LOGINI woke up to darkness, already racing in fear before I even had my wits back. For a moment, I couldn't remember why terror should press so heavily in my chest, then memory crashed back. One day. We had only one day before enemies descended on us with very definite intent to kill everyone who carried my bloodline.Nyra churned in my mind, more wakeful than usual. 'The air is foul,' she said. 'Bitter, like a storm that's building but will not break.'I slept in my small cabin, listening to the settlement stir early around me. Footsteps on the outside of the door, whispered conversations, the murmur of someone tending a fire. No one had rested well, by how early the crowd was awake.When I finally emerged from the tunnel, the sky was beginning to light, stars fading as daylight arrived. The valley appeared peaceful in the predawn hush, but peace felt tenuous, as if glass on the brink of shattering."You're up early," Selara said, moving aside from the survivors' shared living space. Dark
I was standing outside my cabin, watching as windows around the encampment grew dark. People going to bed, or trying to, knowing that tomorrow would be spent preparing for something none of us truly wanted to face.There had been a fire burning in the middle clearing, and I could spot people huddled near it. Not for heat, though there was a chill in the autumn evening, but for companionship. For the comfort of not having to go through what was in store for them alone."Can't sleep?" Lucien said, stepping out from behind the cabin behind me."Too much in my head." I settled back into him as his arms wrapped around my waist. "Are they always like this? The night before battle?""Sometimes. Sometimes people want to be alone, sometimes they need people." He nodded toward the fire. "Looks like tonight is a people night."We moved together towards the gathering, the hall packed with this odd combination of people. Magnus's veterans and Haven's Rest refugees. Claws warriors and bloodline sur
Dawnlight poured through the windows of the medical bay, bathing everything in gold that felt too peaceful for what was to ensue. I hadn't gotten much sleep, my mind spinning from everything the survivors had shared. Five hundred enemies. Two days. An army of shadow and demon marching right for us.But as I entered the medical bay, I was met with something I didn't anticipate: laughter.Selara sat up in bed, arguing with the healer about getting up and walking. Kieran was demonstrating something with his fingers that had Lyssa giggling despite bandages covering half of her torso. Even Cassia, whose eyes had harbored so much old sadness yesterday, smiled at something Torin had said."There she is," Selara said when she spotted me. "Sister, tell this woman that I'm more than capable of walking to breakfast. I've endured worse than a couple of stab wounds."The healer, an older woman named Clara whom I'd seen on occasion concerning Magnus's stronghold, gave me a long-suffering look. "Tel
I stood frozen in the doorway of the med bay."You can come in," the alpha woman called from her bed, her voice still weak but improving. "I won't bite, sister."The term of endearment heated my chest. I moved to stand beside her bed, noting where healers had scrubbed and bandaged her most severe wounds. Up close, the family scent was unmistakable: the same bone structure, the same unique eye color that appeared to shift between green and silver in the light."I'm Aria," I said, not knowing what else to offer."I know who you are. Your awakening was a beacon in the dark, calling all of us who still carried the bloodline." She managed a faint smile. "I'm Selara... Nightshade, although I've gone under many other names over the years."The surname felt like a blow to the stomach. Nightshade. The name I'd never known was mine, heard aloud by someone who bore it unashamed."You use the family name?""Why would I not? It is who we are, what we are." Selara's expression turned graver. "Thoug
Magnus's Stronghold was filled to the brim when we entered, the atmosphere so charged I could feel it on the breaths of air. Maps hung on all flat surfaces, red and green and blue inks scrawled over them in places to identify positions and territories.The Alpha himself stood behind the central table, his silver-flecked hair shining in the lamplight as he pored over reports with the intent gaze of a man who'd survived twenty years of border wars.But it wasn't just Magnus and his command there. I recognized several familiar faces among Haven's Rest: Derek in close discussion with one of Magnus's captains, Marcus bending over boxes of supplies, Vera and even others that I know but have no personal relations with.And others I didn't know.A woman with soothing eyes and healer's fingers standing beside Elena, speaking some indistinguishable words in hushed, serious tones. A youth, definitely younger than Finn, his face marred by scar but new and full of the tale of recent fighting."Lad
The morning sun was already high by the time I arrived at the training grounds, where Morwyn was arranging our lesson space. Crystals glinted along the stone walls, and she'd re-drawn the symbols on the dirt that glowed softly with lingering energy."Today we do amplification," she told me when I approached. "Learning to expand your cooperative magic over greater distances and through multiple natural elements simultaneously."It sounded challenging, which was a good thing. After the conversation with Lucien last night, I needed something to focus on besides the tangled feelings brewing in my chest.I started with the same old exercises, drawing on what I'd mastered in the previous weeks. Morwyn led me through working with water, air, and earth together, crafting smooth flows of energy that were nearly musical in how they worked together in harmony.Yet when I reached out with my awareness, tracing the lines of connection between various elements of nature throughout the valley, I sen







