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No, the best way to help Tavik… was to help Cerise.

Tavik continued to scream in my mind, but I tried blocking him out as I rushed to Cerise’s side. I took her hand, which was hot to the touch. Sweat beaded along her brow, and a faint golden smoke rose from the center of her chest.

It smelled like Wolven magic.

“What’s happening to her?” I bellowed, not taking my eyes off her.

“Her tonic,” Geraldine said. “Has she taken her tonic?”

Had she? Gods, I didn’t know… My heart jolted in my chest as I struggled to recall what Cerise had told me.

My hands start to glow gold, she’d told me. I feel hot and burning, and this kind of explosive energy bursts from me. I can’t control it.

Tavik unleashed another horrible scream. His consciousness slammed against the walls of my mind over and over again, making my temples throb.

“She—she doesn’t have it,” I said in a strained voice, looking at Geraldine in desperation. “What can I do?”

“Release me!” Geraldine said sharply. “I have something that can help her!”

I bared my teeth at her. “I am not letting you go, vile creature.”

“If you don’t, she will die!” Geraldine shouted. The gold smoke in the air began to thicken. Cerise let out a loud, anguished moan.

Tavik made a desperate keening sound so shrill I had to cram my eyes shut against the intensity of it. Hot liquid dripped from my nose. I wiped it away only to find my finger smeared in blood.

“Now, Wolven!” Geraldine cried.

Blood poured from Cerise’s nose, too. The gold light spread from her hands all the way up her arms. My heart hammered painfully against my chest, terror crashing through me.

She was dying.

I sucked in several breaths of air but couldn’t get enough into my lungs. My chest seemed to cinch tighter and tighter with every passing moment.

I had to. I had to.

With a roar, I rushed to Geraldine, hands shaking as I pressed them to her wrists. In an instant, my shadow cuffs vanished, and she lurched forward. For one moment, I thought she was scrambling through the tunnel we’d come through, making her escape.

But she was heading into the white room.

The witch muttered to herself as she eased open a panel in the back wall, similar to the one that had been hiding the journals. Glass clinked as she sifted through various items.

Cerise’s moans had turned into piercing screams. Her back arched, and more gold smoke poured from her body.

“Hurry!” I bellowed.

Arms full of vials, Geraldine scrambled back through the short tunnel and raced over to Cerise. “She’s been taking her tonic every day for most of her life,” she said, her words coming out in a rush as she uncorked one of the vials. “Without it, her body is going through withdrawal. She needs small doses every day until she can withstand going without it.”

The witch’s hands were surprisingly steady as she uncorked a second vial and then poured a droplet of one into the other. The liquid bubbled and hissed, and a tendril of smoke wafted from it. Geraldine closed her eyes, and the air tingled with energy and the sharp scent of cloves. The concoction swirled, giving off a sharp minty smell that was vaguely familiar to me.

I’d smelled it in the cottage, but I definitely knew it from somewhere else. I just couldn’t place it.

Within me, Tavik had stopped screaming.

“Tavik?” I called. “Tavik!”

No answer.

Dread and panic spiraled within me. Gods’ breath… Was my wolf dying?