The movement was so sudden, so casual, that she didn’t have time to protest. One moment she was sitting on the edge of the medical bed; the next, she was cradled against his chest like she weighed nothing at all.
“Put me down.” The words lacked conviction.
“No.”
His fur was warm against her cheek—soft despite its coarse appearance, radiating heat that seeped through her cloak and into her chilled bones. She could feel the steady rhythm of his heartbeat beneath her palm where it pressed against his chest. Slower than a human’s. Stronger. A drumbeat designed for endurance.
He carried her through the corridor with the same effortless stride she remembered from the storm-woods. The Lux Knights they passed didn’t even blink, their ears flicking in acknowledgment of their king before snapping back to attention.
This was normal here. Expected. The Alpha King carrying his pet through the fortress like precious cargo.
She should hate it. Should struggle, demand he set her down, insist on her own autonomy even if it killed her.
Instead, exhaustion won. Her head drooped against his shoulder, and she let him carry her.
His breath stirred the hair at her temple. Then—so subtle she might have imagined it—he inhaled. A deep, slow draw that pressed his muzzle closer to her scalp.
“You’re sniffing me again.”
“Your scent is strongest here.” No apology. No embarrassment. Just statement of fact. “The Frosted Tears. It clings to your hair.”
“Is that why you keep touching it?”
His grip shifted, pulling her fractionally closer. “Yes.”
The honesty shouldn’t have pleased her. Shouldn’t have sent warmth pooling in her chest that had nothing to do with his body heat or the cloak wrapped around her shoulders.
They descended a spiral of steps carved straight into the mountain’s heart, each one hollowed smooth by centuries of clawed passage.
With every level they sank, the blue light intensified. What had been a soft glow above sharpened into something brighter, more alive. Veins of crystal threaded through the walls, pulsing in slow, rhythmic beats that echoed faintly through the stone. The deeper they went, the more it felt like descending into a body—into something vast and awake, the fortress full of energy. Alive. Almost as if it wasn’t built, but grown—like those crystal science projects.
“The integration chamber.” Sylas’s voice rumbled through his chest. “The heart of the Moon Tears grid.”
He set her down at the entrance to an observation alcove—a carved-out section of rock with a curved viewing windowthat overlooked the vast space below. Her legs wobbled, but she caught herself against the stone railing before he could scoop her up again.
The chamber took her breath away.
It stretched at least three stories down, the walls lined with crystalline conduits that glowed with that same blue light she’d seen everywhere in the fortress. But here, concentrated, amplified—the light pulsed like a living thing, flowing through channels carved into the rock like veins through flesh.
At the center stood a towering apparatus of metal and crystal, its purpose unmistakable. A housing for the core. Engineers moved around its base, their fur ranging from deep brown to silver-gray, all of them wearing protective bands around their wrists and foreheads.
And in the chamber’s heart, suspended in a containment field that made the air shimmer, floated the Moon Tear core she’d nearly died retrieving.
It was beautiful. Terrible. A fist-sized crystal that pulsed with power she could feel even from this distance—a low vibration in her bones that resonated with the bracer on her wrist.
“That’s what runs everything.” Her voice came out hushed. “Your defenses. Your technology. All of it.”
“All of it.” Sylas moved to stand beside her, his bulk blocking the doorway behind them. “The Moon Tears power our civilization. Have for generations. But the pure veins ran dry decades ago. What we mine now is contaminated. Unstable.” His claws clicked against the railing. “Dangerous.”
Below, the Lux Priest raised his paws in some kind of ritual gesture. The engineers stepped back. Energy crackled through the conduits—visible now, bright lines of power that converged on the central apparatus.
The core descended into its housing.
Light exploded outward.
Elsa flinched, throwing her arm up instinctively. Even through closed eyelids, the brilliance seared—pure and white and so intense it felt like staring into a sun.
Then it faded. Softened to that familiar blue glow, but brighter now. Steadier. The throbbing pulse of the walls smoothed into something consistent, even.