The wind clawed at my coat as I cleared the ridge beyond the gorge, my boots biting into frost-hardened soil. Moonrise was a lifetime away, yet the weight of it was already pressed on my shoulders. Every breath was a visible wisp in the cold morning air, and every sound of the branches snapping and snow shifting felt sharper, more pointed. I was alone, and for the first time since Acwulf’s prison, I welcomed it. They didn’t think I’d make it back. I’d give them a reason to regret sending me out here with nothing but my instincts and the fire in my chest.
The scent trail was faint but real, feral, and young. Three distinct signatures. They were close once. The river’s edge was thick with ice and slush, and I had to navigate carefully, knowing one wrong step could plunge me beneath.
A child’s whimper cracked the silence. I froze. It was ahead, somewhere beyond the tree line. Low to the ground, muffled, but real. My heart thudded as I crouched, brushing aside a bush dusted in snow, there
