Prologue: Seven Years Ago
The plane was too small and too loud and I loved everything about it. Bouncing in my seat, I couldn’t keep the smile inside. I was on a plane going to Frosthaven Academy.
I pressed my face to the scratched window, watching the world turn white beneath us. Endless. Empty.
"Look at all that nothing," I said. "It's perfect."
"Perfect for what?" Gregor asked from across the aisle.
"Everything. You could hide anything out there. Whole cities. Dragon lairs. Secret government—"
The world tilted.
I wasn't on the plane anymore.
I was cold.
I was really cold. The kind of cold that settles into your bones and stays there. Snow everywhere, blown sideways by wind that didn't stop.
Something moved in the white.
A wolf burst from behind a ridge, huge and pale, running hard and wrong. One back leg dragged. Blood darkened the snow beneath it, already freezing.
Something in my chest cracked open. Warmth poured in where cold should have been.
Mine,I thought, though I didn't know why.
Behind it — shadows. Other wolves. Leaner. Meaner. Their teeth flashed as they snapped and lunged, driving it forward, forcing it higher.
My nails dug into the armrest. Somewhere far away, on a plane I'd almost forgotten, the leather creaked under my grip.
No. No, no, no—
The pale wolf turned at the last second.
Not to fight. To bluff.
It bared its teeth, shoulders shaking with the effort, a growl tearing out of its chest that sounded like it hurt to make. One of the others lunged anyway. There was a flash of teeth, a spray of blood, and then the pale wolf was suddenly alone.
The others melted back into the storm.
The wolf stood there. Panting. Trembling. One ear hung in shreds. Its chest heaved too fast, too shallow. It tried to put weight on the bad leg and nearly went down.
It didn't cry out.
It limped away instead.
I followed — without breathing — watching as it dragged itself toward a break in the rock. A cave. Barely shelter. Inside, the ground was hard and littered with old bones picked clean. Not trophies. Leftovers. Evidence of how long this had been happening.
The wolf collapsed just inside the cave mouth.
It curled in on itself, licking at the wound on its leg with slow, careful movements. Not fixing it. Just keeping it from getting worse. From freezing solid. From killing it tonight.
Then it lifted its head.
Looked at me.
Not through me.Atme.
