Aria's POV
Dawn came too fast.
I hadn't slept. Couldn't. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw Lyanna's triumphant smile. Damon's blank face. Master Chen's gold coins.
The guards yanked me to my feet as the first rays of sunlight touched the cliff edge.
Time to fly, little Omega, one of them sneered.
They dragged me back through the castle. Not the main entrance. The servants' corridors. Like I was trash to be taken out quietly.
We passed the breakfast hall. Through the open doors, I saw Father sitting at the head table. Lyanna sat beside him in my chair. She was laughing at something he said, looking beautiful in a pale blue dress.
My favorite dress. The one Father gave me for my last birthday.
She was already erasing me.
Father looked up. Our eyes met for one second.
Then he deliberately turned away and took a bite of breakfast.
Something inside me broke. Not my heart—that was already shattered. Something deeper. The part of me that wanted to be good. To be loved. To be worthy.
That part died.
What grew in its place was cold and sharp and hungry for blood.
The guards shoved me outside into the public square. I expected it to be empty this early. It wasn't.
Hundreds of wolves had gathered. They lined the streets leading to the territory edge, watching. Waiting to see the fraud thrown away.
Look at her!
Omega trash!
She fooled us all!
Someone threw a rotten tomato. It hit my shoulder, exploding in sour juice. Then more came—fruit, garbage, rocks. The guards didn't stop them.
I walked through the crowd with my head high. Let them see me. Let them remember my face.
When I came back, they'd regret every thrown stone.
Commander Thorne waited at the territory edge. Behind her, the cliff dropped away into clouds. Below lay the Forsaken Lands—a wasteland where exiles and rogues fought for survival. No one who went down ever came back.
Any last words? Thorne asked, almost bored.
Yes. I looked past her to the crowd. Found Lyanna standing with Damon near the front. I'll see you all again soon. And when I do, you'll wish you'd killed me properly.
Lyanna's smile faltered.
Thorne grabbed my hair and yanked my head back. Big talk from someone about to die. She leaned close. Her breath smelled like coffee and cruelty. You should have stayed in your place, Omega trash. Now you'll die knowing you were never good enough.
She dragged me to the cliff's edge.
I looked down. The drop disappeared into thick clouds. I couldn't see the bottom. Couldn't see where I'd land or how I'd die.
Fear clawed at my throat. I was going to die. Really die.
Wait! Lyanna's voice rang out. Please, Commander. One moment?
Thorne paused, annoyed. What?
Lyanna hurried forward, tears on her cheeks again. Always with the tears.
She stopped in front of me. Aria, I need you to know— Her voice broke. I never wanted this. But you forced my hand. If you'd just been honest about what you were, none of this would have happened.
I stared at her. You're blaming me? For your betrayal?
I'm trying to forgive you! She grabbed my hands like we were friends. Like she cared. Please, sister. In your final moments, can't we make peace?
Sister. She kept using that word. Like it meant anything.
I smiled. Slow and cold.
You want peace? I asked quietly. Then come closer. I'll whisper it.
Lyanna leaned in, hopeful and stupid.
I drove my knee into her stomach as hard as I could.
She doubled over with a scream. Damon rushed forward, but guards held him back.
That's my peace, I snarled. And here's my promise: I'm going to survive. I'm going to come back. And when I do, I'm taking everything from you the way you took it from me.
Thorne's fist cracked across my jaw. Pain exploded through my skull. Blood filled my mouth.
Enough! Thorne grabbed me by the throat. I'm done with your mouth.
She lifted me off the ground. My feet kicked at air. I couldn't breathe.
Your sister tried to show mercy, Thorne hissed. But me? I'll enjoy watching you fall.
She threw me.
For one horrible second, I hung in the air. Time slowed. I saw everything with crystal clarity.
The crowd watching. Some looked excited. Others looked sick.
Damon holding Lyanna, her face twisted with rage instead of sadness now that her mask had slipped.
Father standing at the back, his face blank. Not even watching my death.
Then gravity grabbed me, and I fell.
The world became a blur of sky and clouds and screaming wind. My dress tore. My hair whipped across my face. The air was so cold it burned my lungs.
I was going to die.
After everything—the betrayal, the lies, the pain—I was just going to die.
No. NO.
Rage exploded through me. Hot and fierce and desperate. I wouldn't die. I WOULDN'T.
Something inside my chest cracked open. Power flooded through me—foreign and terrifying and strong. Blue light sparked around my hands.
What?
The clouds swallowed me. I couldn't see. Couldn't breathe. Just falling and falling through the gray.
Then I burst through the bottom.
The Forsaken Lands spread below me—a wasteland of rocks and dead trees and shadows. The ground rushed up fast. Too fast.
I was going to hit. Going to splatter across stone like dropped fruit.
Something gold flashed in my peripheral vision.
A cargo net appeared out of nowhere, strung between two cliffs. I slammed into it hard enough to knock the air from my lungs. The net stretched, groaning, but held.
I lay there gasping, tangled in thick rope. Alive. Somehow alive.
What just happened?
Slowly, painfully, I untangled myself and rolled off the net onto solid ground. My whole body hurt. My dress was destroyed. Blood dripped from a dozen cuts.
But I was breathing. Standing. Alive.
The cargo net shouldn't have been there. It was too perfectly placed. Too convenient.
Someone had put it there.
Someone wanted me to survive the fall.
But why?
A sound made me freeze. Footsteps. Crunching on gravel. Coming from the shadows ahead.
I spun around, searching for a weapon. Found a broken branch and held it like a club. My hands shook.
A figure emerged from the darkness between dead trees.
It was a woman. Old. Bent. Wearing ragged furs and strange bone jewelry. Her eyes glowed amber in the dim light—wolf eyes, but wrong somehow. Too bright. Too knowing.
Well, well. Her voice rasped like rocks scraping together. The Council finally threw you down to us. Took them long enough.
My grip tightened on the branch. Who are you?
Someone who's been waiting for you, child. She smiled, showing too many teeth. Your real mother asked me to watch for you. Before the Council killed her, of course.
Ice flooded my veins. My mother is dead.
Oh yes. Very dead. The Council made sure of that when you were just a baby. The old woman tilted her head. But she knew they'd come for you eventually. Knew what you'd become when you turned twenty-three. So she made me promise to catch you when they threw you away.
I don't understand
Your mother was Omega-born, true enough. But your father? The woman's smile widened. He was Alpha. Not just any Alpha. The strongest bloodline in the Seven Territories. The Council hunted his entire family to extinction decades ago. She stepped closer. All except one baby girl they thought was safely sealed away. Hidden. Harmless.
She touched my chest, right over my heart. Where something had cracked open during my fall.
Your power just woke up, didn't it? When you were falling. When you were desperate.
I couldn't speak. Couldn't move.
The Council knew this would happen when you turned twenty-three, the woman continued. That's why they exiled you now instead of just killing you. They need you to die here, in the Forsaken Lands, where ancient magic runs wild. Where your awakening power will feed the land instead of threatening them.
What am I? I whispered.
The old woman's eyes gleamed with something hungry and wild.
You're the last of the True Keepers, child. The bloodline that can bond with Alpha Kings as equals. The bloodline that can wake the dead.
She turned and gestured toward the dark wasteland. Far in the distance, barely visible through the gloom, stone ruins rose against the horizon.
And there's someone who's been waiting a very long time for you to find him.