Chapter 37: It’s Giving Midas

FWHOOSH.

A flash of bright green split the canopy like lightning striking sideways. In the center of it, a dark green wolf emerged, its coat the color of deep emerald moss, and shifted mid-stride into a woman Nova recognized from the ceremony line.

Nova’s jaw dropped. The shift had been beautiful. Seamless. Light-based, the same way Maria’s was fire-based, which raised a question she hadn’t thought to ask until now. Did all princesses shift like this? Last time she checked, Celeste’s wolf was purple and the shift had been standard. Bone-cracking, joint-popping, the usual wet violence of a skeleton renegotiating its lease. Nova hadn’t seen Celeste shift up close though, only the purple wolf from a distance, so maybe the comparison wasn’t fair. Or maybe it was extremely fair and Celeste just didn’t have the upgrade.

Instinct took over. Nova started to dip into a bow, knees bending, head lowering, the automatic submission response that had been beaten into her muscle memory since she was old enough to kneel.

"For fuck’s sake," Maria snapped, grabbing Nova’s arm and pulling her upright like she was fishing a friend out of a pool. "We talked about this."

The Solarbeam princess stepped forward. She was tall, composed, and carried herself with the quiet authority of a woman who didn’t need volume to fill a room. Her eyes moved over Nova with an expression that was harder to read than Maria’s because Maria’s face was a billboard and this woman’s was a locked door with nice curtains.

"7709," she greeted. "I’m Seraphina. Princess of the Solarbeam pack."

"We like Seraphina," Maria stated to Nova, because they were a we apparently. Then she looked at Seraphina. "Her name is Nova. Which makes sense now because of the supernova that just occurred at the sacred flame, so really her parents were ahead of the curve on that one."

"Nova." Seraphina gave a single nod. "I want you to know that no one will hurt you. My father has ordered all of our warriors to make sure of it."

Maria snapped her fingers. "Oh, my brother said that too. And the Thunderfang Alpha. So that’s three packs."

She said it casually. The way you mention that three separate military forces had pledged protection for one slave girl in silver cuffs who was currently glowing in a forest. Like it was a footnote. Like it wasn’t the kind of sentence that would have made Nova’s knees give out twelve hours ago before her knees had been through enough trauma to develop a tolerance.

Two princesses had come to get her. The reason was practical and Nova understood it completely. The sacred flame was cold. Every woman still standing in that line was frozen between hope and heartbreak, waiting for a fire that had decided to leave the building with a slave girl who hadn’t asked it to. Fated mates couldn’t be revealed. Chosen matches couldn’t be announced. The elder-driven pairings couldn’t proceed. Six hundred futures were on hold because the Goddess had apparently tied the entire ceremony to a girl in silver cuffs and that girl was currently hiking through a forest looking like a sad lantern.

Nova agreed to go back.

She agreed because those women deserved their answer. Good or bad, flame or darkness, they had earned the right to stand at that fire and hear the Goddess speak. If Nova’s presence was the price of admission, she would pay it.

They walked.

Neither princess rushed her. Maria matched her pace on one side, Seraphina on the other, both seeming to understand that Nova needed a minute before facing that crowd again.

A stream cut across the path ahead, narrow and shallow, water running dark over smooth stones. Nova knelt beside it and cupped her hands.

She needed to wash her face. Her eyes were red and swollen and telling on her. If she went back into that clearing, it would not be as a woman who had clearly just lost her shit.

The second her hands touched the water, the entire stream lit up gold.

Not a glow. Not a shimmer. The water turned luminous from bank to bank, upstream and downstream, liquid gold running over stones that were suddenly visible in perfect detail including every confused fish that was now swimming in a river of molten light.

Nova stared at it for half a second. Then she splashed her face anyway because at this point, what was one more miracle on the pile. The water was cool. It felt normal.

Maria started clapping. Genuine applause. The kind you give a street performer who has exceeded every possible expectation.

Seraphina stared. Because the stream stayed gold. Nova’s hands had left the water and the gold remained, flowing downstream like it had been permanently redecorated and the original management had been fired.

"That’s new," Seraphina said.

Nova gave a nod. "That’s new." She looked at both of them. "Don’t suppose either of you know how to turn it off?"

Both princesses started laughing. Maria’s was immediate, loud, and structural, the kind that bent her at the waist. Seraphina’s was slower, quieter, building from a smile into a sound that surprised even her.

Whether it was to lighten the mood or make Nova feel better or because a glowing girl kneeling beside a golden river asking for tech support was genuinely the funniest thing either of them had witnessed tonight, Nova wasn’t sure. She appreciated it either way and laughed with them, a small one, but real, and it loosened something in her chest that had been wound too tight.

"Do it again." Maria pointed at a boulder. "Gold that rock."

"You want her to gold a rock," Seraphina repeated, hoping hearing it out loud would kill it.

It didn’t.

"I want her to gold everything. That rock. A pinecone. I especially want to see if it works on people."

"Maria."

"Seraphina."

"Ceremony."

"Gold girl." ℯℯ𝑙.

Maria picked up a small pebble and handed it to Nova.

Nova took it. They waited. The rock remained a rock.

"Maybe squeeze it," Maria suggested.

Nova squeezed. Nothing.

Maria nodded like she’d cracked physics. "Both hands."

Nova cupped it in both hands. Physics stayed intact.

"Try—"

"Maria, if you say one more thing we are leaving your ass here," Seraphina said, taking the rock from Nova’s hands.