Elantra:
The gates of the Royal House loomed before me like the jaws of a sleeping titan, taller than any structure I'd ever seen, forged from seamless obsidian and veined with streaks of molten silver. Runes shimmered faintly along its spine, not quite glowing, but pulsing. Waiting.
They felt… aware.
I stood frozen, heart hammering, the strap of my satchel wound tightly around my fingers. My palms were slick with sweat, and every nerve in my body screamed the same thing:
Turn around. Run. Don't go through that gate.
But it was too late for second thoughts.
Two guards stepped forward, their cloaks a rich midnight blue, silver insignias gleaming over their hearts. Their expressions were unreadable, chiseled from stone. One of them glanced down at the ring on my finger, a faint shimmer flickered across its surface as if responding to his gaze. He gave a short nod.
"You may enter."
Just like that.
Miriam had kissed my forehead before I left, her fingers trembling as she tucked a lock of hair behind my ear like it would be the last time. Orion hadn't said much. Just gripped my shoulder hard enough to bruise and muttered, "Stay sharp. And don't trust a crown just because it shines."
I didn't plan to.
The gates groaned open, not with rust, but like something ancient was waking from sleep. The sound vibrated through my bones as I walked into the lion's den.
The Royal House wasn't a palace.
It was a kingdom within a kingdom.
Sprawling courtyards spilled into each other like paintings thats has come to life, gardens of glowing, bioluminescent flora bloomed in every hue of twilight. Domed towers stretched high above, some vanishing into the clouds. Silver lanterns floated midair, their blue-white light dancing along marble paths. Ornate mosaics adorned the walls, depicting wolves, moons, blood, and flame.
Magic pulsed beneath every stone.
My boots echoed as I followed a steward down a winding corridor. She said nothing, just moved like a shadow, silent and graceful, her robes swishing faintly behind her.
Every step made my heart beat louder.
The weight of eyes followed me, guards at every archway, servants who paused mid-step to watch. I didn't know if they recognized me, or if they just sensed what I was. A storm in borrowed skin.
Finally, the steward stopped before two massive silver doors, their handles shaped like entwined wolves.
She didn't knock.
The doors creaked open with eerie synchronicity, revealing the High Hall.
As soon as I looked in, I forgot how to breathe.
The chamber was vast, the ceiling a ribcage of stone archways reaching toward the heavens. Stained glass moons cast fractured rainbows across the polished obsidian floor. Magic hung in the air like perfume, heady and cold.
At the center of it all, seated on a throne carved from darkwood and inlaid with runes of silver, was him.
Cassian Valemont.
The Crowned Wolf. The Golden Prince.
One leg draped lazily over the other, fingers steepled beneath his chin. He was already watching me when I stepped in. Not with arrogance, but with something far more dangerous.
Curiosity.
His golden hair fell in tousled waves around his face, catching the light like sunlight through silk. His piercing blue eyes seemed to flicker, like they could see beneath skin and bone, into thoughts I hadn't even had yet. The set of his jaw was too perfect, his mouth the kind that made you wonder how many hearts it had broken.
He was devastatingly handsome.
And I hated that my chest tightened when he stood.
He moved like water and fire had learned to walk. Fluid. Commanding. He descended the marble steps with quiet authority, each stride more deliberate than the last.
"Elantra," he said.
My name in his voice sent a ripple through me.
The system flared in my head, clear and cool.
"Candidate Identified. Sync Level: 4%... and rising."
He stopped a few breath away from me. He seemed taller than I'd imagined. Broader, too. He smelled like winter and leather and something sharp, like rain on steel.
"You look like your mother," he said quietly, voice softer than I expected.
My heart jerked. "You knew her?"
"Only through a dying man's letter." His smile didn't reach his eyes. "But it was enough."
Something passed between us. A thread. Fragile. Weighted with grief and too many unsaid things.
"I didn't ask for this," I murmured.
His eyes never left mine. "Neither did I."
----------------------------------------------------
Cassian:
Cassian didn't breathe for a full five seconds after she entered.
She was real.
Elantra Devereux. The lost daughter of the fallen line. The Luna of Balance.
She stood like a blade that hadn't yet been unsheathed, silent, straight-backed, her eyes cautious and cutting all at once. Not afraid, but wary. Like a wolf surveying unfamiliar territory.
Her magic pressed against his, untrained but raw. And the bond, the cursed bond, was already awakening.
The sync was rising too fast.
And it terrified him.
Because this girl wasn't some passive prophecy.
She was a reckoning.
---------------------------------------------
Back to Elantra:
They didn't give me much time after that.
A steward guided me to my chambers, if you could call it a "room." The suite was larger than Miriam's entire cottage. Gilded drapes framed the windows. The bed looked carved from moonstone. A silver wolf statue stood guard in one corner, its eyes made of sapphire.
I dropped my satchel onto a velvet chair and crossed to the mirror. My face stared back at me, pale and drawn. My eyes, too silver, looked wrong in this world of gold.
I pressed a hand to the mark above my heart. The crescent burned softly beneath my fingertips.
"Second candidate proximity detected. Estimated arrival: imminent."
I stared at the reflection, pulse quickening. "Second—?"
The words barely left my lips before the balcony doors slammed open with a crash.
Wind howled into the room like a creature unleashed.
A figure stood in the doorway, cloaked in night itself.
And then he stepped through the veil of wind, slow and precise, like a king entering his kingdom.