When the transformation settles, Wolf stretches our limbs, shaking out the stiffness, her paws sinking into the snow with athump. The freedom is intoxicating.
But we’re not safe yet.
Malrik could find us at any moment. We have to move, but the very instant Wolf tries to pick a direction, confusion slams into us like a wall of poisonous fog. The world tilts sideways, the horizon blurring, the wind spinning us in circles.
Nothing looks familiar.
Nothing feels right.
Where are we?I demand.
It’s one of his spells,Wolf growls, irritation rippling through her.It’s how he keeps people from finding him. Plenty know this place exists—they just can’t reach it.
Then how the hell are we supposed to getawayfrom it?!Panic spikes through me. There was a reason I didn’t try to run sooner. I knew it wouldn’t be easy. I knew Malrik wouldn’t leave the front door unlocked.
The same way we got out of The Keep.Wolf’s tone goes dry, almost mocking.Do what you were made to do.
Oh.
Right.
I can destroy this spell just like the other.
Wolf huffs.Not destroy. Unmake. There’s a difference.
She’s right, but I don’t waste time telling her so.
I lower us into the snow, pressing a paw against the ground the same way I did my hand against The Keep’s walls. I couldn’t control my power before in wolf form, not during the battle at NightShade, but now, it comes to the surface with ease. The earth trembles beneath us, the magic threaded through it like a net—tight, cold, and suffocating.
More of Malrik’s work.
A whole lattice of disorientation woven through the terrain, through the air, and through everysenseof direction. It’s not meant to directly kill anyone.
It’s merely meant to keep them lost until they freeze to death. Far harsher than a swift ending, and I do my best to pretend that my loved ones aren’t adrift somewhere out here, suffering that same fate.
Or that I’m too late to do anything about it if they are.
With a renewed urgency, I press deeper with my magic, forcing my way through the snow, the frozen soil, and into the veins of power knotted underneath.
The spell writhes, resisting me—sharp edges scraping at my senses like broken glass. Dark, twisting energy tries to sink claws into my mind, to turn up into down, north into south, hope into helplessness.
Wolf snarls, bracing us.Push back.
Oh, I do.
The tether unfurls from my core, weaving outward, bright and pure and warm. It threads through Malrik’s spell like sunlight invading shadow. Piece by piece, I unravelit—pulling threads, snapping knots, peeling back layers of magic that have sat here for much too long.
The world shudders, and the fog in my mind cracks like ice.
A rush of cold air floods my senses, and suddenly, everything snaps into place.
The mountains take shape around us. The wind has a direction. The trees have edges again, but more than that…
I’m not alone.
There’s a presence. Another shifter. Male.
Wolf stiffens, ears pricking sharply.Someone’s close.
