로그인ELISE’S POVYEARS LATER.The sun was warm that morning. The golden light filled the gardens. For the first time in a long time, I felt like I could just sit and breathe without fear sitting heavy in my chest. The air smelled sweet, full of roses, and the world felt gentle again.I sat under the will
Elise’s POVThe world stopped spinning the moment I saw it.The devourer.The thing Gina had called forth twisted behind her in a storm of shadows. Its form shifted into many forms. It was almost too terrible for the eyes to follow. It looked like smoke given flesh, like nightmares sculpted into bei
I swallowed hard. My tears blurred my vision.“Gina,” I whispered “This ends tonight. You and me.”The fight exploded in an instant.The courtyard shook beneath my feet as Gina and I circled each other.Gina tilted her head. Lyra whimpered in her arms. Every time my daughter screamed, the earth spli
ELISE’S POVJackson’s body was warm in my arms, but the life had already drained from his eyes. His lips were parted slightly, as if he still wanted to say something—something he hadn’t gotten the chance to tell me. My throat burned as I swallowed hard. Tears rolled down my eyes.Gina laughed loudly
ELISE’S POVI ran out of the battle field. I let my wolf guide me to Gina’s location. I could already perceive her scent in the air. But then I heard it.The scream.“Help! Someone—please!”My blood ran cold. That voice… it was my mother’s.I didn’t even think. My feet carried me , tracing her voice
ELISE’S POVThe sky darkened, swallowing every trace of sunlight. The eclipse had come.I stood at the window, staring at the darkness in the heavens. My heart was pounding so loud it drowned out the silence. The shadows crawled across the walls of the castle. The air was heavy with dread, and deep
ELISE’S POVWe moved in silence.The path to Vaelven was nothing like I’d imagined. The further we pushed into the Deadlands, the more time seemed to… bend. The air was thick and wrong, like we were walking through a dream we weren’t meant to see. Or worse—a memory the world had tried to forget. The
I couldn’t stop the words from spilling out. “I should’ve died with them. I shouldn’t have made it out when they didn’t. I—They followed me. I gave them orders. I led them into battles and missions and… I failed them.”“You didn’t kill them. The wars did.” Her hand was at the back of my neck now, gr
ELISE’S POVThe steps beneath the earth felt older than time.We descended into the underground chambers. It was cold at first, but not the kind of cold that bites the skin—it was the kind that creeps into your bones and whispers that you’re being watched.The stone walls around us glowed with sigil
“You cry again, I’ll break your jaw,” he’d said once, after I’d collapsed mid-run.I was fourteen. I hadn’t shifted in time during a test. He locked me in the woods overnight with wolves from another pack to teach me “fear.”“You call that strength?” he hissed now, stepping closer. “You lost your Pa







