MasukThe seal closed around them the moment they stepped through, sealing off the plaza, the roar of battle, and the failing light of Asterion in a single silent instant. Caierre braced for darkness, for cold, for the crushing weight of whatever ancient prison had been waiting to finally consume the last of its captivity.Instead, he found himself standing in Vaelor.Not the ruins. Not the broken, buried streets they'd wandered through days ago, nor the burning chaos the trial had shown him during the king's final night. This was Vaelor whole, untouched, exactly as it must have looked before any of the horror had ever begun—sunlight warm over pale stone rooftops, streets clean and quiet, the distant, ordinary sound of a city simply existing without grief attached to a single stone of it."Where are we?" Alvar asked, his hand still locked tight in Caierre's, both of them turning slowly to take in the impossible stillness surrounding them."I don't know," Caierre admitted. "It doesn't feel l
The creature struck at the bond itself.Caierre felt it happen before he understood what was being done to him—a cold, invasive pressure sliding into the space between him and Alvar, not attacking either of them directly but reaching for the connection stretched taut between them, trying to pry it apart the way a crowbar finds the seam in a locked door."Something's wrong," Alvar gasped, staggering, his grip on Caierre's hand suddenly the only thing keeping either of them upright. "It's inside the bond. I can feel it trying to—""Pull us apart," Caierre finished, breathless, the pressure building sharp and cold behind his own ribs. "It's trying to sever us instead of taking me directly."~~The creature's voice rolled through the plaza, low and satisfied. "If I cannot claim what belongs to me while it hides behind a connection I never sanctioned, then I will simply unmake the connection instead. A bond is a fragile thing, little heir. Easier to break than you would like to believe."I
He barely had time to raise his sword before the creature's massive hand crashed down.Alvar threw himself sideways, but not fast enough—the impact clipped him at the shoulder, and the force of it sent him flying clear across the plaza, tumbling hard over shattered crystal and broken stone before finally skidding to a stop against the base of a fallen spire. Pain bloomed white-hot along his side, sharp enough to steal the breath from his lungs entirely.Through the bond, Caierre felt it a half-second later, and the shared agony nearly buckled his knees where he stood."ALVAR!" Caierre's voice tore raw from his throat, and he took a stumbling step toward him before Lucien's arm caught his shoulder, holding him back."Grant has him," Lucien said, urgent. "You cannot go to him right now—that thing hasn't taken its eyes off you for a single second since it opened, and if you break formation, you give it exactly the opening it's waiting for."~~Grant was already sprinting across the plaza
The shadow tore free of the plaza in a single, violent motion, and the whole city seemed to buckle beneath its rising weight. Chunks of crystal spire sheared off the surrounding towers, crashing down into streets that had survived a thousand years untouched, shattering the moment the creature's shape finally cleared the broken dome overhead."MOVE!" Grant's voice tore through the chaos, and Alvar's hand closed hard around Caierre's arm, dragging him back several steps before he could resist it.Caierre didn't want to run. Every instinct in him screamed to stand and face whatever was rising, some deep certainty telling him retreat would only delay the inevitable rather than prevent it. But his legs moved anyway, carried more by Alvar's grip than his own will, until the sheer scale of the thing finally registered clearly enough to stop him cold on his own.It was enormous—vast beyond any measure the human eye had ever been built to comfortably hold. Not a beast, not a wolf, not any shap
Crystal rained down from the towering spires, shattering across the ancient streets as the ground lurched hard beneath their feet. The roar that followed seemed to come from everywhere at once, rolling through every building until even the frozen air itself seemed to tremble with it.Lucien didn't hesitate. "Move!"He was already sprinting through the city's ancient streets, and the rest of the group scrambled after him, boots pounding against stone that had stood untouched for a thousand years and was now cracking wide beneath the strain of whatever had just woken at its heart. Overhead, ancient barriers flickered in and out of existence, and the glowing runes lining every road dimmed one after another in a slow, spreading wave, like a candle being snuffed room by room through a house too large to save all at once."Whatever's down there," Grant shouted, breathless, "it's draining this whole city dry."Alvar couldn't stop himself from staring, even mid-run. Every building they passed
The frozen basin held its breath. Nobody moved, nobody spoke, every eye fixed on the two hands still pressed flat against the ancient ice, their outlines barely visible through the enchanted layer sealing the gate. The stranger's voice had stopped echoing minutes ago, but its calm certainty lingered in the cold air anyway, impossible to shake.Grant stepped in front of Caierre first, silver blade drawn once more. "Everyone stays back."The old man shook his head slowly. "It won't matter.""What do you mean?""If whoever stands behind that gate wanted us dead," the old man said, "we would never have reached Frostfang at all. Not through the Dead Pass. Not past the guardians. Every step of this journey would have ended us long before now, if death was the plan waiting for us here."Alvar glanced back at the kneeling guardians. They hadn't shifted since the gate began waking—if anything, they'd lowered their massive heads further, silver light pulsing slow and steady through their crysta
“That was the last of them, Alpha.”Another lifeless wolf dropped to the ground just like the rest that has been in this tavern. The smell of blood was heavy in the air, mixing with the burnt scent of spilled ale and broken wood. It wasn’t the first time his attackers had tried to assassinate him,
“State your name, barbarian” Caierre shrugged, opening his bag sack and handing them his name plaque. Adrian let out a chuckle, moving forward towards the wolf warriors that stood by the gates to the Masbrook. “He can’t speak,” Adrian explained to the soldiers. It was true though, after witnessin
“State your name, barbarian”Caierre stared at them with hatred in his eyes. Barbarian that’s what they call him but who turned him into this? It was on his thirteen birthday when the Wulfren plains were invaded. The brightest light he has ever seen spread across the trees that surrounded the ashb
Did he just speak?The thought ran through him like a wildfire spreading through the shagani forest. He stared at those crimson eyes that stared back, confused yes.Who wouldn’t be? Caierre just blunted out the word mate to a stranger that he knew nothing aside from the fact that he was supposed to







