Hyran Thornfell had exactly two rules when it came to Serena and ancient magical artifacts. Rule one: she doesn’t touch them alone. Rule two: see rule one.

When her eyes glowed pink and she began to move for the scrolls, he was not surprised. "Someone restrain her."

Fin was already moving before Hyran said it. He had been watching her for this exact thing and was in front of her before she made it two steps.

"Hang on, Serena."

The Aureus Catenes cuffs sat distributed across the table like party favors for a funeral.

"One mindlink," Hyran said. "No guarantee that the cuffs will work if activated. Ideally no one dies. Everyone take one and someone put one on Serena."

Her head turned towards Hyran. He looked right back at her with zero regard for the fact that she was in a trance. "Don’t give me that look."

Her eyes moved back to the scroll.

Fin and Dex exchanged a glance. No words needed. Dexmon grabbed a gold cuff for her, sliding it on her wrist. She let him but didn’t look at him.

Serena moved to the table. Her fingers closed around the scroll.

Pink light erupted from the parchment. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

The room flinched.

Runes spiraled up from the surface, climbing through the air like vines made of light. Her eyes burned pink and her white hair lifted like she was underwater.

"There it is," Maelor breathed, stepping closer with the focus of a man watching his life’s work justify itself.

The scroll unrolled at a speed that made Hale take a step forward, brow furrowing. Serena read the way she always did, burning through content with the terrifying efficiency of a mind that retained everything it touched. Her hands moved in a blur so fast the eye could barely track the motion.

When she reached the final line, she froze. Her eyes unfocused. Her breath stalled. She went completely still.

She inhaled once, lifted her chin, and spoke a single phrase in Glaciovox.

The air split open.

A portal flared to life, pink and blazing, the exact color of her Fae magic when it burned brightest. With it, freezing air exploded into the study. Snow blasted across the floor.

Eyes still pink, in a trance, she ran through at Alpha speed.

Dex moved first. Instinct, possession, fury, all of it compressed into a single stride as he launched after her. Fin was half a second behind, jaw locked.

"Oh, wonderful," Maelor said flatly, watching two Alphas disappear into a portal of unknown origin like obedient, furious puppies. "This is fine."

He straightened his robes, lifted his chin, and followed with the composure of a man walking into a performance he intended to steal.

Aeron practically vibrated as he crossed the threshold. Hyran pinched the bridge of his nose, watching Aeron with equal parts amusement and annoyance, then followed him through.

Hale looked at Elara. Elara looked at Hale.

"If she dies," Elara said. "I die too."

"That’s the worst motivation I’ve ever heard," Hale said, already moving. "And I’m right behind you."

They stepped through together.

Gav was last. He stared at the portal, alone in the ruined study, snow dusting his shoulders, papers frozen to the table around empty chairs.

"Cool," he said to nobody as he crossed. "Love this for us."

✦✦✦

The blizzard hit them like a wall.

Snow whipped sideways, slicing at their faces, visibility dropping to almost nothing within seconds. The wind howled around them, erasing depth and distance, swallowing sound until even shouting felt muffled. Every breath crystallized instantly.

Pink light snapped around everyone, shielding them from the cold. The warmth and relief that came with it was instant.

Then Dex noticed Serena had no pink around her. She was in a training suit in the middle of a blizzard and hadn’t stopped sprinting. He closed the distance, fell in beside her, and got a good look. Bare hands. Bare face. Full blizzard. She wasn’t bothered in the slightest.

"Serena," Dexmon called, hooking her around the waist.

She looked up at him wearing an expression that suggested she wanted to set him on fire.

"I’m sorry, baby. Let them catch up."

Fin got there a second later. Looked at Serena. Then at Dex. "Serena, is there a reason you’re not surrounding yourself with pink magic too?"

Her head turned to Fin. Blinked. Pink outlined her body when he asked that, as if she had heard him.

"That was easier than I thought," Fin said. "Right then. Can you run at regular speed for the mages? We’ll follow your lead."

She gave no visible sign of hearing him.

As soon as the others caught up, Dex let go of her. She ran at regular speed with an urgency that bled through both matebonds.

Aegon: Why didn’t we think of that?

Dexmon: Don’t.

Aegon: I’m just saying. He asked. She did it. You grabbed her. She looked at you like prey. Dexmon: I said don’t.

Another gust of whiteout wind slammed into them, causing their pink shields to flare brighter in response.

Aeron was grinning from ear to ear. In a blizzard, on an unknown continent, chasing a possessed she-wolf through a portal none of them understood.

Snow came down so hard that their visibility was limited to ten feet ahead.

"Serena," Hyran called. "Do we have a destination in mind?"

Her possessed head turned to him. She gave one nod, then turned away.

Another minute went by of them facing the storm, protected by pink magic, then she stopped.

Dex blinked a few times, not understanding why she stopped until he realized there was a wall of ice ahead of them, breaking through the blizzard.

It towered into the sky, easily a thousand feet tall, maybe more, impossible to measure with the storm shrouding its full height. It stretched left and right into the blinding white, disappearing into nothing.

Dex slowed for a heartbeat, staring at the sheer magnitude of it.

Gav came up beside him. Looked up. Kept looking up. "That’s a wall."

"That’s a wall," Dex confirmed.

"Serena, do you know where we are?" Aeron called over the wind.

To all of their surprise, Serena answered but not in the common tongue.

"She spoke in Glaciovox." Elara braced for her blood oath to clamp down. It didn’t. "The Crythian Expanse."