Chapter Fifty-Four
Calista
The moon turned the cliffs to bone, nearly still full but not quite, thank the goddess.
Selraya’s sacred temple rose ahead, pale turrets spiraling into the night like moonbeams made solid.
Like the Lupherium, though not quite as grand, its stone shimmered with a soft silver pulse that made my skin prickle.
The wind off the Moonglass Sea tasted sharp, clean, and ancient, as if the world itself held its breath for what was about to happen.
Neris led the way up the marble steps, her silver robes snapping in the gale.
Behind her, my ladies moved like a small tide: Tamsin and Brynja flanking me, Eira darting at my heels, and Suri close enough that her sleeve brushed mine as if she feared I might vanish into the snowy terrain again.
We finally reached the great doors. They stood closed, carved with crescent moons and wolves, their seams glowing faintly as if the temple remembered Selraya’s touch.
Neris lifted a hand and halted, then she looked back over her shoulder at me. “Wait here. I will ensure all is properly prepared before your entrance.”
I nodded, though my pulse was already climbing up my throat.
The priestess disappeared through the doors, swallowed by the sacred glow within. The moment she was gone, Suri caught my wrist and tugged me away from the ladies into the shelter of one of the spiraling pillars where the wind was quieter.
Her eyes were bright with tears I could tell she was refusing to shed. “You’re really doing this,” she whispered. “You’re going to be crowned in the Temple of the Moon. You’re going to be a queen.”
A laugh tried to escape me and came out as a breath instead. “Apparently.”
Suri’s fingers tightened. “I’m so proud of you. Ma and Pa would be too.” Her mouth wobbled around the words. “But I hate it.”
I blinked. “Suri—”
“I hate that you were forced to do this for us. I hate that Ma isn’t here, and Aunt Mara too.
” The words came out sharp and raw, like she’d been holding them in for days.
“I hate that our mother is in Hollowcrest, drifting farther from us every day, and you’re here with all of this.
I hate that she won’t understand the importance of what you did. ”
My throat burned. “I wish Ma were here too,” I admitted softly. “But she will be. After tonight, once everything is confirmed.”
Suri nodded. “I certainly hope so.”
I straightened my spine. “My edict stands. No one can come for her, despite how she behaves. Not for what’s already happened and not for anything that might happen. She can come live in Frostcrag without fear. I’ve made sure of that.”
Suri’s shoulders sagged a fraction in relief, but her gaze sharpened again. “You said you need confirmation?”
I hesitated, Trystan’s smug grin flashing behind my eyes. There had to be a way to secure the Thornwild Alpha’s silence. “After the ceremony,” I promised. “When it’s done, when I can finally breathe, I’ll tell you everything I can.”
The images in the Mirror at the Lupherium bubbled up next. Pa’s trembling voice. Ma’s faint mark. The word south like a condemnation. I couldn’t tell her. Not yet. Not until I understood what the temple was trying to warn me about.
Suri nodded, swallowing hard. “Fine. But if you start trying to carry the realm alone again, I’m going to bite you.”
A smile tugged at my mouth despite the fear. “That’s fair, little fish.”
Tamsin’s voice called gently from behind us. “Suri. Eira. The doors will open soon. You need to take your seats.”
Suri nodded before kissing my cheek and stepping away. “I’ll be watching. Don’t let anyone take this moment from you.”
Eira grabbed my hand briefly, squeezing like a tiny wolf. “Don’t worry, if anything goes wrong, I’ll stab someone.”
“That is not comforting,” I murmured but a smile parted my lips all the same. I had a feeling I was going to like that feisty little Wolvryn.
“It should be.” Her expression turned cold, pure Savage, and again, I saw it. The same brutal bone-deep likeness stamped across two different siblings. Before I could comment on it, she turned and darted inside with Suri.
The doors opened again just enough to swallow the girls, and in the brief glimpse I stole past the glowing seam, I could just make out the temple’s interior lit in pale moonlight. Court members already filled the vast hall in layers of fur, iron and braided sigils, their murmurs soft.
I searched for one face without meaning to. Dorian, my Alpha. A tiny piece of home. Only he wasn’t there. His absence landed wrong, and a hint of unease twisted low in my belly. Dorian would never miss this ceremony, especially not when it concerned Hollowcrest’s survival.
I took a half step forward, scanning beyond the Court members to the raised dais. Only the statue of Selraya stood with her arms outstretched and a wolf curled at her feet. No Dorian and no other Alphas in their places, either. A sharper flicker of dread slid beneath my ribs.
Tamsin must have noticed my distraction because she pressed close. “Breathe,” she murmured. “You’re going to make yourself sick.”
“I’m fine,” I lied.
Brynja leaned over my other shoulder. “You look like you’re about to bolt.”
“Is that not allowed?” I’d done it last time, after all.
“Sure, it’s allowed.” She grinned mischievously. “But it would make for a terrible ceremony.”
The doors opened again and this time Neris stepped out, face too pale under the moonlight. “Come.” For some reason, the word didn’t sound comforting. A sharp urgency laced her tone.
I moved forward, letting my ladies gather around me as if we were a shielded formation. Neris’s hand hovered near my elbow, then she drew it back, jaw tightening. Her unease was no longer hidden. It clung to her like frost.
“What is it?” I whispered.
Her eyes flicked to mine. “Nothing.”
The lie was as thin as ice.
I crossed the threshold, and the Moon temple swallowed me in silver.
A sacred chill crawled over me, raising the hair on my arms. Pale light filtered from openings high above, painting the stone in ghostly blues and silvers.
The chamber felt alive, like the moon itself was watching, like Selraya herself was measuring my worth.
Wolvryn elites from every Court stood shoulder to shoulder, packed into the hall.
Tidebreak sea-glass charms glinted, Nightreef coral black was braided into hair.
There were Mistvale’s subtle knots, Ironcliff’s heavy metal clasps, Thornwild thorns woven into fur collars, and Stormhallow’s storm-bead rings.
So much power.
And yet… The places where the Alphas should have stood were empty.
No Dorian or Radick. No Ironcliff or Saltspire.
The entire Conclave was missing.
My heart dropped so fast it felt like falling through ice. “They must have changed their minds,” I whispered to myself, the words coming out like ash. “They’re denying my claim.” There was no other possible reason.
Tamsin’s fingers tightened on my sleeve. “Don’t assume—”
“Where’s Trystan?” I hissed, eyes desperately scanning. “Where are any of them?”
No answer. Unease spread through the crowd in ripples, like wolves sensing a shift in the wind. And then my gaze caught on the dais again, on Selraya’s statue. Her gemstone heart pulsed, slow and steady, like a warning.
My skin prickled, and a cold thought slid into my mind. What if it wasn’t politics? What if something else happened?
Worry speared sharp and sudden, lancing through my ribs. Savage. Where was he?
Had Trystan gotten to him after all?
The room spun, and I blinked quickly to keep the darkness from edging into the corners. Goddess, I was going to be sick.
The air suddenly thickened. Court members turned, and all murmurs cut off in a harsh hush. The great doors at the far end of the temple opened.
And he walked in.
Relief struck me like air after drowning. My knees wobbled at the sight of him.
Tonight, the Savage King wore royal Frostcrag regalia, iron and midnight leather fitted close.
A cloak of frost-wolf fur was draped over one shoulder, clasped with silver crescent moons.
The polished iron mask gleamed under the moonlight, its edges catching pale fire.
His wild hair was neatly pulled back beneath the crown of crescents, exposing the hard line of his jaw and the stark power in his throat.
For a heartbeat, I forgot to breathe. He looked like a king carved from storm and ice. Like the kind of male the realm itself would kneel for.
My chest tightened in a way that wasn’t fear at all.
Then my gaze caught the tension in those powerful shoulders. The way they were completely rigid, as if he were holding something back with sheer force. The way his hands flexed, barely restrained. The heat beneath his calm.
Fury.
He crossed the hall in long, predatory strides, and the crowd parted for him without so much as a word. He did not look at anyone. Not even me. And I hated how much that rankled.
The king glared straight at Neris. “Where are the Alphas?” His voice was low and lethal, a blade drawn slowly.
The priestess’s chin lifted, but her eyes flicked, betraying her. “I… do not know.”
Savage stopped close enough that the very air around us changed. “You do not know,” he repeated, each word colder.
Neris’s breath hitched. “I was improperly occupied,” she snapped. For the first time, I heard something like shame in her tone. “Had I not been forced to play chaperone for a king who forgot his own law—”
Savage’s head tilted a fraction in warning. Neris swallowed down the rest, but her eyes still held that sharp accusation.
It stabbed straight through me. He’d been with me. He’d come to my room. The king had broken tradition because of me. Again.
And now the Conclave was gone.