Fin tried to mindlink Elias with no luck.

  An agonizing minute passed when Fin's mindlink flared open with a jolt. Aeron's voice came fast, tense.

  Aeron: Alpha, where the hell have you been? We've been trying to reach you for forty-five minutes. Is Jax with you?

  Fin didn't waste a second.

  Fin: Jax is here. We're with Nova. She's been stabbed.

  Aeron: Stabbed?

  Aeron's voice went razor-sharp.

  Aeron: By who?

  Fin: Riven Ashbane.

  He let the name land like a verdict.

  Fin: The blade burns on contact. I need a portal. Now. 30 miles south and 13 miles west of the training arena.

  Aeron: Copy.

  While Fin waited, he turned to see Jax, still crouched by Nova's side, his face pale with horror. Jax's hand was wrapped in a torn strip of fabric from the cloak, and even that hadn't helped.

  The cloth was smoking.

  Nova whimpered weakly, her breath catching as the wound pulsed with something unnatural.

  "What the hell is this?" Jax snarled. "Why can't we pull it out."

  He gritted his teeth and reached for the blade again, ignoring the pain.

  Wrong move.

  The cloth caught fire mid-tug, disintegrating between his fingers. His palm sizzled. He yanked his hand back. His skin was blistered. Burned. And the dagger hadn't moved a goddamn inch.

  Fin's voice was a growl. "Don't touch it again. Not until Aeron gets here."

  He looked back down at Nova. Her body was still. But her brow twitched. She was still fighting.

  Fin clenched his jaw, every instinct in him screaming to fix this, now.

  Jax looked at her, brows furrowed. "The cold will kill her faster than the blade will."

  "I know. Get her back in the water, until Aeron gets here," Fin ordered.

  Jax stepped back into the glowing spring, carefully lowering Nova back into the warmth. Her lips quivered. Her skin was still far too pale.

  Her forehead rested in the crook of his neck.

  Meanwhile, Fin reached out again.

  Fin: Elias. Prep a room in my private wing for Nova Moonveil. We want discretion. Plan for poisoning and hypothermia.

  Elias: Fuck... how?!

  Elias paused for a second.

  Elias: Yes, Alpha. On it.

  Fin looked up.

  A soft crack split the air and a portal unfurled beside the spring. Aeron stepped through, hooded, robed, satchel already open.

  His gaze found Nova.

  Half in Jax's arms, half submerged in golden water that shimmered unnaturally.

  He went still. His usual composure cracked into stunned, horrific awe.

  "Well. That's new," he said flatly, already moving toward her.

  "She's not healing," Fin said immediately, standing as Aeron approached. His voice was sharp, clipped, a command disguised as a report. "The water turned gold and healed us. But her stab wound won't close. She's been bleeding for over thirty minutes."

  Aeron snapped back into motion. "Keep as much of her in the water as possible. The second we remove the blade, lower her again. We're buying seconds here."

  Jax lifted her from the spring and laid her gently onto the snow, only her legs left submerged to the knee.

  "Let's hope she stays unconscious," Aeron muttered, kneeling next to her.

  His hands moved fast drawing sigils in the air that glowed white-gold.

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  A thin magical sheen settled over Nova's wound.

  Aeron's breath hitched.

  The veins around the blade were darkening and spreading. Thin black tendrils moving beneath her skin, pulsing rhythmically, as if alive.

  Fin crouched beside him. "What is it?"

  Aeron didn't answer immediately. His eyes were fixed on the blade like it was a puzzle he hated solving.

  "She's not burning," Jax said. "Why didn't it hurt her like it hurt us?"

  Still nothing from Aeron.

  He reached into his satchel, pulled out a glowing clamp etched with ancient sigils, and set it beside her.

  "Aeron," Fin growled. "Talk."

  The mage finally spoke, voice toneless, clinical, chilled at the edges like frost on a scalpel.

  "It looks like she isn't burning, but trust me, the pain she is in is worse than what it felt like for either of you."

  He gestured at the creeping veins and dropped his voice low. "This is forbidden magic. Designed to torture the victim."

  Fin went still. "Expand on that. Now."

  "This isn't a cursed blade. This dagger is reinforced with magic fueled by soul sacrifice.

  Jax's eyes darkened. "Tell me you're not about to say what I think you're about to say."

  Aeron met his eyes. "Mother and child. It's the most vile magic that exists."

  "Riven Ashbane is a sick bastard," Jax said through gritted teeth.

  "If he wanted her dead," Aeron said. "The blade would be three inches to the left. This was deliberate restraint. Which is worse."

  He exhaled. "No. This is a timer."

  The words fell like stones into a frozen lake.

  Fin's voice was a low, lethal growl. "You think Riven planned to return and pull it out himself?"

  Aeron nodded once.

  "He wounds her with something no one else can touch. The clock starts ticking. He has to return to save her. Claim her. Take her."

  Jax's breath punched out of him.

  Aeron placed a hand over Nova's sternum, feeling the faint magic thrumming beneath her ribs.

  Fin clenched his fists. His voice was razor-thin. "Get it out."

  The bastard wanted to take her back. He would've succeeded, if they'd been just a few minutes slower.

  Aeron nodded and turned back to Nova, whose breathing had gone shallow, her lips now tinged more purple than blue.

  Veins under her eyes started surfacing black.

  "Once I remove it," the mage warned, "the magic will fight to stay. That's how soul-bound weapons work. They embed."

  Fin's voice didn't shake but the longer they waited, the more his wolf howled.

  "Then rip it out."

  "I need you both to hold her down." Aeron said.

  Fin face paled. He noticed Jax's expression and ignored it. There was no time for jealousy now.

  "Brace yourselves," Aeron added. "This is going to hurt. A lot."

  "She can take it," Jax said, jaw locked.

  Aeron gave a nod. "When she screams, you don't move. You hold her down until I say otherwise."

  He positioned the clamp carefully over the hilt, eyes narrowing, magical symbols flaring to life across his hands.

  And Nova whimpered, eyes still closed. The black veins pulsed on her skin.

  Fin leaned in, one hand over her shoulder, the other over her legs. Jax mirrored him at her hips and other shoulder, jaw clenched.

  Aeron drew in one breath and clamped down.

  The moment the metal made contact, a screeching sound tore through the air.

  Something inside the dagger fought.

  Magic bucked.

  The veins crawling through Nova's skin lurched, the black lines pulsing faster, reaching farther. They raced up her side and toward her heart.

  Her eyes opened shining silver with no pupil, and her back arched off the snow.

  She let out a groan of agony. A sob escaped from her mouth, sweat now on her forehead. Expression pained, her eyes flickered back to green, followed by tears.

  Fin didn't let go. "Almost done. Stay with me."

  His jaw clenched at her pain lancing through the matebond. It felt like something inside him was breaking.

  Aeron's breath quickened. "It's resisting. The spell is anchored."

  Nova sobbed, the sound ripping straight from her chest in agony.

  "Pull it out, damnit!" Jax yelled.

  Aeron began to chant, ancient and fast, words from a dead language. The dagger pulsed like a heartbeat one final time.

  He yanked and the dagger tore free with a sickening sound.

  Black, smoke hissed up from the wound, trailing off the blade in smoky tendrils. But Nova didn't go still.

  Nova had a pained expression on her face. Her chest heaved in shallow breaths like she couldn't get enough air.

  "Please... make it stop," she whispered. Her eyes opened and began to shift between silver and green.

  "Don't let go yet," Aeron called, already turning his attention to the veins. Still spreading.

  He dropped the dagger beside him and pressed his glowing hands over the wound.

  A wave of white-hot magic surged into her skin.

  The black veins shuddered and started to pull back. Dark magic poured from her wound, and disintegrated on contact with Aeron's magic.

  Nova gritted her teeth and her eyes settled on green.

  But she let out another whimper. It was fragile. Nothing like the girl that just won a match against a seasoned warrior.

  "She's holding," Aeron said through gritted teeth. Sweat dripped down his temple. "But this... whoever did this..."

  His hands pulsed and more dark magic rose from her wound.

  Nova's eyes fluttered and she fell unconscious, a pained expression still on her face.

  Jax watched Fin's knuckles go white where they gripped her shoulder. A single bead of sweat rolled down his temple, disappearing beneath the mess of damp black hair. His expression hadn't cracked once, but the tendons in his neck were taut as wire.

  Nova was still. Too still. Aeron's voice cut through the tense silence.

  "Lower her back in."

  Fin didn't wait. He was already lifting her. Her body was hot now, burning with the effort of surviving what no one should've been able to survive.

  Her pulse fluttered fast beneath his fingertips. He stepped into the spring, gently lowering her back into the glowing water.

  A shudder passed through her.

  Blood came out of the wound. It was black for a few seconds before turning dark red. It spiraled around her side and bloomed beneath her ribs.

  "She's bleeding out," Jax said, voice tight, already stepping forward.

  "She has to," Aeron said, still panting. "The blood that's infected needs to purge. But she will need a transfusion as soon as we're back."

  Fin hadn't moved. His eyes never left her. His thumb traced a slow, absent line across her shoulder, the only tell that his hands weren't as steady as the rest of him.

  Jax stared down at the water. The rate of blood loss began to slow. The color shifted, turning pink for a second, before turning silver.

  Silver blood came from her wound shimmering beneath the surface.

  He blinked a few times.

  "What in the..."

  For a breathless moment, the spring caught the color and reflected it like starlight. Then the wound started to close. Slower than the others, yes. But healing.

  Jax tore his gaze away from her to look at Aeron. "What is she?"

  Aeron didn't answer right away, but it was clear he had a few theories.

  "If you want her to live, don't tell anyone about her blood," he finally said, choosing his words carefully.

  Fin's eyes surged gold for a second, wolf trying to surface. His head snapped to Aeron. "You've seen this before and you didn't think that was worth mentioning?"

  "Yes. I see it every time she passes out when we're training. Of course I knew," Aeron snapped impatiently. "If this is known, she will be hunted. There will be nothing we can do."