The iron bridge loomed ahead like the skeleton of something ancient and forgotten; its rusted ribs stretching across a gorge where a thin river whispered far below. The metal moaned as the wind crossed it, an old, uneasy sound that made the hairs on my neck rise. I’ve heard spirits cry quieter than
As we trod the path toward iron and river, teams came back toward us, their faces drawn and pale. Each new arrival carried a small tragedy: children who’d been half-sold to markets that treated supernaturals like curiosities, warriors sporting fresh wounds that had been stitched with a hurry that ma
“I’ll be back before you know it,” I lied, or maybe it was hope. “We’ll go to the woods and play. But I have something secret to tell you before I go.”Leo brightened. “What? Tell me, tell me!”I laughed softly, a sound too brittle to be convincing. “The Lunas are going to teach the children to defe
The yelling coming from the alpha and luna office was a raw, jagged noise that didn’t belong in the steady rhythm of the packhouse. Voices were meant to be measured here, anchored by duty, by lineage; even arguments usually carried a predictable cadence. This cacophony, though, ricocheted down the h
By the time the sun found the far sill and sat there, poised on the lip like a coin that can’t decide which way to roll, I’d worn a pattern in the dust between the water bowl and the anise fields on the map. Pathetic, I thought. But rituals make men. Even petty ones.When the door opened again, the
Katia’s eyes softened in the way that makes men want to break their own chairs. “Tristan,” she said, and my name in her voice reminded me who I had been before grief put its hands on my throat. “Don’t worry. We’ll keep your house. We’ll find her, keep her safe, even from you. Both can happen even wh