Chapter 7 The Council Is Alerted

Elder Verin

The letter arrived in the dead of night.

Not carried by wolf or bonded courier, but dropped, silently and unannounced onto the stone floor of the Council Hall. The black paper glistened like oil, sealed with wax bearing the insignia of the Blackridge Syndicate: a crescent coiled around a burning flame.

Verin stared at it for a long moment before breaking the seal.

The message was short.

> The Heir has awakened.

She stands beneath the Luna Flame.

Choose your side wisely.

-K

His hand trembled just slightly as he let the paper fall from his fingers.

Then, without a word, he crushed the parchment into a tight ball and turned to the fire blazing in the hearth. Shadows danced across the walls, flickering like whispers of old prophecies.

"This changes everything," he muttered.

Behind him, Elder Mora's voice came soft, uncertain. "What if it's true?"

Verin didn't turn. "It doesn't matter if it's true," he said coldly. "What matters is what the packs will believe."

But deep inside, a splinter of fear rooted itself.

He remembered her-Thalia-kneeling in the Hall the day they cast her out. Not defiant. Not broken. Just quiet, like someone watching the world betray her.

He had thought she was a threat then.

He had no idea what she was now.

---

Cassian

He left the Syndicate camp before dawn.

Not because he wanted to, but because he had to.

Thalia had asked for space. And for once, he would honor her words instead of overruling them with instinct or alpha pride.

But as he ran through the woods, each pounding step through the underbrush coiled something tighter inside him.

She was changing. Not just healing but becoming.

And the Syndicate wasn't merely sheltering her.

They were preparing her.

For what, he didn't yet know. But if Verin had received that message, if Crescent caught wind of it, he wouldn't have time to figure it out.

There'd be blood before the next full moon.

---

Thalia

Kaelion waited for her outside the old ruins after breakfast, his arms folded as if he'd been standing there for hours.

"You've felt it now," he said without preamble. "The Luna Flame answering your blood."

"I've felt something," she admitted cautiously.

"The Flame doesn't stir for just anyone," he said. "It recognized you. Claimed you."

Thalia crossed her arms. "You're not even pretending to go slow anymore, are you?"

Kaelion's smile was tight. "We never had the time to go slow."

Behind him, Veyr emerged from the shadows, his dark cloak whispering across the ground. "The Council will respond," he said gravely.

"They already have," Kaelion replied. "They received the message last night."

Thalia's heart twisted in her chest. "You sent it?"

"I warned you. Your name would start wars," he said. "I just lit the first match."

She turned away, hiding the sudden storm behind her eyes. The Luna Flame, the ancient relic buried beneath the ruins, had answered her when she touched it. She'd felt it in her bones: warmth and power and recognition, all at once.

They said only one soul in a generation could ignite it.

And it had chosen her.

---

Elder Mora

The Council chamber buzzed with tension, an invisible fog thickening the air.

Mora rarely spoke when Verin took the floor, but this time, she could not remain still. Her voice broke through the murmuring like a bell.

"We don't know the full extent of what she's become," she said, her eyes sweeping the ring of elders. "We exiled a healer's apprentice. We may have created a queen."

Verin scoffed. "Or a weapon."

Mora turned to face him fully. "We created her, Verin. By turning our backs when she needed us. By treating the bond like scandal instead of fate."

"We are the Council," he said, rising slowly, his voice growing cold. "Fate does not command us. Order does."

But the others looked shaken.

Kael flinched.

Even, Elira, wore unease like a crown of thorns.

The tide was shifting.

And Thalia hadn't even returned yet.

---

Thalia

Later, sitting beneath the ancient trees that sheltered the ruins, Thalia stared at her hands, hands that once mixed healing salves and poultices, now trembling with power she didn't understand.

"Why now?" she asked, her voice low. "Why push so hard, so fast?"

Veyr sat beside her, silent for a moment. Then, "Because prophecy isn't polite."

She blinked. "That's your reason?"

He chuckled faintly. "It's also not patient. The Flame answered you. That light can't be hidden anymore. The world will come looking."

"I never asked for any of this."

"I know," he said gently. "But you were born into it anyway."

She leaned back against the tree trunk, her eyes fluttering closed. "So what happens next?"

There was a long silence.

Then Veyr said, "We make you visible. Public. Unignorable."

Thalia opened one eye. "What does that mean?"

"A summit. With Moonridge. Crescent. The Syndicate. All three factions in one place."

Her breath caught. "That sounds like a suicide mission."

"Only if you stay silent," he replied. "If you speak, if you own who you are, then even the Council won't be able to bury you again."

She was quiet for a moment.

Then she opened her mother's journal, thumbed through its brittle pages.

"Fine," she said softly. "Let them see me."

---

Cassian

He returned to Moonridge to find the territory buzzing with whispers.

Thalia. The Syndicate. A threat. A weapon. A Luna who burned instead of bowed.

He found Kael on the training grounds, barking commands at the younger wolves.

"I need a meeting with Crescent," Cassian said.

Kael didn't look surprised. "They requested one this morning. Elira's demanding to know if you've officially broken the match."

Cassian's jaw clenched. "Then let her know I'm officially withdrawing from the Luna selection process."

Kael paused, turning fully. "You're choosing Thalia."

Cassian met his gaze evenly. "I'm choosing the truth."

A flicker of something-respect? fear? passed over Kael's face. Then he nodded.

"I'll arrange the summit."

As Kael walked away, Cassian exhaled slowly. He wasn't sure if choosing her would save them, or destroy everything they'd built.

But for once, he was done choosing safety over soul.

---

Thalia

She stood on the hill overlooking the ruins, the wind tugging at her cloak, her mother's journal clutched tightly in her hand.

Everything was changing too fast, too loud.

But inside her, the fire remained steady. Calm.

She was scared. She was angry.

But most of all, she was ready.

She remembered kneeling in the Council chambers, her voice small, her presence barely tolerated. She remembered Verin's verdict, and the sharp silence that followed.

The girl who had once begged to stay now walked among ruins the Council could not touch.

She turned to Veyr, her expression hardening.

"When is the summit?"

"Three days."

She nodded once, her voice like steel wrapped in flame.

"Then let them come," she said. "Let them see what they tried to erase. The fire is waiting."