Neither of them knows how to initiate an attack.
Jax fell silent for a moment, snow crunching beneath his boots as memories flashed — Nova fighting, Nova dodging, Nova waiting.
Jax: That checks out. Every time I've seen Nova fight, she waits for the opponent and uses their own momentum. I've never seen her attack first.
Fin: It's worked so far. That's the problem. It builds habits that fail against opponents like Ashbane. He won't overcommit.
Another gust tore past, their shields flaring to absorb it.
Jax: Right. So after we have the soul-severing conversation, we tell her training starts every morning. No exceptions.
Fin: You and I will trade off. She'll learn faster with both of us.
Jax: I'm assuming wolf-form combat is a non-starter for both of them.
Fin exhaled sharply.
Fin: Nova's shifted fewer than a dozen times. That includes the mess on the quicksand night with Elle.
Jax: Then Rex joins us. Full coverage. No assumptions.
Fin: Agreed. Unfortunately. He's effective, even if he knows it.
Ahead of them, Nova was still running — a faint silver blaze in the blizzard — and both men pushed harder to catch her.
It was Rex they noticed first.
A soft gold glow pulsed around his body, shimmering against the blizzard. Nova no doubt.
Fin and Jax both blinked, startled, before glancing down and realizing the same glow surrounded them. Their magic had risen on its own, instinctive and protective, without either of them consciously calling it.
Aeron and Hyran were the same — both sheathed in controlled, brilliant magic that flickered like firelight trapped in ice.
Only Nova had no visible magic around her.
She ran through the storm as if the cold wasn't touching her at all, hair glowing silver-white, eyes lit like moonlight. She seemed untethered to the elements entirely, yet Fin could feel the uncertainty through the matebond. She was trying to determine the correct direction — stopping abruptly whenever a burning sensation knifed through her stomach.
Visibility was nearly nonexistent now. Snow came down so hard it felt like needles across exposed skin, though the magic shields softened the blow. The wind roared in every direction, erasing depth and distance.
Then suddenly, ahead of them, breaking through the blizzard—
A wall of ice.
It towered into the sky, easily a thousand feet tall, maybe more — impossible to measure with the storm shrouding its full height. It stretched left and right into the blinding white, disappearing into the storm. Jax slowed for a heartbeat, staring at the sheer magnitude of it.
"Nova, do you know where we are?" Aeron called over the wind.
She didn't answer.
Didn't look at him.
Didn't even slow.
Rex felt her urgency, but she seemed distant like yesterday. Her eyes were glowing silver, hair illuminated like frost catching moonlight..
"She spoke in Draken-Vorah," Rex answered Aeron, for her. Fin and Jax snapped their heads toward him, startled he knew that or anything for that matter.
Hyran's gaze tracked Nova, expression tightening. "I believe she said we are in the Crythin Expanse."
None of them spoke to her — they spoke around her, as though she were not fully present.
Rex exhaled. "Crythin Expanse is believed uninhabitable. A dead continent. Frigid beyond measure. No wildlife. No magic. Nothing survives here."
Fin and Jax exchanged a look — once again surprised Rex possessed functioning intelligence.
He ignored them.
Nova walked to the wall in front of them, touched it with her palm.
Nova whispered something in Draken-Vorah, the syllables sharp and ancient. Her eyes burned silver, her hair flowed like she was under water, a faint silver-white glow seeped through the fabric she was wearing as her skin glowed.
She lifted her hand and laid her palm against the ice.
The world responded instantly.
The frozen wall ignited in cascading runes, ancient symbols racing upward until the blizzard swallowed them from sight. Light rippled outward across the towering face of ice, illuminating the storm in eerie white fire.
Then the earth began to groan.
A deep, ancient rumble tore through the ground as the ice split down the center, the sound like a continent being ripped open. Snow blasted outward in violent sheets. The crack widened… and widened again.
Aeron clapped his hands, delighted. Hyran attempted — very poorly — to hide the excitement pulling at his mouth.
Nova stepped forward as the gap expanded, unconcerned.
They followed her and the moment they crossed between the two walls, the world changed.
The blizzard cut off as if someone had severed it with a blade.
Silence fell.
The air stilled.
Only then did the scale reveal itself. This wasn't a wall at all, it was a plateau, a massive continent-spine she had just split in half. At least a thousand feet high, stretching outward for miles.
As they walked deeper, the ground trembled beneath their boots — the walls still widening with slow, seismic force. Snow crumbled from ledges high above, echoing down the corridor.
Finally, after another long quake, the movement ceased.
The passage Nova had opened was now nearly half a mile across, a vast frozen corridor carved open by her touch.
And Nova walked ahead of them, silent and certain, as if the Crythin Expanse itself had been waiting for her.
She stopped abruptly. And looked up. As if waiting for something. Expecting it.
Everyone looked up — but the storm hid everything. White sky. White wind. Nothing.
Aeron rubbed his hands together, practically vibrating.
"Something interesting is about to happen. I can feel it."