Chapter 71

Chapter Seventy-One

Kai’s POV

The mountain had always felt alive, but now it watched me.

Not Selene. Me.

I felt it from the moment we stepped out of the relic chamber. The air shifted whenever I moved, the faint silver veins along the walls brightening as if reacting to something under my skin. Selene noticed it first. She kept glancing toward me as we walked, her brows tightening slightly each time I passed near a wall of glowing stone.

“Kai,” she finally said, “your pulse is syncing with the mountain.”

“It’s probably just the depth,” I answered, though I knew it was a lie.

Nothing about this place was accidental.

The tunnel ahead opened into a high cavern lit by rows of crystal obelisks. They hummed with low resonance, each tone vibrating through the stone floor. The sound crawled into my bones, settling there like a second heartbeat. Selene paused, brushing her fingers over one of the crystals. It flickered, responding to her touch, but when I stepped closer, all of them brightened at once.

The hum deepened.

Selene turned sharply. “It reacts to me, but not like this. Kai, something is happening to you.”

I tried to ignore the unease crawling along my spine. “Let’s keep moving. The Core is close.”

She stared a moment longer before nodding. We continued forward, but the humming didn’t leave my bones. It followed, growing stronger with every step, as though the mountain were adjusting itself around my heartbeat.

When we reached the lower passage, Selene stopped again.

The air was warmer here, charged with faint silver mist that curled around our feet. The ground shimmered. Stone turned to glass wherever I stepped. My hand brushed the wall, and the veins inside it brightened, branching toward my fingertips.

Selene inhaled sharply. “Kai, look.”

I didn’t want to. But I did.

Silver light crawled beneath my skin in thin, pulsing lines. Not as bright as hers had once been, but present. Alive.

My throat tightened. “This wasn’t here before.”

“It’s growing,” she said, stepping closer. Her fingers hovered over my arm, afraid to touch. “It’s the same pattern the relics marked you with. The same pulse the mountain uses.”

The hum in my chest answered her words, a single resonant beat that didn’t belong to me.

I backed away. “No. That power was made for you, Selene. Not me.”

“I know.” Her voice was steady, but her eyes weren’t. “Which means something is trying to divide it.”

The thought made my stomach twist. Selene carried the throne’s inheritance, the memory of every heir. I carried nothing but a wolf who fought too hard and loved her too much.

I wasn’t meant to be part of this power.

But the mountain disagreed.

The tunnel sloped downward. We moved quickly, both of us silent, shadows of old runes flickering on the walls. I could feel Selene watching me, worried but trying not to show it. The silver marks under my skin throbbed, each pulse syncing perfectly with the faint heartbeat echoing through the stone.

At the bottom of the passage, the ground widened into a narrow bridge suspended over an abyss. The depths glowed faintly with swirling silver mist.

Halfway across, the bridge trembled.

Selene grabbed my hand on instinct, pulling me with her. “Move!”

Stone cracked behind us. A fissure opened where I’d stepped, glowing bright. The mountain reacted not to her—

But to me.

A low vibration rolled through the cavern, almost like a language spoken too softly to understand. The pulse in my chest quickened in response, syncing with the stone beneath my feet.

Selene tightened her grip on my wrist. “It wants something from you.”

“I don’t care what it wants.”

“Kai…” Her voice softened. “That may not matter.”

The fissure behind us sealed. The tremor faded. The hum settled back into the walls like a breath drawn and held.

We reached the other side of the bridge. Ahead, the tunnel split in two.

Selene studied both paths. “The one on the right leads directly to the Core chamber. I can feel it.” She pointed to the left. “That one feels different.”

I frowned. “Different how?”

She hesitated. “Like it’s calling for you.”

My jaw clenched. “We stick together. We take the path to the Core.”

Selene stepped into my space, cupping my cheek gently. “I want to. But if the power is splitting, if the throne’s remnants are reacting to you… we can’t ignore it.” Her thumb brushed my skin, grounding me. “I won’t lose you because we chose the wrong path.”

I leaned into her touch despite myself. The hum in my chest steadied at the contact, syncing with the warmth of her hand.

“Then I follow you,” I said.

She shook her head. “This time you lead.”

I hated the idea. But the mountain responded to me with every breath. Something waited down that left corridor, whether I wanted it or not.

I nodded.

The path turned narrow, carved with symbols I didn’t recognize. Their glow intensified as I passed, reacting to my presence. Selene stayed close, her hand brushing my back whenever the light flared too brightly.

After several minutes, the tunnel opened into a circular chamber.

Selene inhaled sharply.

In the center of the room stood a large, ancient mirror framed in silver stone. Not polished glass—crystal. Its surface rippled like liquid, showing flickers of images that weren’t reflections. A battlefield. A crown forged in fire. A wolf made of shadow.

Selene stepped forward cautiously. “This is a memory well.”

I had heard the term before. Wells that recorded the mountain’s history. But what disturbed me wasn’t the images—it was the way the mirror turned its focus to me. The surface rippled, shifting until an image stabilized.

It was me.

My breath caught.

There I stood inside the mountain, silver veins glowing across my skin, eyes bright like moonlight. The mountain responded to my presence, bending to my will. But behind me, half-hidden in the shimmer, was another figure.

A wolf. Immense. Horned. Its eyes the same silver as Selene’s had once been.

I stumbled backward. “What is that?”

Selene’s face went pale. “That is not a wolf. It’s a Warden.”

“A what?”

“One of the mountain’s original guardians,” she explained. “They were created to bond with the first queens. But they were wiped out before the throne fell.”

She swallowed hard.

“This mirror is showing you with one. That shouldn’t be possible.”

The crystal rippled again. Another image formed.

This time I watched myself reaching toward the creature. My hand hovered an inch from its muzzle. The Warden bowed its head as though accepting something.

Bonding.

My pulse pounded. “Selene, why me?”

She didn’t answer immediately. Her gaze traced the glowing lines under my skin, the way they brightened with each breath.

“Kai, look at the runes behind the mirror,” she said.

I turned.

On the far wall, a series of large symbols glowed faintly. Silver lines connected them, forming a pattern that pulsed with the same rhythm in my chest. The symbols resembled a wolf’s silhouette intertwined with a human one. Not two figures—but one.

Selene stepped closer, her voice low. “This chamber wasn’t built for queens.”

I looked at her sharply. “Then who was it built for?”

She met my eyes.

“For the Warden’s chosen.”

A strange coldness spread through me, followed by heat that burned just under my skin. My pulse synced with the walls again.

“I’m not chosen,” I said. “I’m not anything.”

But I knew the words were a lie. Whatever the mountain had awakened, whatever the relics had marked into me, it wasn’t done.

Selene stepped closer, laying her hand on my chest. “You’ve been fighting this since the moment the Core awakened. But the mountain isn’t trying to take you, Kai. It’s trying to make you something it’s been missing for centuries.”

My breath trembled at her touch.

“And what is that?”

She didn’t look away. “A protector.”

The mirror behind us flared brightly. The image of the Warden grew clearer. I watched it lower its head to my reflection again, the bow of a creature that recognized a bond already forming.

The heat in my chest intensified, spreading through my arms, my legs, settling into my spine like a second heartbeat.

I felt something inside me shift.

Not violently. Not painfully.

But undeniably.

Selene’s fingers tightened on my shirt. “Kai, your eyes.”

I blinked.

The chamber reflected a faint gleam across my vision. My pupils had narrowed. Silver shimmered faintly at the edges.

Something ancient stirred inside me, stretching awake.

I took a step back, breath unsteady. “Selene… I don’t know what’s happening.”

She stepped forward, refusing to let me move away. She cupped my face between her hands, forcing me to look at her.

“You know exactly what’s happening,” she said softly. “You’re changing because the mountain is waking. And it doesn’t want a queen without her Warden.”

Her words hit me like a storm. A truth that had been building for weeks, too slow to notice, too dangerous to accept.

I wasn’t just reacting to the mountain.

I was being claimed by it.

Selene rested her forehead against mine, grounding me again.

“No matter what you become,” she whispered, “I’m not letting you face it alone.”

Her words steady. Her breath warm. Her presence anchoring the chaos twisting inside me.

And for the first time, the hum inside my chest didn’t feel like something taking over.

It felt like something waking up to protect her.

I closed my eyes and exhaled.

“Then I won’t run from it,” I said.

When I opened my eyes again, the mirror pulsed once.

The Warden inside bowed.

The mountain accepted my answer.