40 Meryn

In the library, distant wolf howls confirm catastrophe: Killian has broken Nocturna’s defenses, the Sovereign Alpha Siegrid is dead, and the front is lost. Meryn contacts Egith, who reports a chaotic retreat with wounded survivors. Reeling, Meryn tells Lucien she now lacks a country to anchor their alliance.

Lucien pivots, demanding marriage as the price for Astreona’s military support and as a guarantor of balanced custody of the Tears. Meryn and Venna reject the idea, but Meryn withholds an outright refusal to avoid alienating him. She leaves to find Stark as grief and shock ripple through their bonds.

Stark arrives, outwardly controlled by calling Siegrid’s death a “disturbance,” though pain bleeds through the bond. He urges an immediate return to Nocturna to strike before Killian consolidates power. Meryn pauses to consult foresight.

Her vision of a rapid return shows brutal carnage: Bonded slaughter, allies fallen, Stark and Cratos down, Killian turning on Meryn. Testing Lucien’s path, she sees a wedding drenched in blood—Lucien and Siphons slain, Stark dead, Killian triumphant. Forcing further, she glimpses an alternative: salt spray, a dark seaside tower with crushing walls, Stark shouting over an unmoving female body, and an empty chamber centered on a shining jewel in a spiral mosaic.

Snapped back to the hall, Meryn confides Lucien’s proposal to Stark. He stiffens, their bond tightening under grief, looming defeat, and the threat-laced ultimatum. The chapter closes with their course unresolved, guided only by the ominous new vision of the tower and the jewel.