The night before the Moon Trials, sleep was a ghost Mary couldn't catch.
She lay in her dorm room, the air thick with the scent of Avery's practice—freshly crushed pine and damp earth—and the cool, ink-like chill of Jada's shadow-work.
Her friends had spent the last forty-eight hours in a fever dream of training, their dormant powers snapping to life like dry tinder catching a spark.
Mary's own skin felt too tight.
The itching between her shoulder blades had shifted into a dull, rhythmic thrumming, as if her wings were heartbeat-close to tearing through.
Adding to the tension was the Academy leaderboard. In the main hall, the shimmering magical scroll had updated.
Mary's name hadn't just appeared; it had rocketed to the top, displacing Samantha from the Rank 1 spot.
The school was buzzing.
The "teacher's daughter" was now the Apex.
As they gathered at the edge of the Forbidden Woods the next morning, Samantha approached the group.
She looked polished, but her eyes were wild, flickering with a malice she could barely mask.
"Good luck today, Mary," Samantha said, her voice dripping with fake honey.
She leaned in closer, a smug smile tugging at her lips. "I hope the forest is as kind to you as the school board has been. It would be a shame for such a... rising star to burn out so quickly."
"Save it, Samantha," Axel growled, stepping between them.
The three Alphas—Axel, Dante, and Kieran—formed a literal wall of muscle around Mary. Their mate bonds were screaming, a constant pull in Mary's gut that she continued to shove down into a dark corner of her mind. She couldn't afford the distraction.
The Trial Begins
The Moon Trials were simple in theory: cross the Forbidden Woods and reach the Altar of the First Moon. But the woods were a sentient, predatory labyrinth.
As the team crossed the threshold—Mary, the three Alphas, Myles, Avery, and Jada—the light changed. The sun became a bruised purple, and the trees seemed to lean in, their branches clicking like skeletal fingers.
"Something's wrong," Jada whispered. Her shadows were agitated, coiling around her ankles. "The forest... it smells like rot and chemicals."
Suddenly, the ground erupted. Massively distorted vines, blackened by Samantha's catalyst, surged from the earth like pythons.
They didn't just reach for the team; they hunted them.
"Defensive circle!" Kieran shouted.
Avery slammed her hands into the dirt. "Not today!" she roared. A wall of vibrant, healthy briars rose to meet the corrupted vines, but the black liquid on the enemy plants began to eat through her magic.
Dante was a blur, his claws shredding whatever came close, while Axel and Myles fought side-by-side to keep the perimeter. But they were being overwhelmed. The forest was reacting to the "Valkyrie" presence, and it was hungry.
The Shield of the Queen
"Show them," Astraea's voice boomed in Mary's skull. "You are the sky and the storm."
Mary stepped to the center of the group. She closed her eyes and reached out with her mage powers. She didn't just command the elements; she rewrote them.
"Get back!" she commanded.
A massive dome of violet energy erupted from her, a telekinetic pulse so powerful it leveled every tree within a fifty-yard radius.
The corrupted vines withered instantly as a wave of pure, white-hot light followed the pulse.
Inside the dome, the team gasped for air. Mary stood in the center, her violet eyes glowing with ancient power, her hands shimmering with arcane runes. She was the only thing keeping the darkness at bay.
The Lore of the Shadow
As the dust settled, the air shifted. The shadows at the edge of the clearing didn't retreat; they coalesced into a tall, hooded figure. The mysterious figure from the gargoyle lens was here.
"Impressive," the voice hissed, sounding like sandpaper on stone. "The King would be proud. Or perhaps he would be terrified."
"Who are you?" Axel snarled, his wolf half-shifted and ready to kill.
The figure ignored him, its hollow gaze fixed on Mary. "You think you know your fate, Little Valkyrie? You think you know your heart? You've been suppressing those bonds with your Alphas, trying to keep the wolf at bay."
The figure chuckled, a cold, hollow sound. "But there is a hole in your soul you haven't even noticed yet. A vacancy in your destiny."
Mary stepped forward, her shield flickering. "What are you talking about?"
"The Prophecy of the Fourth Alpha was incomplete," the figure said, the air growing colder.
"You were never meant to have just three protectors. There is a fourth pillar. A fourth mate who carries the blood of the very man who was murdered to stop you—the descendant of Alpha Silas. Until you find him, your power is a house with a missing foundation. You will never truly wake without the Fourth."
Mary felt the blood drain from her face. A fourth? The three Alphas behind her went rigid, their possessive instincts flaring at the mention of another.
"He is coming, Mary," the figure whispered. "And when he arrives, the realms will either bow... or break."
With a flick of its wrist, the figure vanished into a cloud of black smoke.
The First Gate
The ground began to shake again. The First Gate—a massive stone archway—began to glow at the end of the clearing.
"We have to go! Now!" Myles yelled, grabbing Jada's hand.
The team sprinted for the archway as the forest made one final, desperate grab for them. Mary held the shield until the last second, her strength flagging, her nose beginning to bleed from the sheer magical output.
As they tumbled through the gate and onto the safe, hallowed ground of the first checkpoint, the stone doors slammed shut behind them.
They had made it out of the first trial, but the silence that followed was heavier than the battle. Mary collapsed onto the grass, her mind racing.
She was a Queen.
She had a team of guardians. And somewhere out there, a fourth mate was waiting—a man who shared the blood of the Alpha who died to protect her secret.