Anassa moves smoothly today, keeping pace with the wolf in front of us. I’ve gotten much better at remaining mounted, but I still feel clumsy when I look at the other riders all around me and see effortless grace. Cooperation.
Stark’s constant violation of my eardrums isn’t helping. Neither is the sun beating down over us, catching on swords and causing light to glare in my eyes. The wintery air is cool, but icy sweat trickles down my back as I push my body to perform.
Energy hums in the air around us. I’m not sure whether it’s the sheer power of so many wolves gathered and working together to form this mesmerizing pattern or if it’s something more.
Something deeper.
We’re at it for about an hour when something shivers through the pack. I’m suddenly more aware.
That river I’ve barely managed to brush my fingertips through crackles with energy. It’s suddenly not liquid butelectric, like a forked bolt of lightning carving across the sky or the waking of a neuron.
“Give into it!” Egith orders, apparently having sensed the shift in us. “Let the connection happen!”
I grip my sword tighter and try to focus, tuning into Anassa’s bond and reaching out towards that crackling bolt of awareness. The moment I brush closer, my blood wakes. My heartbeat speeds up and my senses heighten.
I start to become aware in a way I’ve never been before.
The circles continue to rotate in perfect synchronization. My breath moves in time with Anassa’s steps. My heartbeat pounds with the heavy footsteps around me. Flashes of recognition cut through the churning circle of fur and muscle.
Through the bond, I sense the spiraling brush of other minds. The other wolves, I realize, each with their own emotion, intent, awareness. There’s a physical sensation, like the pressure expanding inside my skull, pushing outward in a surge of thought.
Instinct fizzles over the stream of connection, and along that path,understanding.
In a brilliant burst, I can suddenly sense every node of the interconnected web. I’m aware of each pair of wolf and rider, sensing their movements before they happen and the careful hum of their concentration.
When Izabel and her wolf pass on my left, her mind sparks on mine wordlessly. Her focus feels like a knife’s edge, perfectly balanced and attuned to her mount’s motion.
Then on my left, Tomison. He rides perfectly. The confidence radiating from his mind makes me feel like I’ve downed a draft of emberwine, heady and intoxicating.
My mind breaks wide open as I give into the pull.
This is it, I realize.
This is true pack unity—an extension of myself beyond everything I’ve ever known. A new way of being joined with the spirit of my packmates.
Submerged in it, I feel more than human.
It’s powerful and vibrant and explosively intricate.
Anassa’s emotions shift over the bond, flickering away from annoyed boredom and towards tickles of curious attention. I clutch her fur and lean into it further, drowning out the sound of Stark’s voice and the movement of bodies until I feel like I’m made up of twenty-three wolves and twenty-two other riders, all operating on a single impulse.
But I lean too far. Darkness creeps at the edge of my vision.
Flickers of shapes that shouldn’t be there amongst the spiral of bodies, glimpses between the wolves’ legs. Whispers hiss from beneath the sound of paws on packed earth and breaths in lungs, growing louder with each terrified heartbeat.
I try to ignore them and push through to that crackling flow of energy, but the whispers become more insistent until they start to drown out all other sound.
Voices I don’t recognize. Words I can’t make out.
Butdeafening.
Then the worst of it. I gasp and look up, trying to keep my balance as blood starts to seep down over the walls around us and into the training yard, bright red against the cold sky, moving in a thick, tar-like dribble towards me.
A strangled sound breaks from my chest. I barely manage to prevent it from ripping through my throat as a panicked scream. My concentration shatters totally as the blood seeps towards me.
It’s all I can see and all I can think about. I can’t hear anything.
I can’tbreathe.
