The chamber came alive. Frost shattered off the walls, exploding into shards that hung suspended in the air like stars. Runes appeared in the stone, thousands of them, glowing with color—not blue like the rest of the castle, but white-gold and silver, like sunlight breaking through a storm. The sound was deafening yet wordless, a vibration that filled the air and every bone in my body.
Fenrir howled.
Then, just as suddenly as it began, the light folded inward—slamming into the shard, through my hand, intome.
For an instant, I saw everything. Mountains buried under glaciers. Rivers frozen mid-flow. A sky split by crimson light. And in its center, a woman’s voice—not speaking but humming. The same lullaby my mother used to sing.
When I came back to myself, the room was quiet again. But the frost had changed. It wasn’t dull anymore. It gleamed like glass after lightning.
Footsteps echoed down the hall. More than one set.
I turned, chest heaving. Kaelith stood in the doorway, sword drawn, a dozen guards behind him. His eyes took in the room, the shattered frost, the light still fading from my skin.
“What did you do?” he demanded.
“I—I don’t know.”
“Don’t lie to me.”
“I touched it. That’s all.”
He strode forward, stopping only when the glow around my hand flared again. His expression faltered—anger giving way to something like disbelief. “It shouldn’t answer you,” he murmured.
“Answer me?”
“That’s not possible.”
He looked as if he wanted to reach for me but didn’t dare. His voice softened. “The Dreamstone hasn’t stirred in centuries. Its magic anchors the Veil. Without it, the realms collapse.”
“And now?”
He looked at me—really looked—and I saw it then: the fear. Not for himself. For me.
“Now,” he said quietly, “the Court will think you’re the reason it woke.” He exhaled a ragged breath. “How did you find it, Katria?”
My breath halted in my throat at my name on his lips. This was the first time he’d used it—or called me anything but “mortal.”
“I—I’m not sure. The passageway … called to me.”
Kaelith’s jaw clenched as his eyes bored into me. “The Frostfather will not like it.”
He was right.
The Frostfather didn’tenterthe room so much as consume it.The temperature plummeted before I saw him, frost curling up the walls in jagged veins. Guards dropped to one knee, heads bowed. Kaelith stayed standing.
I wanted to do the same, but my legs refused to bend.
The Frostfather’s gaze found me immediately. His eyes were colorless—not white, not gray, but void, as if someone had scraped the light out of them. A crown of fractured ice hung crooked on his brow, and with every breath, mist poured from between histeeth.
“What is this?” he hissed. His voice splintered the air; every word sounded wrong, out of tune, like a chord played on broken glass.
Kaelith stepped forward. “A disturbance in the underhalls. I contained it.”
The king’s stare slid past him, fixing on me. “Youcaused this.”
“I didn’t mean—”
“Silence.” The command cut through me like a blade. Even the frostlight dimmed.
