MasukThe water wasn't cold. It wasn't warm either. It felt like nothing and everything at once, and the moment I touched it, the world fell away.I was no longer in the temple. I was standing in the same chamber, but it was different. The walls were brighter, the carvings fresh and sharp, and the pool before me glowed with a light that came from somewhere deep beneath the earth. A woman knelt at the water's edge, her white hair loose around her shoulders, her hands submerged in the glowing pool. She was chanting, low and steady, and the words vibrated through the stone like a heartbeat."I swear to protect the Book of Blood with my life," the woman said, and her voice echoed in the chamber. "To carry its knowledge through the ages, to defend it from those who would misuse it, and to pass it on to the one who comes after me. This I vow, before the Luminara and the ancestors. This I vow, as the first Guardian."The woman lifted her hands from the water, and the light clung to her fingers lik
The building wasn't a building. It was a temple—or had been, once. The stones were covered in carvings, the same symbols from the Book of Blood, worn by centuries of wind and water.I stopped at the threshold and let my eyes adjust to the dimness. The structure was larger than it had looked from the ridge, its walls rising higher than I'd expected, its entrance framed by pillars that leaned like old men. Moss and ivy crawled over every surface, and the air inside smelled of stone and water and something older. Something sacred.Papa Caelum stood beside me, his breath slow and even. I could feel his awe through the bond web, but also his wariness. He had dreamed of this place for thirty years, and now that he was finally here, he didn't know what to do with himself."It's real," he murmured, and his voice echoed in the stillness. "The carvings. The symbols. It's all real."Mirren moved past us, her spirit-wolf glowing faintly in the gloom. She reached out and touched one of the carving
The forest changed the further east we went. The trees grew taller, older, their roots twisted into shapes that looked like faces. And the deeper we rode, the more I felt like something was watching.I kept my hand near the Book of Blood, which I had wrapped in oilcloth and strapped to my saddle. It had been quiet since the vision, but I could feel it stirring now, like a wolf waking from a long sleep. The pull was stronger here, closer to the source, and it made my skin prickle.Papa Caelum rode beside me, his amber-gold eyes scanning the treeline. He had been quiet since we left Silver Hollow, lost in memories he still hadn't fully shared. I didn't push him. The dream had been his secret for thirty years, and he needed time to process what it meant to finally see it with his own eyes.Mirren rode on my other side, her spirit-wolf flowing through the underbrush like a silver shadow. The wolf had been appearing more and more as we traveled, as if the landscape itself was calling to he
"When I was nineteen, before I met your fathers, I had a dream about a lake," I said. "A lake with a stone building on its shore. And a woman singing in a language I didn't know."The study was quiet. The fire had burned down to embers, and the morning light was still pale through the windows. My children sat around me—Theron in the chair by the desk, Mirren on the floor with her spirit-wolf curled beside her, Sable perched on the arm of the sofa with her legs tucked under her. They were all watching me with the same expression: a mix of confusion and something that might have been fear.I didn't blame them. I had kept this secret for thirty years, and now it was spilling out of me like water through a cracked dam."I was nineteen," I said again, and my voice was distant. "The pack had just sent me into the snow to die. I was burning with heat serum, and I was sure I was going to freeze to death. But before Bastian found me, I dreamed." I paused, and the memory rose up like smoke. "A
Sable perched on the kitchen counter, swinging her legs. "So we're going on an adventure? Finally. I was getting bored."I sat at the table with a cup of tea that had long gone cold, the morning light filtering through the window. Mirren was beside me, her spirit-wolf a faint shimmer at the edge of my vision. Sable looked from me to Mirren and back again, her amber-gold eyes bright with excitement. She was thirteen now, all elbows and knees and wild energy, and she had been complaining for weeks that nothing interesting ever happened."It's not an adventure," I said. "It's a mission. The Book showed me something. A place called Kaelen's Rest."Sable stopped swinging her legs. "Kaelen's Rest? I've never heard of it.""Neither have we," Mirren said quietly. "Theron saw it in a vision. A lake, ancient trees, a stone structure half-sunk in the shore. And a voice, chanting a song he almost recognized."Sable leaned forward, and her grin faded into something more serious. "That sounds like
The Book didn't speak in words. It spoke in feelings—a pull beneath my ribs, a warmth that spread through my chest, a whisper that sounded like my own voice but older.I woke in the deepest dark, the room cold and still, my heart already pounding. The Book was on my desk where I'd left it, but it was open now, its pages turning without wind. I sat up slowly, my breath misting in the air, and I watched the silver script shift and rearrange itself like water finding a new path.Three months. For three months the Book had been quiet, resting in my care, its pages showing only the genealogies I had already read a hundred times. But tonight it was awake. Tonight it wanted something.I swung my legs out of bed and crossed the room on bare feet. The floor was freezing, but I didn't care. The pull was too strong. The Book glowed faintly, and as I drew closer, I saw that the pages were no longer filled with names. They were filled with lines and shapes. A map.The lines formed coastlines and r
Two medics held me down before I could ask what was happening. The needle went in, and fire spread through my veins. I bucked on the table hard enough that the leather restraints creaked, and a strangled sound tore out of my throat that wasn't a word. One medic, a beta woman with flat grey eyes an
Silas’s boot drove into my stomach, and I folded around the pain without a sound. Ten years in this pack had taught me one thing: noise makes it worse.I hit the training yard dirt on my side, and a puff of dust coated my tongue. Silas stood over me with his sandy hair cropped close to his skull, h
They shoved Bastian into the pit before I could even stand. The crowd roared. And I felt the first blow land in my own ribs. An enforcer with a scar splitting his chin dragged me up a set of stone steps to a wooden ledge that overlooked the fighting pit. The chamber was underground, carved into th
Bastian's hands were still raised when the first arrow punched into his shoulder. He didn't flinch. He just looked at me—claimed, bleeding, mine—and said, "Keep your head down. No matter what." The enforcers swarmed the clearing before I could answer. Maren Holt barked orders, and her wolves fanne







