“Not seeing. Not yet. Feeling.” I slow my breathing, matching Nova’s labored rhythm. “Something’s interfering with the bond pathways.”
I send my awareness deeper, following the magical threads that connect Nova to Dane, to the pack. The bonds should pulse with vibrant energy, but they’re sluggish, congested with something dark and sticky. I push my consciousness further, tracing the contamination to its source.
Then I feel it: a second pulse beneath the natural rhythm. A shadow heartbeat overlaying Nova’s own.
My breath catches. “There’s something else here. Another magical signature.”
The signature feels familiar somehow, but I can’t place it. The same oily resistance, the same corrupted pattern that repels natural magic.
I extend my awareness to Ben, then to Cassie and Kieran on their cots. The same shadow pulse throbs beneath their symptoms—identical corruption in each affected pack member.
The throb of the shadow pulse becomes stronger as I push deeper. There’s something beneath it—a signature I can almost recognize. The pattern feels deliberate. Engineered.
“Lyanna?” Callum’s voice cuts through my concentration. “You’ve gone pale.”
I pull back from the connection, hands trembling. “There’s something else here. Something I can’t quite identify.” I meet his eyes, seeing my own unease reflected there. “We need better tools. Whatever this is, it’s beyond standard detection.”
“Elysia and Isla are on their way,” he reminds me. “Shadow Peak has equipment we don’t.”
I nod, but the wrongness of what I felt lingers like oil on my skin. That signature. I’ve encountered it before, I’m certain. But where?
The answer hovers just out of reach, and somehow that uncertainty terrifies me more than any knowing.
Chapter 3
Callum
An hour later I press my spine against the wall, forcing myself to stay out of Lyanna’s way. The infirmary buzzes with controlled chaos: beds filled with collapsed pack members, monitors beeping, the sharp scent of antiseptic cutting through the metallic tang of fear.
With Dane, Nova, and Ben unconscious, the pack’s safety falls squarely on my shoulders. The familiar weight of command settles over me—not the desperate control I once wished for at Shadow Peak, but the steady authority of a Gamma protecting his people.
“Arrival imminent,” Harper warns, glancing at her comm unit. “Two minutes.”
I straighten, giving silent orders to the two guards positioned at the door. Nothing gets through without my approval—no matter who’s arriving.
The air shimmers, a vertical line of silver light splitting reality. Elysia steps through first, arms loaded with containers marked with magical symbols. Isla follows behind her carrying similar supplies.
“Secure,” I confirm, allowing them to pass. “Lyanna’s in the main room.”
I follow them in, watching as Lyanna turns. Relief crosses her features for a fraction of a second before she composes herself and shifts into work mode.
“Did you bring the stabilizing agents?” she asks, taking supplies from Elysia.
“Everything you requested, plus experimental compounds Lachlan developed.” Elysia sets down her containers—supplies from the fae prince’s healing compound at Tir na Sorcha, just outside Silverwood.
“This should allow deeper examination. It’s attuned to detect magical signatures beyond normal healing range.”
Lyanna positions herself beside Nova’s bed, one hand on Nova’s forehead, the other holding the crystal above her chest. Her hands glow with subtle sage-green light, pulsing in rhythm with Nova’s labored breathing.
The crystal flares to life, projecting a network of shimmering threads through Nova’s body.
“The bonds should pulse with vibrant energy,” Lyanna murmurs, moving the crystal in a slow circle. “But they’re sluggish. Congested with something dark.”
She moves to Ben’s bed. Same scan. Same result.
Isla leans closer as she watches Lyanna work. “Same contamination pattern in all of them?”
Lyanna doesn’t answer. She’s moving faster now—Dane, then Cassie, then Kieran. Patient after patient, the crystal revealing the same darkness threaded through their bonds.
