로그인POV: DariusIt feels like someone shoved their hand straight into my skull and twists.Not a clean pain. Not something sharp and simple. It’s pressure. It’s wrong. It’s something dragging against the inside of me, pulling at parts that have been buried for too long.I stumble mid step, boots scraping over gravel, and I grab the nearest tree before I drop flat on my face because something inside my chest just yanks sideways like a chain pulled too tight.“Elara,” I choke.She spins toward me so fast her hair whips across her cheek. “What? What is it?”It hits again.This time it’s deeper.Not just my head. My ribs. My spine. Like something threaded through my bones is being tugged, slow at first, then harder. My vision blurs and the forest in front of me flickers. For a split second I don’t see trees.I see stone.A carved floor.A circle.Arin.My heart slams so hard it hurts.“He’s there,” I rasp, pressing my palm against my temple like I can hold my thoughts in place. “He’s in the t
POV: VAREKThe door explodes open because I kick it too damn hard and I don’t even regret it for a second. It slams against the stone wall with this crack that echoes everywhere, loud and ugly, and the sound bounces around the temple like a warning.And then I see it.I see him.Arin.Standing in the middle of a circle carved into the floor like some kind of sacrifice.And Kael is kneeling in front of him.There is light everywhere but it’s not normal light. It’s not soft or holy or whatever word healers like to use. It’s crawling. It moves like it’s alive. Black and silver twisting together across the stone like veins under skin. It looks wrong. It feels wrong.My wolf hits the front of my chest so hard I taste blood.“WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!” I roar, already moving. I don’t even remember crossing the room. One second I’m at the door and the next I’m halfway to them.“Varek, wait—” Arin’s voice cuts through the noise.I don’t wait.I grab Kael by the collar and rip him backward
POV: KAELThe stones start humming the second I step inside and I swear it feels like they’ve been waiting for me.Not for me specifically. Just… waiting.It isn’t a sound you hear the normal way. It’s under my skin. In my teeth. It crawls along the back of my skull like cold fingers and settles there, buzzing, and I have to stop for half a second just to steady myself because this place remembers things. Old things. Things older than the pack, older than the curse, older than me and my stupid mistakes.“Stay close,” I tell Arin quietly as we pass under the broken archway.The temple isn’t really a temple anymore. Half the roof is gone. The moon just spills straight down into the center like it belongs there. Vines choke the walls, weeds split the floor stones, and everything smells like damp earth and dust and something faintly metallic. Old magic has a smell. Most people don’t notice it. I do.The carvings on the walls are worn down almost smooth but when I walk past them, they flic
POV: ElaraI wake up with a start and I am not know why at first.There’s no crash. No scream. No sound of glass or footsteps or anything dramatic like that. It’s just… wrong. Quietly wrong. The kind of wrong that slides into your bones before your brain catches up and explains it.I’m warm. Too warm, maybe. Darius is wrapped around me like he always is when he actually lets himself sleep properly. His arm is heavy over my waist, his chest solid against my back, breath slow and deep against my neck. For one stupid second I almost sink back into it because it feels safe. It feels normal.And then it hits.Not a noise. Not a vision.A hole.That’s what it feels like. A hole where something living should be.My eyes snap open and I swear I can hear my heart inside my skull. I don’t even think. I just reach. I reach with that part of me that is always stretched toward him. Toward my son. That quiet silver hum that has been there since the day he was born.Nothing.There is nothing.“Dariu
POV: ARIN I wake up because someone is in my room. My eyes snap open and my heart starts banging so loud I think it might wake the whole house, and for one second I cannot move because there is a shape beside my bed and the moon is shining behind it so I cannot see the face. “Arin,” a voice whispers, low and soft. “It is me.” My mark burns. Not warm. Not soft. It burns like someone pressed a hot coin to my skin. “Uncle Kael?” I croak, and I push myself up fast, blankets tangled around my legs. “Why are you in here?” He steps closer into the moonlight and I see his face, and he looks wrong. Not scary. Just tight. Like he is holding something heavy inside and it might spill. “I need you to be quiet,” he says gently, crouching down so we are eye level. “Can you do that for me?” “Why?” I whisper, even though I am already whispering. “Did something happen? Is Dad okay? Is Mom okay?” “They are fine,” he says quickly, and his hand comes up like he wants to touch my shoulder but he
POV: KaelHis eyes are wrong.That is the first thing I see when Darius closes the door behind him and says, “Check me again.”He tries to sound calm, but his voice is tight, and I can hear the growl buried under it. The office lights are low, the blinds half shut, and the moon leaks through the cracks like it wants to watch too. I stand in front of him, and I do not answer right away. I just look.“You think I enjoy this?” he snaps when I stay quiet. “Every time I blink I feel it. So just do it, Kael.”“I am going to,” I say, and my hands are already warm, already humming. “Stop moving.”He lets out a breath, rough, impatient, and he shrugs off his jacket. His shoulders are tense, muscles tight like wires pulled too far. I step closer and place my palm over his chest, right where the bond once burned clean and bright, right where I once felt nothing but strength and now feel rot.He flinches.“Hold still,” I murmur.“Do not tell me to hold still in my own damn house.”“Then stop shak
POV: ELARAThey come back when the night is thick and quiet, Varek and Kael, and I know before I even see their faces. I feel it first. The air shifts. It tightens. Like the forest itself stiffens its spine.Something must have happened between them.Something bad.Kael steps out first from the tre
POV: KAELI hear it before I see anything. A small sound. A twig snapping. Not loud. Not careless. Almost polite. And that’s how I know it’s him. My body stills on its own, like it decides for me. My stomach tightens hard and the forest feels like it closes in, like everything is listening, waitin
POV: KAELI wake before the city makes a sound, before the light touches the walls of Emano, before even the wind has decided to move. I can hear footsteps already, quiet but insistent, rogues pacing the corridors, moving between cots, checking on each other, whispering, trying not to wake the ones
POV: ELARA3 YEARS LATERI wake up to shouting.Not panic shouting. Not fight shouting. Just loud voices stacked on top of each other, like the city forgot how to breathe quietly.“Elara.”Someone knocks once and then again, too hard.“Elara, we need you.”I sit up fast, heart already running ahead







