They stepped out of the tunnel—
And the world changed.
Gone was the blizzard. Gone was the endless white. Instead, a warm breeze swept past them, carrying the scent of earth and vibrant green life.
Before them stretched a vast, hidden forest, impossibly lush. Towering trees draped in emerald vines. Ancient stone pathways half-swallowed by moss. Waterfalls cascading down cliffs of shimmering ice-crystal and granite, their mist catching sunlight that should not exist here.
Dragons — dozens of them — soared in lazy circles across the distant sky, wings glinting like jewels. Some green. Some sapphire. Some red. Each one massive. Wild. Proud.
The whole place was an oasis carved into the heart of a frozen, dead continent.
A sanctuary.
A secret.
High above, jagged peaks encircled the valley, one mountain rose taller than the rest — a monolith so immense it cast the illusion of twilight across part of the jungle below.
Jax and Fin both stopped dead, breath stolen by the sheer magnitude.
Rex stood still for only a moment before speaking.
"This," he said quietly, "is making more sense."
Aeron and Hyran were nearly vibrating with excitement.
Aeron bounced on the balls of his feet like a child. "Gods… this is a lost draken refuge. A cradle realm. Hidden ecosystems. There must be hundreds of species—"
Hyran pretended (badly) that he was perfectly composed, elbowed him. "Focus. We are not stopping to catalogue wildlife."
Aeron murmured, "Not out loud."
Jax stepped forward, still dazed, still half in awe. Sapphrix soared somewhere above them with the other dragons, blending into the sky like he belonged there — like he had never been gone.
Fin's voice came out soft. "We are very high up."
Nova walked forward as if following a path she had known all her life, hair catching the warm jungle light.
Nova stepped forward, silver swallowing every trace of green in her eyes. Her hand slid along the ice-stone wall beside them. Her heel tapped something.
A tiny protrusion. So small none of them had seen it. No wider than half her palm. Practically invisible unless touched.
A peg.
Nova didn't hesitate.
She placed her foot on it.
The stone beneath her glowed.
Rex stiffened immediately. "Nova—"
Another peg lit below her.
Then another.
Then a fourth, spiraling downward along the sheer wall.
Steps.
Minuscule. Deadly. Too narrow for anyone sane.
Without turning, without acknowledging any of them, Nova stepped onto the next one—then the next—and then she moved.
"Nova! Wait—" Rex lunged for her arm.
Too late.
She dropped into an alpha-speed descent, weightless, as if gravity had no authority over her. Her cloak snapped behind her like a banner as she sprinted down the vertical cliff, feet landing on pegs barely wider than two fingers. Each one ignited silver under her steps.
Fin swore under his breath.
Jax's jaw flexed hard enough to crack.
Rex nearly leapt off the wall after her.
It was at least five hundred feet to the jungle floor.
Nova reached it in seconds.
A soft glow pulsed beneath her boots as she landed—gentle, controlled, unhurt. Still in that silver-eyed trance.
A roar of wind echoed through the valley.
Hyran exhaled, lifted a hand, and snapped open a portal with far more urgency than usual. "No one is climbing that."
Aeron shoved Rex through first. Fin followed. Jax stepped in last, still looking down at Nova like he wanted to strangle her and hold her at the same time.
They emerged at the bottom just as Nova turned toward the ancient path ahead, unaware of the panic she'd left behind.
Unaware that all three men were staring at her like she had just defied the laws of the world.
Again.
Her eyes flickered back to green. She blinked once, steadying herself.
Something burned deep in her core. A tug. A memory. A knowing.
Rex watched her closely. "You have that feeling again, don't you?"
Nova looked up at him, the slightest crease forming between her brows. "Yes."
Fin turned to Jax, expecting agreement—that they didn't realize Rex could feel her emotions so precisely. But instead, Jax's brow was drawn tight, jaw working.
"I have it too," Jax said.
That made all of them pause for half a heartbeat.
Nova nodded once and kept walking, pushing through the dense green as warm sunlight spilled over them. The heat was staggering—unnatural for a place walled in by a thousand-foot prison of ice. It was almost blistering.
Too warm.
Nova lifted her hair, twisting it up off her neck, and without hesitating summoned a small portal window to Shadowclaw. She tossed her cloak through it.
Aeron and Hyran stared at her like she had just personally reinvented the concept of portals.
Hyran's face lit with inspiration. "Of course" he muttered, opening his own small window to Fin's study. Everyone else immediately threw their cloaks through with undisguised relief.
Nova's eyes were still green. Not a trance. Just quiet.
But something inside her had dimmed.
On the surface she looked fine—focused, observant, present. Inside, she felt… sad. Heavy. The kind of sadness that hurt.
Fin felt it hard.
He surged warmth and calmness through their bond, a soft gold pulse. She jolted, surprised and looked up at him as if he had read her mind. He intertwined his fingers with hers and kissed the top of her hand.
Nova blinked, caught off guard. Then offered a soft sad smile.
Fin's answering grin was slow and warm.
Rex and Jax both felt the exchange through their own bonds to her and it stirred something in both of them.
Not jealousy.
Warmth.
Jax again was shocked by how natural it was. It was welcome actually.
Rex had known deep down already. But seeing it like this was proof. Nova was not meant for just one of them. And they were all going to have to acknowledge that soon. He assumed Fin and Jax knew… but he also suspected that conversation had yet to happen. He also wasn't sure if Fin or Jax realized he'd be part of the equation. Though it was pretty obvious at this point.
They moved deeper into the jungle. It stretched endlessly, gold light cutting through the canopy. The sounds of distant waterfalls echoed somewhere far ahead.
Nova stopped mid-step. She spoke a single phrase in Draken-Vorah, fingers still laced with Fin's. Her eyes flashed silver—quick, sharp—and the trees around them ignited with ancient runes, glowing up their trunks in spiraling patterns. A path revealed itself, illuminated in living light.
They were headed the right way.
Nova felt something twist in her stomach. A warning. A memory she couldn't quite recall.
Instinctively she drew on Fin's magic—gold sparked beneath her skin, humming through their linked hands as if it belonged to her by right. Fin felt it immediately.
She squeezed his hand once, a silent thank you, and a gold shield bloomed outward from her, wrapping around all of them in a soft dome.
Fin squeezed back, unable—unwilling—to hide how pleased he was that her body reached for his magic like second nature.
They kept walking.
Then Nova halted again, shield still steady around them. Her eyes sharpened. She bent, picked up a small stone half-buried in moss, and the instant her fingers touched it, a rune flared across the surface.
She exhaled softly and tossed it ahead.
The moment it crossed a certain invisible line, the earth in front of them shimmered—then collapsed downward into a churning pit of quicksand, swallowing the stone whole in less than a heartbeat.
The group froze.
Rex muttered, "Good gods…"
Fin tightened his grip on Nova's hand.
And Nova only stared at the shifting ground ahead, her eyes were her regular green.
Nova moved her hand in a flat motion. Fin's magic obeyed her immediately. A golden path, solid light forming into a bridge suspended above the quicksand pit. It hummed softly as if alive. Nova stepped onto it without hesitation, the others falling in line behind her.
She walked several more paces before stopping again. Her posture sharpened.
Nova extended her palm.
A bow formed out of pure gold — Fin's magic answering her call, shaping itself in the air with a low, resonant hum as it solidified in her grasp. It looked tangible, but it was made entirely of light. In her other hand, a single golden arrow shimmered into existence.
Jax and Fin both saw her eyes were still green.
This wasn't a trance. This was Nova — fully aware, fully present — and choosing every action with purpose.
They continued forward, the gold bridge stretching beneath them. The jungle remained quiet, unnervingly so. Nova kept the shield up around their group without breaking stride, her grip steady on the golden bow.
Fin's hand drifted to his sword, Jax mirroring him without thinking.
Whatever this place was — whatever it held — Nova had sensed it before any of them.
And now every one of them was on alert.
Hyran regarded her with a grave, measured stare.
"Nova, you stand among the very few capable of Aether Fabrication. I dare say you are one of the best I have ever encountered."
"Hyran doesn't compliment easily," Rex added with a grin.
Nova reacted a heartbeat late, as though startled out of a distant thought. She flushed, almost jumping at the realization the praise was hers.
"Thank you, Hyran. That is kind of you," she said softly. "Aeron is the reason for that. He taught me everything."
Her smile was warm. The sadness behind it went unnoticed by both mages.
"Then Aeron must come teach my mages," Hyran declared.
Aeron practically glowed, pride written across every line of his face.
They pushed deeper into the jungle, and shapes began to emerge through the dense green twilight — structures suspended high in the canopy. Huts. Platforms. Bridges laced between ancient trunks.
Then came the whispers.
Soft. Layered. Echoing like breath across glass.
Aeron slowed, his eyes narrowing, every ounce of color draining from his face.
"Impossible…" he murmured to himself.
The presence of dwellings — of life — in a place declared barren and uninhabitable for thousands of years contradicted every recorded archive. Even mage histories, far more accurate than those kept by shifters, insisted that nothing living could survive within the Crythin Expanse.
Yet the whispers persisted.
And the huts above them swayed as though something unseen had just slipped between the trees.
Nova stopped so abruptly that the three men closest to her moved as one — Fin, Rex, and Jax all reaching for their swords.
Before any of them could ask why, Nova blurred forward at alpha speed, bow already drawn. She pulled, aimed, and released in a single motion.
The golden arrow streaked through the jungle and hit a distant hut — one none of them had even noticed until the impact revealed it. It had been camouflaged perfectly into the treetops, masked by both greenery and magic.
The hut shattered instantly into golden motes.
Standing inside the now-exposed platform were five warriors, bows raised, arrows trained directly on Nova. Their weapons glimmered with magic — but not dark magic.
A second arrow materialized in Nova's hand with a resonant hum. She drew it back. The warriors did not lower theirs.
One of them fired.
The gold shield Nova had put up, channeled from Fin's magic, shuddered under the impact, cracked, and shattered with a resounding burst of light.
Before the pieces even finished fading, Nova's silver shield slammed into place over them, hard and perfect. Everyone protected.
She mindlinked Fin, Jax, and Aeron in a single sharp command. She hoped Hyran would understand even without the link.
Nova: Don't use your magic and reveal our numbers. They've already seen mine.
Then she stepped forward, still covered bow drawn. Her voice cut through the jungle with a cold authority.
"If you fire again, you do not walk away. Choose."
A shock for the five following her. That did not sound like the Nova they knew. Her eyes were green and she was not in a trance.
The nearest warrior barked something back in a harsh, ancient cadence. Nova recognized the tongue instantly. Her eyes remained green and she answered him in the same language with crisp, controlled authority.
One of the warriors leapt down from the remnants of the hut, landing in a crouch before rising to his full height. Bow still raised. Eyes locked on Nova.
He said something sharp. Testing her. Measuring her.
Nova replied without flinching, voice commanding yet even.
Hyran's breath hitched. He mindlinked Rex immediately.
Hyran: She is speaking a dialect of Morbian Vellum.
Rex: A language from your place of birth?
Hyran: Correct. Morbia. But an extinct dialect. I understand about a third of what they're saying.
Rex: Be on guard.
Then — to the absolute horror of the men behind her — she stepped out of the protective shield, alone, closing the distance by a pace. It was deliberate. A calculated show of trust.
The warrior hesitated.
He lowered his weapon.
Nova lowered her bow in return.
He lifted a single hand behind him, signaling his hidden scouts.
Four bows dropped in unison.
He addressed her again — direct, authoritative, as if speaking to an equal rather than an enemy.
Nova answered him in that same steady, commanding tone. It was clear to everyone watching. She was negotiating.
Fin's jaw tightened the longer he watched.
The warrior speaking to Nova wasn't just assessing her — he was interested, unmistakably so. Fin saw it instantly. The tilt of the man's head. The subtle shift of his stance. The way his eyes lingered too long.
Fin hated it.
He also hated that Nova had stepped outside the shield. And that she was standing there with her own magic — not his — surrounding her like a second skin.
But he understood. If he put a shield around her now, it would read as aggression or distrust.
So he held.
Teeth clenched. Shoulders locked.
Hands resting lightly at his sides instead of drawing his sword, though every instinct screamed for him to.
The warriors said something sharp in that extinct dialect. Nova answered easily, tone clipped and authoritative, matching their cadence without hesitation.
Then the lead warrior shifted forward. Reached toward her — not aggressively, but with a familiarity Fin did not appreciate — and Nova stiffened.
He stopped immediately.
She spoke again, firmer this time. A command, not a request.
The warrior bowed.
Apologetic. Respectful.
He stepped past her, motioning for his scouts to follow.
Nova didn't look back, but behind her, Fin felt it — a pulse of her magic brushing his, and suddenly the shield surrounding the group shifted.
Without moving a finger, without breaking stride, Nova transferred the entire barrier back to Fin's gold magic, the way it had been before.
Fin and Jax both noticed the subtle tremor in her knuckles. She still held her bow and arrow ready, white-knuckled grip betraying the tension she hid everywhere else.
They followed the warrior for another minute, the jungle closing in tighter, the path narrowing, ancient whispers threading through the canopy.
Nova walked ahead of the group, unflinching.
She mindlinked Fin, Jax, and Aeron.
Nova: Be on guard. Left treeline, one hundred feet — three archers. Direct front, same distance — three more.
Both Jax and Fin blinked for a moment. Not faltering but shocked they did not detect that first. The magic camouflage was tricky for their wolf senses. They realized she must have been detecting energy.
Aeron: Copy. You lead the approach. We cover.
They walked for several minutes, the warriors leading with silent precision, their formation disciplined and fluid. Nova's eyes tracked every shift in the shadows. Figures moved between the trees — some stepping lightly with mage-soft footfalls, others heavier with the gait of shifters. Mixed. Integrated. Hidden. Watching.
Fin saw her hands tighten on her bow. Jax noticed the minute shift in her breathing.
Rex felt the spike of alertness through the bond.
But Nova remained utterly composed.