Chapter 3: The First Blood

The forest blur was dizzying.

Lycian didn't walk. He marched.

His pace was brutal.

Arielle struggled to keep up.

Her new body was fast, but her legs weren't used to the terrain.

Roots tried to trip her.

Thorns snagged the heavy cloak Lycian had given her.

But she didn't complain.

She didn't ask him to slow down.

She knew this was a test.

If she fell behind, he would leave her.

That was the deal.

"We need to cross the river," Lycian said.

He didn't stop moving.

"The border is two miles past the water."

"Once we cross, Damian's scent trackers can't follow."

Arielle grit her teeth.

"They are already following," she said.

Lycian stopped.

He turned around slowly.

"What did you say?"

"I can hear them," Arielle whispered.

She tapped her ear.

"Not footsteps. Heartbeats."

"Three of them. Fast. Aggressive."

"They are closing in from the east."

Lycian narrowed his eyes.

He sniffed the air.

He frowned.

"I smell nothing."

" The wind is blowing south. It masks their scent."

"How can you hear them from this distance?"

"I told you," Arielle said.

"I'm a glitch."

"My senses aren't bound by wolf biology."

She pointed to a cluster of dense pines.

"They are right there."

CRACK.

A twig snapped.

Lycian spun around.

A massive wolf burst from the bushes.

Its fur was silver-white.

A Silverclaw scout.

It lunged for Lycian's throat.

Lycian didn't transform.

He didn't have time.

He caught the wolf in mid-air.

His hands clamped around its jaws.

With a roar, he threw the beast into a tree.

THUD.

The wolf yelped and hit the ground hard.

Two more wolves jumped from the shadows.

They ignored Lycian.

They went straight for Arielle.

They smelled the blood on her.

They smelled the weakness.

"Get back!" Lycian shouted.

He was busy with the first wolf.

He couldn't reach her in time.

Arielle watched the second wolf charge.

It was fast.

But to her new eyes, it looked like it was moving in slow motion.

Adrenaline flooded her system.

The black mist in her veins woke up.

Hungry.

She didn't run.

She dropped to her knees.

The wolf sailed over her head, missing its bite.

As it passed, Arielle thrust her hand up.

She didn't use claws.

She used the Void.

She grabbed the wolf’s hind leg.

It wasn't a physical grip.

It was a suction.

"Sit," she hissed.

She yanked her arm down.

Gravity seemed to multiply by ten.

The wolf slammed into the dirt.

It whined, pinned by an invisible weight.

The third wolf hesitated.

It saw its packmate crushed by nothing.

It looked at Arielle.

It looked at her black eye.

Fear replaced aggression.

It turned to run.

"No," Arielle whispered.

"You saw me."

"You can't report back."

She extended her other hand.

She concentrated on that feeling in her gut.

The hunger. The cold.

She pushed it out.

A bolt of black energy shot from her palm.

It hit the fleeing wolf in the spine.

The effect was instant.

The wolf didn't bleed.

It simply... stopped.

The energy ate through its fur.

Then its skin.

Then its bone.

The wolf dissolved into gray dust while still running.

Its momentum carried the dust forward.

It scattered into the wind.

Silence fell over the clearing.

The wolf Lycian was fighting had stopped struggling.

It stared at the pile of dust that used to be its brother.

Lycian snapped the first wolf's neck.

CRACK.

He dropped the body.

He looked at Arielle.

He looked at the pinned wolf under her hand.

He looked at the dust on the wind.

His expression wasn't angry.

It was stunned.

"That was Void magic," he said.

"That is forbidden."

"That is a heresy against the Moon."

Arielle stood up.

The pinned wolf whimpered, unable to move.

"The Moon tried to kill me," she said coldly.

"I don't care about heresy."

She looked at the survivor under her hand.

"What do we do with him?"

Lycian walked over.

He looked at the Silverclaw scout.

"If we let him go, he tells Damian you're alive."

"If we kill him, Damian knows we are here."

"It doesn't matter," Arielle said.

"Damian will find out eventually."

"Let's send him a message."

Lycian raised an eyebrow.

"You have a dark mind for a former princess."

"I learned from the best," she replied.

Lycian grabbed the scout by the scruff.

He forced the wolf to look at him.

"Shift," he commanded.

The Alpha Voice slammed down.

The wolf whined and shuddered.

Bones cracked.

A naked man lay shivering in the dirt.

He was young. Terrified.

"Please," the scout begged.

"I was just following orders."

Lycian ignored him.

He looked at Arielle.

"Do it."

"Do what?"

"Mark him."

Lycian pointed to the scout's chest.

"Burn your message into him."

"Let Damian see what happens when he crosses us."

Arielle hesitated for a split second.

This was cruel.

This was brutal.

But then she remembered the altar.

She remembered the cold knife.

She hardened her heart.

She stepped forward.

She summoned the black mist to her fingertip.

It sizzled like acid.

She knelt beside the trembling scout.

"Tell Damian," she whispered.

"Tell him the Lamb has teeth."

She pressed her finger to the scout's chest.

He screamed.

It wasn't fire. It was worse.

It was absolute cold.

She didn't carve a word.

She carved a symbol.

A circle with a line through it.

A broken moon.

The scout passed out from the pain.

Arielle stood up.

Her hand was shaking slightly.

Not from fear.

From the rush.

Lycian watched her closely.

"You enjoyed that," he noted.

"No," Arielle said.

She wiped her hand on the grass.

"I didn't enjoy it."

"But I needed it."

Lycian nodded.

He seemed satisfied.

"Good."

"Mercy gets you killed in the North."

"You passed the first test."

He turned back toward the river.

"Let's go."

"The jet is ten minutes away."

"Leave the trash here."

Arielle pulled her cloak tight.

She stepped over the unconscious scout.

She felt lighter.

Stronger.

She had killed. She had maimed.

And the sky didn't fall.

The gods didn't strike her down.

Because she was outside their jurisdiction now.

She hurried to catch up with Lycian.

For the first time since she woke up in the pit, she smiled.

It wasn't a happy smile.

It was the smile of a predator who just realized they have claws.