“Andrik, I think he’s gone. I think we’re finally safe. He’s left us alone longer than ever. I think it’s time,” She pants in my ear.
She rolls her hips two more times, and I’m about to cave when I feel it. A prickling at the base of my skull. A wrongness in the air.
Something is watching, Lumi notices immediately.
“What?” She asks breathlessly, “What’s wrong?”
I set her down carefully, scanning the trees. My senses flare outward, searching, but there’s nothing.
No scent. No sound. No movement. But the feeling won’t go away.
“We need to go.” My voice is too sharp. I soften it. “Back to the cabin. Now.”
“But—”
“Now, Lumi.”
She doesn’t argue. She sees something in my face and nods.
“I’m going to shift so we can get back as soon as possible.You’re going to ride me—just like last time.”
“I was about to ride you right here.”
“Lumi.”
“Okay, okay. I’ll be serious.”
My bones crack and reform—a violent, jagged snap that usually takes a minute, but tonight it happens in a heartbeat. I don’t care about the pain; I just need to be fast enough to outrun the shadow I can feel at our heels.
The world sharpens immediately. Scents layer themselves in vivid detail—pine, frost, Lumi’s heat, and something else. Something wrong that I still can’t place.
I drop to all fours, massive and low to the ground. She stares at me wide-eyed, so I lower myself further, in a silent invitation.
She climbs onto my back without hesitation, her thighs gripping my sides, her hands tangling in the thick fur at my neck. The moment she settles, I feel her weight, her warmth, her trust. My tail coils around her waist like a safety vest.
“Hold on, snowdrop,” I try to say, but all that comes out is a low rumble from deep in my chest.
She understands. Her arms wrap tighter, and her body presses flush against mine. The forest blurs around us in a haze of colors. Trees whip past, snow kicks up in clouds beneath my paws, my breath tears from my lungs in ragged bursts.
Wrongness still clings to the air, no matter how hard I try to outrun it—or maybe it’s already ahead, waiting.
I can feel her heart pounding against my back, but she doesn’t make a sound. She just holds on and trusts me to get her home.
The cabin comes into view through the last patch of trees. I don’t stop until we’re at the door. Saevel is already waiting for us on the steps.
My body shifts back before I even fully register, bones crack and reshape, and suddenly I’m standing on two legs again,breathing hard with one hand braced against the doorframe. The other shoots back to catch Lumi before she falls.
“Andrik...” Her voice is soft, cautious. “What happened back there?”
I want to tell her. I want to explain the feeling of dread crawling under my skin, the way the forest went quiet in all the wrong ways. But I don’t have an answer.
“I don't know,” I admit, and the words taste like failure as they leave my lips. “But you’re safe now. Inside the wards, nothing can touch you.”
She searches my face, and I see the questions in her eyes—the worry.
But she doesn’t push.
Instead, she steps closer and wraps her arms around my waist, pressing her face into my chest as high as she can reach.
