The Supreme Councilor's throne room was a massive circular chamber at the very top of the Sun Tower, encased entirely in reinforced glass to overlook the sprawling continent. In the center sat the Golden Throne, an ancient relic supposedly blessed by the Moon Goddess herself.
When Kaelen simply kicked the heavy oak doors off their hinges, the sound echoed like a cannon shot.
Lucius was cowering behind the throne.
The man who had ordered the slaughter of thousands, who had kept my people in chains and ordered me left for dead in the mud, was trembling like a cornered rat. His immaculate white robes were disheveled, and his golden crown sat crookedly on his graying hair.
"Stay back!" Lucius shrieked, brandishing a jagged, corrupted crystal shard—the very mechanism he had used to control the stolen Aegis Wards. "I am the Voice of the Goddess! If you strike me down, the heavens will curse your bloodline for eternity!"
Kaelen laughed. It was a dark, hollow, terrifying sound that promised nothing but absolute agony.
The Lycan King stalked into the room, his heavy boots leaving bloody footprints on the pristine white rugs. He didn't even raise his sword. He just emanated a suffocating, apex predator aura that brought Lucius to his knees.
"The heavens have already cursed my bloodline, Lucius," Kaelen rumbled, stopping ten feet from the throne. "And my Queen cured it. Your gods have absolutely no power here."
I walked slowly past Kaelen, my boots completely silent. The sheer volume of ancient magic humming in my veins made the air around me crackle with localized frost.
Lucius looked at me, his eyes wide with a horrific realization. He saw the glowing white light in my eyes—the exact same light his ancestors had slaughtered mine to steal.
"Elena... please," Lucius whimpered, dropping the crystal shard. He scrambled forward, groveling on the floor. "I was misguided. The texts... the ancient laws demanded the purification! I can give you everything! I will legitimize the Shadowkeep! I will declare you the true Queen of the entire continent!"
I looked down at him, feeling absolutely zero pity. There was no hesitation, no moral conflict. This was the man who perpetuated the system that allowed Alphas like Xander to exist. He was a parasite.
"You have nothing to give me, Lucius," I said softly, my voice devoid of all emotion. "Everything you have was stolen from my blood."
I stepped forward and placed my boot firmly on his chest, pinning him to the marble floor. Lucius gasped, the sheer, crushing weight of my aura freezing the air in his lungs.
"You wanted to see the White Wolf," I whispered, leaning down slightly. "Look closely."
I didn't use a blast of energy. I didn't need to. I tapped directly into the corrupted crystal shard he had dropped, forcing the pure, ancient magic in my veins to violently overwrite the Council's bastardized code.
The crystal exploded into a cloud of glowing white dust.
Simultaneously, the golden crown on Lucius's head began to freeze. The temperature around him dropped to absolute zero in a fraction of a second. Lucius tried to scream, but the moisture in his throat instantly crystallized.
The frost spread from his crown, cascading down his face, freezing his eyes wide open in an expression of eternal, agonizing terror. It crept down his chest, solidifying his heart, his veins, his very soul, until the Supreme Councilor of the High Council was nothing more than a perfect, unbreakable statue of solid ice.
I stepped back, breathing steadily.
Kaelen walked up beside me. He looked at the frozen statue of the man who had tormented his people for centuries.
With a casual, almost dismissive swing of his massive broadsword, Kaelen struck the frozen Supreme Councilor.
CRASH.
Lucius shattered into ten thousand glittering, frozen pieces, scattering across the marble floor like broken glass.
"No loose ends," Kaelen growled, sliding his broadsword smoothly back into the scabbard on his back.
He turned to me, the violence in his eyes instantly melting into a profound, overwhelming possessiveness. He didn't care about the empty Golden Throne. He cared about the woman standing in front of it.
"It is done," Kaelen murmured, reaching out to cup the back of my neck, his thumb brushing over his mark.
"It is done," I echoed, leaning into his touch, the blinding light in my eyes finally softening to a warm, mortal brown.