Seraphina's voice was frigid. "Gabriel has a frail constitution. That the creature's pelt could keep him warm was its good fortune. If you harbor resentment over this, it only proves your heart is corrupt." Then came the manic thoughts, bleeding into my ears through the damaged bond. Cry. Go on, cry. The moment a single tear falls, I can collect it in the Jade Reliquary. A blood-tear from you. The pelt of your beloved moonbound fox is right here. Surely it hurts? Kneel and beg me. Once you're sobbing so hard you can't breathe, I'll reward you with a few tinctures and stroke your head. Her fingers rubbed something hidden inside her sleeve. I knew what it was: a scrap of bloodstained fabric torn from my tunic yesterday when it snagged on the doorframe. Deranged. Seraphina leaned forward, eyes locked on me. The air in the room thickened, her Alpha aura pressing against my skin like the flat of a cold blade. She was waiting for me to break. Waiting for me to grab her sleeve and weep. I picked up the broom from the corner, bent down, and swept the dried herb dregs out the door. "If it pleases my pack protégé, then so be it." My voice was flat. "I wouldn't want to offend the Supreme Alpha's sight. I'll have this cleaned up right away." Seraphina's expression froze. Something ignited behind her eyes. No pleading. No tears. She flicked her wrist, and a surge of lunar essence shattered the broom in my hands. Wooden splinters drove into my palms. Blood welled up between my fingers. I didn't flinch. Seraphina closed the distance. Her scent hit me full force, white frost and crushed moonflower over that metallic wrongness underneath, and my dormant wolf stirred once, weakly, then went still again. "Insolent wretch! It seems the Servants' Quarters have made you too comfortable. You haven't shown a shred of remorse!" I kept my gaze on the tips of my boots. "This wolf acknowledges his fault." "Acknowledges his fault?" Seraphina let out a cold laugh. "If you truly know your fault, then go kneel beneath Glacial Dominance in the Hinterlands! You will remain there until you've reflected properly. Only then may you crawl back!" Glacial Dominance was where the Greyfang Pack punished its gravest offenders. A waterfall infused with the Supreme Alpha's own killing cold, pouring endlessly from the high cliff into a stone basin. Wolves sent there either submitted or died. Before, I could have endured it with my own wolf aura. But my Soul-Bonded Fang was shattered now, my bloodline power in ruins. Going there was a death sentence in all but name. I raised my head and looked at Seraphina the way one looks at a stranger. "Yes, Alpha." I turned and walked away. Behind me came the ragged sound of her breathing, then the sharp crack of a teacup crushed to powder in her grip.
The wind in the Hinterlands cut like a blade.
The waterfall plunged from the high cliff and hammered into my back. It carried her dominance in every drop, a cold that didn't just freeze the body but pressed against the wolf inside, demanding submission.
Cold bored through every crack in my bones. I knelt on the stone at the center of the pool, my knees long since numb.
The pain in my meridians was excruciating.
Three years ago, Seraphina had attempted her Bloodline Ascension. Her ritual artifact shattered, and I threw myself behind her to take the backlash.
It had cracked my heart meridian. Cold made it flare, every time.
Now the freezing water hammered the old wound wide open.
My vision blurred white with pain, but I made no sound.
Seraphina was watching through her scrying pool.
She was waiting for me to cry out, waiting for me to beg her for mercy.
She would be waiting a long time.
Severance Countdown: 5 days.
Gabriel strolled over carrying a white jade bowl, steam curling from its rim. The scent of dried foxglove and weak chamomile drifted ahead of him, that faintly sour undertone clinging beneath.
It was a heart-warming tonic. A single sip would have been enough to ward off the cold.
He stopped at the bank, boots crunching through the snow.
"Senior Brother. How does it feel?"
Gabriel looked me up and down. "The Alpha says all you have to do is bow your head, and this bowl is yours."
I closed my eyes and circulated what little wolf aura remained inside me. I didn't acknowledge him.
Gabriel turned his wrist. The dark medicinal broth spilled across the snow, seeping into an ugly stain.
"Oops. Butterfingers."
The grin slid off his face, replaced by open satisfaction. "Take a good look at yourself. You're lower than a dog. You used to be the Bonded Omega. And now?"
I opened my eyes. "You're done pouring. Leave. You're blocking the light."
Gabriel's expression curdled.
A crushing pressure descended from above. Seraphina landed on the frozen bank with a grim face and swept Gabriel behind her. The temperature around the pool dropped another degree. Not the water. Her.
Her gaze fixed on me.
"Incorrigible."
She extended one finger and sealed every meridian point in my body.
Without wolf aura to resist, the cold tore through my organs in an instant. I coughed up a mouthful of blood. It hit the water and dissolved, a thread of red carried away by the current.
"Since you refuse to learn, you can go to the Serpent Abyss."
It was the pack's Forbidden Grounds. The chasm below was writhing with venomous snakes.
