Chapter 23. Burn Me Again

The Deep Vault had been silence and stone. The Great Hall was a deafening symphony of judgment.

Aria was marched from the underground isolation chamber directly into the annual Unity Ceremony, an event meant to reinforce the rigid structure and flawless loyalty of the Bloodmoon Pack. The timing was deliberate, designed not to welcome her, but to showcase her failure.

She was flanked by two Academy Enforcers, their scent sharp with professional neutrality and underlying distrust. Her silver bracelets, instead of numbing her, felt like dull, throbbing restraints now. The magic was no longer suppressed; it was compressed, a superheated gas boiling beneath a faulty lid. The confinement had done nothing but intensify her volatility, just as The Severed Flame had predicted.

The Great Hall was immense, its stone arches carved with the history of Alphas past, the air thick with the coppery, familiar scent of wolf Pack and the spiced smoke of ritual incense. Hundreds of stu