Across Varos, Fin and Jax were sprinting through the Shadowclaw palace. Both half-dressed, half-healed, ignoring the healers shouting after them.
Aeron had come back to Redmoon to warn them that Nova is considering negotiating with Ashbane. They went to the private room, to find she was gone.
In that moment, Nova felt another flash of hot pain in her mind. Her knees hit the floor and palms slapped the cold marble. A blinding agony carved through her skull.
Elle and Marra both lunged toward her, but she barely registered them.
Ashbane's voice ripped through her mind like iron claws on bone. Not a whisper. Not a vision. A presence.
She saw him—standing in the Ashbane throne room. His eyes were feral, pupils blown wide and rimmed in red, veins blackening beneath his skin. His mouth twisted in a snarl as he slammed his palm against the marble pillar.
"I AM KING!" he roared, voice cracking the air like lightning.
"THE STRONGEST BLOOD IN VAROS FLOWS THROUGH ME! YOU WILL BOW!
Dark aether erupted behind him in spiraling storms, ripping chunks of stone from the walls, warping the water into spirals as though reality bent to his tantrum.
Nova's vision spun. Red blood slid from her nose and dripped onto the floor.
Marra grabbed her shoulders, terrified. "Nova—what are you seeing?"
The pain hit so violently it wasn't just Nova who folded.
Next to the library, Rex dropped to his knees in his father's private study, one hand braced on the polished stone floor, the other clutching his temple as a guttural sound tore from his throat.
The impact of Nova's agony traveled straight through the matebond like a blade shoved into his skull.
Crystal decanters on the nearby table rattled. His father shot up from behind his desk, startled—but Rex couldn't even answer him. His vision blurred, breath locked, every instinct screaming to run to her now.
In the study, Rex bowed his head, sweat dripping down his temples. Her pain was that bad.
In Shadowclaw, Fin and Jax were ten steps down the great staircase, looking for Nova when the pain hit.
Not a warning. Not a whisper. A detonation.
Fin's vision went white. His legs buckled. He slammed to his knees so hard the stone cracked beneath him. One hand clawed the railing, the other clutched his head as a strangled, broken sound tore from his chest.
Jax—only a stride behind—fell with equal force, catching himself just before he face-planted. He braced on all fours, muscles shaking violently, a wolf-snarl ripping out of him as he fought the invisible agony lancing through him.
To any onlooker, it would have seemed like they'd been struck by some unseen curse. But both men knew instantly—instinctively—what it was.
Fin tried to stand, but the next wave hit harder, sharper. He collapsed again, fist pounding the floor as if he could break the agony through sheer force of will.
A bead of sweat slid down Nova's temple, trembling at the edge of her jaw before falling to the floor.
Beta Theo Fang must have sent a mindlink, because moments later—just as the agony began to ebb—Rex and Alpha Redmoon strode into the library. They moved with purpose, their footsteps unmistakable as they approached the upper landing where Nova remained on her knees, breath trembling, eyes unfocused.
Rex reached her first—dropping to her side in a blur of movement.
"You're seeing Ashbane," he said, voice low, decisive.
Before Nova could reply, a crack split the air. Aeron stepped through a portal, with Fin and Jax right behind him. The moment the two men saw Nova on the ground, everything else vanished. They sprinted for her—Fin ignoring the pain in his ribs, Jax ignoring the bandages still fresh on his skin.
They reached the group in time to hear her soft, shaken voice.
Nova nodded once still on her hands and knees. She looked at him—really looked at him—for the first time since the vision tore through her.
"…Is it affecting you too?" she asked quietly.
Rex shook his head. "No. I saw him only moments ago. A glimpse. Whatever he is doing, whatever power he's tapping into… it reached me, but not like what you're feeling." His jaw tightened. "What was he raging about?"
Nova swallowed. "He was yelling that he is the king. That Varos belongs to him by blood and conquest."
A sharp, humorless laugh broke the heavy air.
Redmoon crossed his arms. "Any man who must say, 'I am the King,'" he said, voice dripping with disdain, "is no true king."
Rex rested a steadying hand on her back. She kept her gaze fixed on the floor, breaths shallow, mind still echoing with Ashbane's screams.
And for a heartbeat, in the great Redmoon library, illuminated only by lantern-light and shelves of ancient tomes.
Nova's breath hitched—then she jerked as if struck.
Another jolt of pain speared through her skull, violent. Her vision snapped sideways—Ashbane again, clearer this time, louder, closer, like he was standing in her mind.
She saw him shattering a stone lectern with his bare hands, splinters of enchanted granite exploding outward.
Then he turned and walked to a shelf. He opened it, and pulled a vial with silver blood.
He lifted it to the dim light. Swirled it lazily. The muscles in his jaw twitched with something half-snarl, half-smirk.
He leaned toward his own reflection in the glass.
"Hello, Nova."
Nova sucked in a broken breath.
Jax, Fin, and Rex all recoiled at the same time—each of them grabbing their heads, wincing, hissing through clenched teeth.
They had seen it too.
A flicker of the vial. The flash of his red-shot eyes. The way he said her name like a promise… or a threat.
He lifted the vial… and poured the silver blood across a relic that should never have been in his possession.
A slender golden spire, twisted like a strand of moonlight frozen mid-whirl, carved with runes older than any living tongue. It pulsed faintly at the blood's touch—recognizing its lineage, awakening, humming with forbidden power.
Ashbane smiled at it —slow, unhinged, triumphant.
"Now we begin," he whispered, fingers tracing its edge.
Nova's breath wrenched from her lungs.
A thin line of red blood slid from her nose. She touched it in shock. Letting out a pained gasp.
Then a second.
Then more.
Her vision spun. The floor heaved. Thunder roared in her skull as though the Moonspire itself were vibrating inside her bones.
Another gasp escaped her lips.
She tried to inhale—but her body didn't obey.
Jax reached for her. Fin surged forward. Rex tried to catch her. All were feeble in their attempts, their own vision blurring.
Nova collapsed before any of them could catch her.
Her body hit the floor with a soft, sickening sound, eyes rolled back, blood streaking down her face as consciousness ripped away like a thread snapped in two.