Chapter 4: Gilded Cage

The cold bit into Lira's bones before she even opened her eyes. She lay on a slab of black ice, its surface etched with glowing runes that pulsed like a slow, cruel heartbeat. Frostspire's throne room loomed above her vaulted ceilings carved with screaming faces, their mouths frozen in silent agony. Moonlight filtered through glacial walls, fracturing into shards of silver that danced across Selene's obsidian throne.

"A prison made of beauty," Lira thought bitterly.

"Awake at last."

Selene's voice was a blade dragged across stone. The vampire queen stood at the foot of the ice slab, her armor glinting like a starless night. Up close, her beauty was unsettling ageless, flawless, her silver eyes reflecting Lira's disheveled form like twin mirrors.

Lira's wrists burned. She looked down silver chains, laced with enchantments. Her stomach twisted.

"Where's Jax?" she rasped, her throat raw.

Selene's gaze was unreadable. "Alive. For now." She stepped closer, her presence pressing against Lira like a winter storm. "You've inherited my gifts, daughter. My enemies will hunt you. Let me protect you."

Lira barked a laugh. "Protect me? You dumped me in foster care. Let humans lock me in closets. Protection?"

Something flickered across Selene's face. Regret? No something colder.

"I hid you from Orion," she said, her voice softer now. "From his… experiments." A single claw traced the line of Lira's jaw. "But you're stronger than I feared. His blood runs thick in you."

Lira jerked away. "I don't have a father."

Selene's expression hardened. "Don't you?"

She snapped her fingers. A sentinel stepped from the shadows, dragging a shackled werewolf behind him.

Finn.

Lira's stomach dropped. His russet fur was matted with blood, his amber eyes dull with exhaustion.

Selene tilted her head. "Heal him."

Lira's pulse thundered. "No."

Selene sighed. "Then he dies."

Finn whimpered, his claws scraping weakly against the ice. Flashback: A foster brother, trembling as a social worker dragged him away. "They'll hurt him," she'd pleaded. No one listened.

"Do it," Finn begged, his voice barely above a whisper.

Lira clenched her fists. "Why?"

Selene smiled, slow and glacial. "To prove you're more than a stray."

The Blood Ritual

The sentinels unchained Lira's right hand, pressing a silver dagger into her palm.

"Cut yourself," Selene instructed. "Feed him your blood."

Lira hesitated. Finn's wounds oozed black, his breaths shallow. He was just a kid.

She slashed her forearm. Silver-streaked blood dripped into Finn's mouth. His body convulsed fur receding, fangs retracting. Within seconds, a human boy knelt before her, gasping.

His hands trembled. "What… what am I?"

Selene watched him with satisfaction. "Mortal."

Finn collapsed, sobbing. Lira's breath came fast, shallow.

What have I done?

"You see?" Selene murmured, cupping Lira's chin. "You could cure them all. End this war."

Lira wrenched free. "Or make them human targets." Her hands curled into fists. "You don't want peace. You want control."

Selene's grip tightened. "You'll learn."

Escape

Lira waited until the sentinels dragged Finn away. Her wrists ached where the silver chains had burned her, but pain was fuel. She let her head droop, feigning exhaustion.

Selene had turned away, studying a map unfurled across the war table Eclipsion's borders, marked with red. Plans for conquest.

Now.

She flexed her fingers, snapping the lockpick hidden in her sleeve. Jax would kill me if he knew I was using this so soon. The cuffs clicked open. Carefully, she inched a dagger from a sleeping sentinel's belt.

Silent. Quick.

She moved.

Her bare feet whispered against the frozen floor as she bolted past the throne and into the winding corridors of Frostspire. The castle breathed around her shadows stretching, whispers curling in her ears.

"You're just like him," they taunted. "Orion's daughter. A monster in the making."

She ignored them.

The halls blurred vaulted ceilings, frost-laden walls, doors she had no time to check. She followed the scent of pine, bursting into a courtyard strangled with dead ivy.

The gates were shut.

"Leaving so soon?"

Vesper's voice was silk wrapped around steel.

Lira spun. The vampire lieutenant materialized from the mist, silver armor glinting under the moonlight. Her fangs gleamed in the dark.

"The queen's not done with you," she said.

Lira bared her teeth. "Too bad."

She lunged.

Vesper sidestepped, fast as a shadow, and slammed her into the ice-hard wall. "Pathetic."

Pain exploded through Lira's spine. She lashed out, claws unsheathing, raking Vesper's cheek. The vampire hissed as the wounds sizzled, silvered blood dripping.

Lira didn't stay to watch. She scrambled up the frozen gate, her palms blistering against the enchanted ice.

Behind her, Vesper's growl was low, dangerous. "Run all you like, hybrid. You'll crawl back soon enough."

Lira didn't look back.

The Ambush

The woods outside Frostspire were silent. Too silent.

Lira's breath fogged the air, her hybrid senses straining. Something's wrong.

Then the first arrow whistled past her ear.

The second pinned her cloak to a tree.

She ripped free just as Kael's scouts emerged from the shadows. Five of them. Eyes glowing amber. Weapons raised.

"The hybrid," their leader growled. "Alive. For the king."

Lira's lips curled. "Come try."

They did.

She met the first wolf mid-stride, twisting under his blade and slamming her knee into his ribs. He crumpled. The second came from behind she ducked his strike, elbowing his throat.

The others circled, wary now.

Lira exhaled. Her pulse thrummed. She could win this. She could…

A blur of movement.

A sharp pain in her side.

She staggered. Looked down. A dart.

The world tilted.

Poison.

She fell to her knees. Snow bit her skin.

Footsteps crunched toward her.

A hand tilted her chin up. A voice low, rough, unfamiliar.

"Easy, hybrid. You're worth more alive than dead."

Lira's vision blurred. The last thing she saw was silver eyes watching her before the darkness took her.