The murmuring shifted. Darker now. Suspicious.
“Some have questioned my choice to keep her.” His voice dropped, carrying an edge that made even the murmuring fade. “Have wondered if the Alpha King has lost perspective. If the human female who smells of Lux’s blessing should be studied, dissected, handed to priests who would pick apart whatever makes her unique.”
Elsa’s heart hammered against her ribs. He was addressing the challenge directly. Publicly. Either the boldest political move she’d witnessed or the most reckless.
“Let me be clear.” Sylas released her hair, his paw dropping to her shoulder instead. The weight of it pressed down, grounding and threatening at once. “This human is mine.Myproperty.Mypet. She lives because I permit it. She breathes because I allow it. She exists in my fortress, in my territory, because I—and I alone—have deemed her worthy of keeping.”
His claws extended slightly, pricking through the silk of her gown to touch skin.
“Any who challenge this challenge me. Any who seek to take what is mine will discover why I’ve held this throne for fifteen years while others have fallen to madness and rebellion alike.” A pause, heavy with promise. “I trust I make myself understood.”
Silence crashed through the chamber.
Then, from somewhere in the galleries, a single voice rose in approval. Another joined it. Another. Until the sound swelled into something almost like thunder, a roaring acknowledgment of their king’s claim.
Not all of them, Elsa noted. Not by far. Pockets of stillness remained—males who watched with calculating eyes, who didn’t stomp or rumble or add their voices to the chorus. Xar was among them, his green gaze fixed on her with an intensity that made something cold slither down her spine.
The ceremony continued.
Tribute delegations approached the dais one by one, presenting offerings Elsa couldn’t fully process. Foods, probably. Weapons. Vials of what appeared to be filled with perfumes and oils. Materials that glowed with Moon Tear energy or shimmered with craftsmanship beyond anything she’d seen on Earth. Sylas acknowledged each with gestures she was learning to interpret—approval, dismissal, the subtle cues of a ruler who’d performed this ritual countless times.
She knelt through all of it. Her legs began to ache. Then her back. Then everything below her waist as circulation stuttered and failed.
But she didn’t shift. Didn’t complain. Didn’t do anything that might undermine the display of submission Sylas was so carefully constructing.
One hour at a time.
When the tributes ended, the galleries began to stir. Elsa’s hope flickered—perhaps this was the end, perhaps she could finally stand—but Sylas’s claws found her hair again, stilling her.
“One final matter.” His voice carried new weight. “Lux Knight Captain Xar has requested permission to address the court.”
The cold thing in Elsa’s spine coiled tighter.
Xar moved forward, his dark fur catching the blue-tinged light as he approached the dais. He bowed—properly, respectfully, every line of his body conveying appropriate deference even as his eyes remained fixed on Elsa.
“My king.” His voice was smooth. Too smooth. “The court has witnessed your claim. Your control over the human pet is beyond question.”
But.The word hung unspoken in the air, obvious as a blade.
“However, some among the faithful have raised concerns.” Xar spread his paws in a gesture of helpless concern. “Not about your right to keep her, of course. About hernature. The FrostedTears scent. Her survival after handling a Moon Tear core of unprecedented purity.” His green eyes glittered. “Surely such anomalies warrant...investigation?”
“The court has heard my position on investigation.” Sylas’s voice carried warning.
“Indeed, my king. And the faithful accept your wisdom.” Xar dipped his head again, but when he raised it, something had shifted in his expression. Triumph, barely concealed. “Which is why we propose not investigation, butdemonstration.”
Movement at the chamber’s edge. Guards—Xar’s guards, Elsa realized, not the ones who’d accompanied Sylas—approached, carrying a containment unit similar to the one she’d seen in the integration chamber. Smaller, but pulsing with that same blue glow.
Inside, suspended in the containment field, floated a Moon Tear crystal.
Not the pure one she’d retrieved. This one was darker. The blue had an edge of sickly green, its facets clouded instead of clear. Even from this distance, she could feel somethingwrongemanating from it—a discord that scraped against the bracer on her wrist.
“A contaminated core,” Xar explained, turning to address the galleries as much as the throne. “Recovered from a collapsed mine shaft just two days past. Unstable. Corrupted. The kind of crystal that drives males to Fallen madness with even brief exposure.”
Murmurs rippled through the crowd. Worried now. Uncertain.
“Our engineers cannot cleanse it. Our priests have prayed over it without effect.” Xar’s gaze locked onto Elsa. “But if this human truly carries Lux’s blessing—if her scent and survival are signs of divine favor—then surely she could do what we cannot.”
The trap snapped closed around her.