As the sorcerer disappeared, slowly, the light in Nymeria's gaze began to dim.
Her great Lycan form wavered and she shifted back into Lara.
Barefoot and bare-shouldered, she staggered once and her knees buckled. But Thornak was already there in human form as well.
He caught her before she hit the ground, one arm around her back, the other beneath her knees. Her head fell against his chest, breath shallow but steady.
Thornak looked down at her, "I've got you." he whispered.
He got on a horse and turned toward the citadel.
Behind him, the battlefield smoked, but the war had changed. The heir had awakened.
Queen Maravelle sat poised in the rosewood parlor, her gown a cascade of deep violet and gold. The late afternoon sun glinted off the crystal decanter between her and Lady Selene, casting prisms across the polished floor. Their conversation drifted lightly, matters of noble gatherings, Selene's departure for her family's anniversary celebration.
"My mother has chosen the old garden for the evening," Selene said, smiling. "She always did love the roses this time of year."
Maravelle nodded, lifting her goblet of elderflower wine. "A woman of tradition. Send her my warmest regards."
Then abruptly the door crashed open.
Lucan, the Queen's personal guard, stumbled in, breathless, eyes sharp with urgency.
"Your Majesty."
Maravelle's head turned sharply. She did not rise, but her voice cut like frost.
"You dare burst into my presence without knocking."
The guard froze mid-step, panic seizing his features.
"I beg pardon, my Queen, but..."
"You are in my chambers, not some battlefield trench. Compose yourself," she said coolly, setting her goblet down with deliberate grace. "What is it, is my son alright?"
He dropped to one knee instantly. "Lady Lara, she shifted."
Selene blinked. "Shifted."
The guard nodded, voice faltering. "Into a Lycan, my lady. Tall as the king. Cloaked in silver. Eyes burning with blue fire. The moonfire."
The wine was forgotten.
Maravelle straightened, her expression unreadable. "Moonfire?"
A pause. Selene stood slowly, gaze flicking between them. "I don't understand. What does that mean?"
The guard hesitated. "They say… she is the heir. The heir of the Moonguard."
A stillness settled like frost over the room.
Maravelle's lips pressed into a thin, bloodless line. She walked to the window, gaze fixed on the distant smoke curling up from beyond the walls.
"So Lara is the Moonguard heir," she murmured.
Then, turning slightly, she addressed the guard once more, calm but razor-sharp.
"Go."
He bowed lower. "Yes, Your Highness."
He fled.
Behind her, Selene watched, brow furrowed. "What heir?"
But Maravelle only looked toward the horizon, her eyes hard with stormlight.
"The one whose return undoes everything."
"My Queen… I don't understand. What does this mean?"
Maravelle didn't answer her at first. She turned toward the window, watching smoke twist into the sky from far beyond the palace wall.
"She wasn't supposed to awaken," she murmured, more to herself than to Selene. "Not here. Not now." And then, softer still, eyes narrowing like a hawk sighting its prey. "But if the Moonguard blood lives… then the throne is no longer ours."
Selene took a step forward, confused and restless. "Why would that matter? What does some dead bloodline have to do with us?"
Maravelle turned to her sharply, eyes glinting.
"Because the Moonguard were more than a bloodline. They were chosen by the Moon Goddess herself. Divine rulers, not just of wolves but of balance, of power, of law."
She walked slowly across the room, her voice low and tense.
"If she is the heir, then her claim supersedes Thornak's. Supersedes mine. Her blood was once bowed to by Lycans, fae, and even seers. Her line held the relics of the old world. If it rises again…"
She let the sentence hang like a guillotine.
Selene's lips twisted with disdain. "So she's royalty now, is she? That little village brat?" Her voice dripped venom. "Perhaps it would be good if she challenges Thornak for the throne. He'll see her for what she really is and leave her. All of this will pass."
Maravelle's gaze snapped to her. "Stop talking nonsense."
Selene flinched.
"This is bigger than your petty jealousy," the Queen said coldly. "If the Moonguard rises, the kingdom itself may shift. Alliances will tremble. And Lara… she may not even know what she carries. But the moment she does… everything changes."
The heavy doors to the king's chambers flew open, slamming against the stone with a thunderous echo.
Thornak turned from the hearth, his tunic half-laced and boots muddied from battle. His brow furrowed. "Mother."
Queen Maravelle entered like a dagger unsheathed, her violet and gold gown sweeping in her wake, her expression brittle with fury.
"You knew," she said, voice low and sharp.
Thornak's shoulders squared. "Close the door."
"I will not," she snapped. "You kept it from me. All this time. You knew what she was."
He didn't deny it.
"You let her live under this roof. Sit at your table. Share your chamber. And never once thought to tell me Lara is the Moonguard heir?"
"She didn't know," Thornak replied calmly. "And until a few days ago, neither did I for certain."
"But you suspected," she hissed. "You felt it. Saw it in her eyes. In your wolf's deference. And still, you said nothing."
He took a step toward her, voice low. "Because I knew exactly what you'd do."
Maravelle narrowed her eyes. "What is that supposed to mean?"
"You'd see her as a threat," he said. "You wouldn't think of the realm or the people. You'd think of the crown."
She recoiled as if struck.
"I am the Queen," she said icily.
"You are selfish," Thornak bit out. "You say you want to protect the kingdom, but what you really want is to protect your seat on the throne. You don't see her as danger to our people, you see her as a danger to you."
Her nostrils flared. "How dare you..."
"How long have you been waiting for a chance to solidify your legacy?" he pressed. "To make sure your bloodline stays on the throne, no matter who must be silenced or shoved aside? You've worn that crown so long, you've forgotten it was never meant to be ours."
Her voice trembled with restrained rage. "Your father and I built this kingdom from ruin. And now you would throw it all away for her?"
"I would rebuild it again," Thornak said, stepping closer, "if it meant restoring what was right. You speak of betrayal, yet you would betray our people just to keep a title that was never yours to claim."
"You would risk everything for her?" she asked, breathless now. "A girl from nowhere?"
"She is not a girl from nowhere," he said, his voice rising. "She is everything. The bloodline of balance. The Moonfire reborn. And she didn't ask for it, didn't even know. But the goddess chose her, and I will not stand in her way."
Maravelle stared at him, stunned into silence.
Then, softly: "You would cast aside your own mother?"
"I would cast aside your ambition," Thornak said, each word slow, searing. "Because the kingdom deserves better than a queen who sees every threat through the lens of her own vanity."
For a moment, nothing moved.
Then Maravelle's expression hardened into something glacial.
"I see," she whispered.
She turned, silks rustling like dry leaves, and walked to the door.
But before she passed through it, she paused and looked back.
"If she takes what I built with her pretty moonfire eyes and half-born power," Maravelle said with a cruel smile, "I'll show her how a queen survives."
The door closed with finality behind her.
....
The door slammed open with enough force to shake dust from the rafters.
Queen Maravelle didn't flinch. Her guards had informed her the moment Kael set foot inside the palace. She sat composed behind her gilded writing desk, draped in daylight, as if she'd been expecting him for hours.
Kael didn't waste breath on courtesy.
"You sent me to the Highlands so you could frame her."
Maravelle set her quill down with a soft click. "I sent you because you're too loyal to your brother to think clearly."
"You mean I would've stopped you," he snapped.
Her gaze didn't waver. "Yes."
Kael's jaw clenched, breath sharp in his nostrils. "She's the Moonguard heir. The one we've been hunting shadows to find. And you tried to ruin her."
"I did what I thought was best for the realm," she said evenly. "She was a danger..."
"How was she a danger!" he growled.
Maravelle rose, regal and unbending. "And what would you have had me do, Kael? Wait for the wolf-less girl to become Queen."
Kael stepped forward, eyes cold. "And how many people would have died if Thornak hadn't stood by her when you wouldn't? You gambled with the future of our kingdom. And lost. You played your games mother, and he chose her anyway."
With a sharp breath and a bitter glance, he turned on his heel and strode out, footsteps echoing like thunder across the marble floor.
He needed to find Thornak. Now.
Kael found Thornak alone in the council chamber, the weight of war maps and reports spread across the table before him.
He didn't wait for formality.
"Stormvault was a setup."
Thornak glanced up.
"She sent me away so I couldn't stop it," Kael went on. "So I wouldn't be here when she had Lara arrested like some traitor."
His fists clenched at his sides.
"I should've been here. She needed someone in her corner, and I was off chasing goats."
His fists clenched at his sides.
"I should've seen it. I should've known the moment she said it was routine. Stormvault, of all places? She played me. Like a pawn. Her own son."