Chapter 46: THE SHAPE OF POWER

Sofia’s fingers tightened almost invisibly at her sides.

“Waking it up?” she repeated, her voice smooth but thinner now. “From what, exactly?”

Ciara did not break eye contact. “From what it has been pretending not to see.”

The room felt smaller.

Levion stood between them, but he did not interrupt. He watched. Listened.

Sofia’s gaze flicked to him briefly, searching for something — support, dismissal, anything that would place Ciara back beneath her.

She found none.

“You speak like you already belong on a throne,” Sofia said.

Ciara shook her head. “No. I speak like someone who has lived without one.”

That landed.

Sofia’s jaw set.

“You think this pack needs you?”

Ciara answered honestly. “I think this pack has been surviving, not living.”

Levion’s eyes shifted slightly at that.

Sofia noticed.

And that was when her calm began to crack.

“For weeks,” Sofia said, her voice gaining an edge, “you were a helpless girl hiding in the east wing. Now suddenly the forest sings your name and you think you are something greater than the rest of us?”

Ciara didn’t raise her voice.

“That helpless girl is gone.”

Sofia stepped closer. “And what are you now?”

Ciara paused.

She did not have a word for it.

So she told the truth.

“I don’t know yet.”

The honesty unsettled Sofia more than arrogance would have.

Before she could respond, Levion spoke.

“This conversation ends here.”

Sofia turned sharply to him. “You’re choosing her side?”

Levion’s expression remained unreadable. “There are no sides.”

Sofia laughed once, short and disbelieving. “There always are.”

Her eyes moved to Ciara again, colder now.

“You may have the forest fooled,” she said quietly, “but you don’t fool me.”

Ciara tilted her head slightly. “I’m not trying to.”

For a long moment, the two women stood there, measuring each other without words.

Then Sofia stepped back.

“Very well,” she said, smoothing invisible wrinkles from her dress. “We’ll see how long this… awakening lasts.”

She walked past them without another word.

The moment she was gone, the tension in the room eased.

Ciara exhaled slowly.

“She’s afraid,” she said.

Levion didn’t deny it. “Sofia has always understood power.”

Ciara looked at him. “And she thinks I’m taking it from her.”

Levion held her gaze. “Are you?”

Ciara considered the question carefully.

“I’m not taking anything,” she said. “I’m changing what it looks like.”

Levion studied her like he was seeing new pieces fall into place.

“You don’t realize what that does to people who have built their lives around the old shape of it,” he said.

Ciara nodded. “I do.”

They walked out together into the corridor.

The castle felt different now.

Not hostile.

Not welcoming.

Waiting.

As they stepped into the courtyard, Ciara felt it again — that quiet awareness threading through the pack.

Wolves paused when she passed.

Not because they were told to.

Because something in them told them to.

Levion noticed it too.

“They’re responding without understanding why,” he said.

Ciara looked around slowly. “Instinct always comes before understanding.”

Before Levion could reply, a horn sounded from the outer gates.

Both of them turned sharply.

Zayn was already running toward them.

“Another delegation,” he said. “Larger this time.”

Levion’s eyes narrowed. “From where?”

Zayn hesitated. “Blue Moon.”

The name hit Ciara like a physical force.

Her breath caught.

Levion’s head turned toward her instantly.

“Who?” he asked.

Zayn swallowed. “Jacob’s men.”