Chapter 29: The Queen's Rage

Aria's POV

Silver light shot from my hands like lightning bolts.

I couldn't stop it. Didn't want to stop it.

The monster wearing my face had hurt Kael. The man I loved was dying because of poison meant for me. Every gentle part of my heart turned to ice-cold fury.

"You want power?" I screamed at the creature. "Let me show you real power!"

Magic exploded from every part of my body. Not the warm healing light from before, but something sharp and deadly. Something that could cut through souls.

The creature stepped back, its stolen confidence cracking. "This is impossible. You're too weak to—"

"I was weak," I said, standing up slowly. "But you just made the biggest mistake of your existence."

Around me, everyone was staring in shock. Papa's mouth hung open. The wolves backed away, whimpering. Even Viktor looked scared.

Good. They should be scared.

Because I wasn't gentle Aria anymore. I was the Alpha Queen's sister. I was the heir to two supernatural bloodlines. And I was very, very angry.

"You hurt my mate," I whispered, but my voice carried like thunder. "Nobody hurts my mate and lives."

I reached out with both hands and grabbed the creature's shadow-wings. They felt like ice and poison under my fingers, but I held on tight.

"What are you doing?" it shrieked.

"Taking back what you stole."

Power flowed between us, but this time I was the one doing the taking. Every bit of magic the creature had absorbed over the years, I pulled into myself. Every soul it had devoured, I set free.

The creature fought back, clawing at my arms and face. "You can't! I am eternal! I am—"

"You are nothing," I said coldly.

Silver light wrapped around both of us like chains. Through the mate bond, I felt Kael's heartbeat getting weaker. The poison was spreading faster now, eating away at his life one second at a time.

I had to end this. Now.

"Aria, stop!" Papa shouted from somewhere far away. "You're taking too much power! Your body can't handle it!"

But I didn't care about my body. I only cared about saving Kael.

I pulled harder, draining the creature's stolen magic like water from a broken dam. It screamed and begged, but I felt nothing. No mercy. No fear. Only cold, perfect rage.

The creature began shrinking, its shadow-wings dissolving. "Please," it gasped. "We're sisters. Family!"

"Family doesn't try to murder the people I love," I replied.

One final pull, and the creature collapsed. All its power flowed into me like a river of liquid fire. Too much power. Too fast.

My vision went white.

When I could see again, the creature was gone. Just empty clothes on the bloody snow. Viktor was on his knees, looking old and frail without his stolen magic. The wolves were howling in fear or celebration, I couldn't tell which.

But none of that mattered. Only one thing mattered.

I ran to Kael and dropped beside him. His golden eyes were closed, his breathing so shallow I could barely see his chest moving.

"No, no, no," I whispered, pressing my hands to his wound. "Stay with me. Please stay with me."

I poured healing magic into him, more than I'd ever used before. The power I'd taken from the creature was like fire in my veins, burning through me faster than I could control it.

"Aria," Kael's eyes fluttered open. "You did it. You saved everyone."

"I'm saving you too," I said firmly. "Just hold on."

But something was wrong. The healing wasn't working right. Every time I fixed one part of the poison damage, more appeared somewhere else. Like the poison was learning, adapting, fighting back.

"The soul-severing poison," Viktor croaked from where he knelt in the snow. "It's designed to resist magic. The more power you use, the stronger it becomes."

I spun around to glare at him. "Then how do I stop it?"

Viktor looked at me with something that might have been regret. "You can't. Not with magic."

"There has to be a way!"

"There is," Viktor said quietly. "But you won't like it."

"Tell me!"

"The poison bonds to supernatural power. If Kael had no magic at all, it would have nothing to bond to. It would just... fade away."

I stared at him, not understanding. "What are you saying?"

"I'm saying," Viktor explained, "you'd have to drain all his wolf magic. Make him completely human. The poison would disappear, but..."

"But he'd never be able to shift again," I whispered. "He'd lose everything that makes him a wolf."

Viktor nodded. "He'd be normal. Mortal. Just a human man with a human lifespan."

I looked down at Kael, whose breathing was getting weaker by the minute. Save his life but destroy who he was? Or let him die as the wolf he'd always been?

"Do it," Kael whispered, somehow hearing our conversation. "I don't care about being a wolf. I care about being with you."

"But the pack bond," I said desperately. "Your connection to your family's memory. Everything that makes you... you."

"You make me who I am," Kael said, reaching up to touch my face with a trembling hand. "Not the wolf magic. Just... you."

Tears streamed down my cheeks. "I can't. I won't take away your wolf."

"Then I'll die," Kael said simply. "And you'll spend the rest of your life blaming yourself for not saving me when you could."

He was right. I knew he was right. But the choice felt impossible.

"There's something else," Viktor added, his voice barely audible.

"What?" I snapped.

"If you drain his wolf magic completely, it has to go somewhere. Magic doesn't just disappear."

"Where would it go?"

Viktor looked at me with ancient, tired eyes. "Into you. You'd become the most powerful supernatural being in existence. But all that power..." He shook his head. "It might change you. Forever."

I felt Papa's hand on my shoulder. "Aria, sweetheart, you don't have to do this alone. We'll find another way."

But there was no other way. I could feel Kael's life slipping away through our mate bond. In minutes, maybe seconds, the poison would reach his heart.

I had to choose. Save Kael's life and risk losing myself to overwhelming power. Or let him die and live with that guilt forever.

"I love you," I told Kael, pressing my forehead to his.

"I love you too," he whispered back.

I closed my eyes and reached for his wolf magic. It felt warm and wild and free, everything beautiful about him wrapped up in supernatural power.

"Forgive me," I whispered.

Then I pulled.

Magic flowed from Kael into me like a golden river. His wolf, his strength, his connection to the moon and stars and wild places. All of it poured into my already overloaded system.

The poison dissolved instantly, unable to cling to Kael's now-human body. But the magic filling me was too much. Way too much.

Power burned through every cell, every thought, every memory. I felt myself changing, becoming something that wasn't quite human anymore. Something vast and terrible and completely alone.

When I opened my eyes, they were solid silver. No pupils, no iris, just pure supernatural light.

I looked down at Kael, who was breathing normally now, completely healed but completely human. I should have felt happy. Relieved. Grateful.

Instead, I felt... nothing.

"Aria?" Papa's voice sounded strange, distant, like he was speaking from underwater.

I turned to look at him. At all of them. Papa, the wolves, even Viktor struggling to stand.

They looked like strangers. Like insects. Like creatures so far below me that I could barely remember why I'd once cared about them.

"Who," I asked in a voice that echoed with power, "is Aria?"