Chapter 79
*Jiselle*
I don’t know what I expected the Solstice Chamber to look like.
But it sure as hell wasn’t this.
The air shifted the second the stone doors closed behind us. It wasn’t just cold–it was ancient. Heavy with a weight! couldn’t name. As if generations of secrets were sewn into the rock itself. My steps slowed as the passage opened wider, the tunnel sloping down into the mountain’s gut.
And then… we saw it.
A circular arena carved into volcanic stone, ringed by ancient arches and cracked runic columns. At the center, a shallow crater opened to the night sky–volcanic glass and jagged earth catching the light of the full moon. Above us, moonlight poured through the open crevice like it had been carved for this very moment. It bathed the arena in silver fire, painting our uniforms, our weapons, even our fear in ethereal light.
And we weren’t alone.
The council lined the topmost tier, high above us–like gods looking down from thrones of judgment. Instructors flanked the lower rings. Healers waited by the exits, tense and wide–eyed. And already, students were being separated–pushed into circular rings scorched into the ground, each bordered by glowing glyphs.
“Stay close,” Nate murmured beside me although he wasn’t supposed to be with the first years, but with his own year. Yet, I knew no one would say a thing to him.
I didn’t reply. I couldn’t. My throat was too tight.
Eva’s hand brushed mine briefly. Ethan’s jaw was clenched. He kept scanning the chamber like it might eat one of us if we let our guard down for even a second.
A horn sounded. Not sharp. Not loud. But deep and resonant. It pulsed through my chest like a second heartbeat. Nate mumbled something about coming right back before disappearing into the crowd.
A woman stepped into the center platform.
She was elegant–tall and severe, with silver–rimmed eyes and a voice that rang through the stone like wind against ice. “First–years of the Alpha Training Academy,” she said. “Welcome to the Solstice Trials.”
She was new. I hadn’t seen her before. But I knew who she was. Professor Sira Malen–head of the Gifts Division. She’d been introduced weeks ago, only in passing. No one knew much about her. Just that she was once a legend, a wolf whose rank hadn’t been publicly disclosed… and that was saying something.
“For the past three weeks,” she continued, “you’ve been… prepared. Trained. You’ve been told that your bodies are changing. That something is stirring inside you. That this night–the Solstice–will call it forth.”
Murmurs rippled through the crowd.
Sira lifted her hand.
“The five ranks of gifted wolves,” she said, “begin today.”
More confused murmurs erupted, until she turned, gesturing to the far end of the chamber, where four older students stepped forward, each one standing at the edge of a glowing circle, one of them being Nate.
The first, a girl I vaguely recognized from second year, held out her hand. Her skin shimmered. Her eyes lit faintly gold. “Enhanced Wolf,” Sira announced. “Rank 5. Heightened senses. Accelerated healing. Standard combat training. Most of you will be enhanced–almost everyone in the academy.”
There were gasp all around, including from me. We were finally learning the truth. We would finally know.
The second, a broad–shouldered boy with dark eyes, lifted his arms. Wind curled around him, and flame sparked from his fingertips. More gasps, and a few screams.
“Elemental Wolf,” Sira said. “Rank 4. Command over fire. Air. Water. Earth. A little over a hundred will exist in the academy at a given time.”
This was real. This was actually… real.
The realization must’ve it most first years now, as the shock and fear turned to amazement and excitement, that we would all have a gift of our own… today.
I already did, but even I hadn’t manifested it in its full form yet. And how did mine manifest outside of Solstice? They said the energy from the solstice and the runes from the arena are what awakens the gifts. That’s why other Alphas who didn’t attend the academy didn’t have gifts.
1/3
Chapter 79
A third girl stepped forward. But she didn’t do anything, just stood.
“Rank 3,” Sira said. “Sentinel. They see what others don’t. They know before we do. They can’t do something that we’d see, but they are very powerful and useful to pack advisors, strategists and spies. Only about two dozen will exist in the academy at a given time–if so many.”
Then
Nate stepped forward.
My heart seized.
He didn’t say anything. He didn’t need to.
He walked into his circle, and the moment his boots hit the glyphs, the entire ring dimmed.
He moved so fast–like a freaking shadow, curling around him that even I, who knew who he was, felt the instinctive ripple of fear coil down my spine.
“Veilborn,” Sira said. “Rank 2. Cloaked in silence. Moved like ghosts. Unmatched in stealth… and in death. Only two existed in this academy in the same year, which is rare. We’ve only ever had two existing at the same time in the academy, but they are usually separated by two or three years. Maximus Laker and Nathaniel Morningstar, being in the same year, made history. It was extremely difficult for them both, but incredible for us.”
No one clapped.
No one spoke.
They just stared.
And then…
Sira turned back.
“And Rank 1,” she said. “The Ethereal Wolf.”
My breath caught.
She looked around the chamber.
“This gift appears once every thousand years. Maybe more. It does not announce itself early. It does not rise gently. It commands. It consumes. It decides. Unfortunately we have no one to show, but we hope that in our lifetime, the next one will appear.”
There was no student for this rank.
Just silence.
But I was here, and I had no idea what they would say when they find out.
A waste of a millennium. That’s what Bastain said. That’s what my death would be. Because there wouldn’t be another Ethereal Wolf until a thousand years.
Suddenly, I wasn’t so confident in my plan anymore. I could die today. Actually die.
“Hey, it’s okay,” Ethan said, intertwining our fingers. “I won’t let anything happen to you.“.
Eva was still stunned, and I knew it was from the revelation of Max. I hadn’t told her when I was telling them everything. I still couldn’t bring myself to talk about it. It hurt. And it hurt that I missed him.
Buzz broke out in the lower rows. Hushed voices. Hopeful eyes. Wondering. Dreaming.
Everyone wanted to be the Ethereal.
I couldn’t move.
My body was ice.
Eva stepped closer finally breaking from her trance, murmuring, “They think it’s a prize.”
“I know.”
She glanced at me. “But it’s a death sentence, isn’t it?”
I didn’t answer.
Because it was.
Sira clapped her hands once.
“Let the trials begin!”
