Chapter 6 The Syndicate Discovers Thalia Is Their Heir

Veyr

They came at dawn.

Five figures cloaked in midnight-black moved through the forest like they had been born from its shadows. They didn't make a sound. Not a rustle, not a whisper. Just motion, deliberate and silent, until the trees themselves seemed to lean away from their path.

Veyr had felt them before they crossed the boundary. His connection to the Hollow thrummed with warning. He stood still, arms folded over his chest, the cold morning mist curling around his boots as he waited.

The first of them emerged from the trees. A tall man with narrowed eyes and a jagged silver scar that ran like a crescent moon across his right cheek. He carried no weapon, but Veyr knew better than to think he was unarmed.

"Veyr," the man said. His voice was sharp, brittle like the crack of ice.

"Kaelion." Veyr gave a nod, the bare minimum of respect. "Took your time."

Kaelion's gaze slid past him, toward the clearing where the altar stones pulsed faintly with old magic. His attention landed on the girl standing just beyond them, her skin faintly aglow with runes that had awoken for no one else.

"So it's true," he murmured. "The bloodline survived."

"She's not ready," Veyr replied, voice low and measured.

Kaelion gave a slow, knowing smile. "She doesn't need to be ready. She just needs to be."

---

Thalia

She had prepared herself for the worst.

For monstrous warriors, all fangs and cruelty. Or maybe warlocks cloaked in cryptic symbols, speaking in riddles. She thought they might be rebels carved from stone and steel, with dead eyes and colder hearts.

Instead, she saw people.

Worn faces. Calloused hands. Hard eyes, yes, but eyes that softened when they looked at her.

One of them, a tall woman with long braids and a thick scar above her brow, stepped closer.

"She has her mother's eyes," the woman said, her voice deep and soft. "And her stubborn chin."

Thalia stiffened. That voice didn't threaten. It remembered.

"Thalia Ryker," Kaelion said as he approached her. "We thought you perished with her."

Thalia crossed her arms, drawing herself upright even though her legs felt like reeds in the wind. "You were wrong."

Kaelion's smile was faint, but there was something unnerving about the certainty in his eyes. "We rarely are."

A warning buzzed at the back of her mind. Instinct told her not to trust this man. His words were too smooth, too carefully shaped.

"I'm not interested in being anyone's weapon," she said.

Kaelion looked almost amused. "You aren't. But you are a symbol. And symbols, when the moment comes, become fire."

She didn't like how calm he sounded. How clearly he had rehearsed this moment in his mind long before she ever arrived.

"You knew my mother," she said, watching him closely.

He nodded. "Intimately. She was our brightest flame. When she fell, we lost not just a leader, but our direction. Chaos followed. We fractured."

"You want me to fix that," she said, not quite a question.

Kaelion's smile widened a little. "We want you to claim it."

---

Cassian

"You're losing control," Elder Verin said the moment Cassian entered the council chamber.

Cassian didn't flinch. "I never asked to control you. Only to keep this pack from tearing itself apart."

"Then explain why Crescent scouts were spotted near the Hollow," Verin snapped, rising from his chair. "Explain why your mate is rumored to be walking in the Syndicate's circle."

Cassian's body went still. His heartbeat thudded once, hard, then again faster.

Thalia.

She was with them.

He hadn't known. Not until now.

His face gave nothing away, but inside, a storm churned. If they reached her first, if they twisted her thoughts, if she turned her back on him completely...

He didn't let the fear show.

But it was there, rising like bile.

---

Thalia

The Syndicate's camp wasn't thrown together. It was prepared, calculated, as if they had been waiting for her.

Darkhide tents surrounded a glowing central fire, sigils etched into the soil in patterns that made her head ache. As she stepped through the boundary, something in her blood sang. It was a strange melody. Not foreign. Familiar.

Too familiar.

Kaelion sat at the heart of the camp inside the main tent. He poured tea from a copper kettle, its scent sharp with crushed mint and something metallic.

"You said I'm heir to the Syndicate," Thalia said, arms crossed. "Is that a title? Some sort of rank?"

Kaelion looked up. "It's a truth. We don't crown Alphas. We don't pledge fealty to bloodlines. But we remember. We protect legacies too dangerous to be erased."

He set a steaming cup in front of her. "Your mother carried the Luna Flame. That fire does not die with one bearer."

Thalia hesitated before taking the cup. The tea was bitter. Earthy. Real.

"And if I say no?" she asked.

Kaelion leaned back slightly. "Then we all die."

His words were soft. Not dramatic. Not a threat. Just the truth, laid bare.

---

Veyr

Veyr stood just outside the tent, listening.

He heard the way Thalia's voice lifted when she challenged Kaelion. Heard the flicker of flame behind her words.

She wasn't ready.

But she was closer than ever.

He turned toward the trees, and the air shifted.

Across the glade, partially hidden by shadow and pine, stood Cassian Blackthorn.

His body was tense, half-shifted, his chest rising and falling with ragged breath. Blood streaked one arm. His eyes were bright with fury and something deeper. Fear.

They locked eyes.

Veyr didn't speak. Neither did Cassian.

But the silence said enough.

The girl they both wanted to protect, maybe even possess in their own way, had already moved beyond them. She no longer stood between them.

She was rising. Becoming.

And the world would feel it.

Thalia

She felt him before she saw him.

The bond between them pulsed like an open wound. It had dulled over the past few days, becoming something quiet and familiar. But now it spiked. Hot. Sharp.

She turned.

Cassian stood just outside the camp's edge, breath ghosting in the cold air. His clothes were torn. Blood stained his sleeve. His eyes found hers and didn't waver.

Thalia's chest tightened.

He looked broken. Like he hadn't slept. Like he had clawed his way through thorns and fire to reach her.

She stepped forward but stopped short of the sigil line.

"You shouldn't be here," she said, voice barely above a whisper.

"I had to see you."

Veyr appeared at her side like a shadow forming from the ground. Cassian saw him, but didn't look away from Thalia.

"I know you hate me," Cassian said. "I earned that."

She shook her head. "I don't hate you. But I don't... I don't know who you are anymore."

Cassian's face shifted, something crumbling behind his eyes. "Then let me try again."

---

Kaelion

From his perch in the shadows, Kaelion watched them.

The girl and the Alpha.

A flicker of a smirk touched his lips.

"Let them burn," said the woman with the braids, standing beside him.

"Not yet," Kaelion replied. "Let them choose what to burn first."

Thalia

"You let them exile me," she said. Her voice shook, low and bitter. "You let them spit on my name. You said nothing when they turned me into something to be ashamed of."

Cassian's fists clenched. "I was afraid."

She raised her chin. "Of me?"

"No," he said quietly. "Of what I'd have to become to protect you."

Thalia stared at him. "And now?"

Cassian took a step closer. The mark on her shoulder tingled. A flicker of magic, faint but undeniable.

"Now I'd become anything."

She closed her eyes for a moment, gathering strength.

"I'm not the girl from the Moon Festival anymore, Cassian."

"I know."

She opened her eyes again. They were clear, steady. "Then don't ask me to come back."

"I'm not," he said. His voice was rough. Honest. "I'm asking to stand beside you. No matter where you're going."

Her breath hitched.

"And if where I'm going tears everything down?"

He gave a small, tired smile.

"Then let's build something better."