เข้าสู่ระบบOakleyIan scoops me into his arms and carries me over the threshold of the long-missing front door. What’s left of the cottage is painted in shadow, and rain patters on the top of my head and my shoulders. I barely notice the clouds now blocking whatever moonlight there is to be had, but it doesn’t matter. None of this matters. He lays me down in the only sheltered corner of the cottage. A bed of moss and forest debris creates a nest of softness I melt into the moment my back touches the ground. I dig my fingers in and flex them over his shoulders, his bare chest, and down, mapping every sharp angle, rigid muscle, and scar, but he doesn’t lower to meet me. Rainwater drips from his hair and down his nose, falling onto my parted lips. His eyes, still trapped between his true self and his ever-shifting beast forms, search mine in the silence broken only by our racing hearts. “Stay here,” he says slowly, and he rises, angling into the rainy darkness falling like a blanket over the co
Oakley“Come on,” I snarl, leaping over a fallen tree as I crash and stumble through the woods. Clouds block what little moonlight could possibly breach the thick canopy of trees trembling overhead, so it’s nearly pitch black, and I’m basically blind, nothing but frustration and spite leading my way. I don’t want to keep doing this night after night. I refuse to, honestly. This is it. The one defining moment. Tonight will determine everything. Whatever everything turns out to be. But I stop running when I realize I haven’t heard his telltale crashing through the forest sounds. I whirl, squinting into the dark, and find myself impossibly alone in a thick stretch of forest that feels awfully familiar. The cottage rises out of the mist just beyond the tree line and looks even more abandoned than it did the day I found it. I rush toward the structure, carefully stepping over the twigs I gathered to make the basket that’s now somewhere in the forest, reclaimed by spirits that likely lin
OakleyPrincess Juliette is… beautiful. That’s the first thing I noticed about her after the shock of seeing Princess Naomi and Prince Fennec wore off. I haven’t spoken to either of them as it stands, but Juliette scooped me up and whisked me away, and after several hours spent in her quiet presence, I’m wondering if it had less to do with me needing some serious help and more to do with putting distance between herself and her traveling partners. The sunset burns a sharp gold as it fades through the trees. The fire in the center of the clearing is bright now against the backdrop of inky dark forest all around us. I’ve maintained a safe difference from Ian and his family, and I think it’s wise. I can feel the tension between him and Naomi, especially. Juliette doesn’t seem to care that everyone is fighting. “They look better already,” she says, angling my hands in the direction of the firelight to get a better view of the horrible burns turning my skin to leather. “I do have a heal
IanFennec turns my hand over to inspect the blistering on my palms, but I’m watching Juliette tend to Oakley a few yards away, against the far side of the sunny, but smoke scented, clearing. Both women are kneeling, and Julie is taking extra care while braiding Oakley’s hair. “That’s her, then?” Fennec asks, his silver eyes searching mine until I finally meet his gaze. I nod, at a loss for words. My three cousins arrived less than twenty minutes ago, and Naomi immediately took control. I can say with certainty this was the first time I wasn’t happy to see her. It’s not that we didn’t need her. We did. Badly. But her arrival was during a moment when things finally felt somewhat right. “Do the clothes fit?” Fennec says, tugging on my shirt. “You’re only an inch taller than me. I figured it would be fine.”“It’s fine. Thank you.” My throat feels torn raw. He follows my gaze to Oakley, who has fresh bandages on her hands, and the wound on her face has already healed to a shocking s
OakleyAlpin steps into the water. He’s naked. Totally, completely naked. It doesn’t matter. His skin is scorched to a crisp, all shades of red, blue, and black. His arm hangs at an awkward angle from his left shoulder, useless. But in his right arm, he brandishes what I believe is an axe. I push upright, swaying as my body rejects the sudden movement. He slowly moves in my direction. I suppose if he were in better shape, I’d be dead by now at his hand, but neither of us are at our best, and that is in my favor. I brace myself on a tree, taking several painful, burning breaths. My legs refuse to cooperate, even staring death in the face. Alpin can’t speak, which I realize within seconds as his battered face catches a single beam of moonlight breaking through the smokey sky. His jaw is completely dislocated. His teeth are shattered–a bloody, uncanny mess. He went through hell. He deserved it. I take a step away from him, and my legs immediately buckle. I flail, but my hand slips fr
OakleyI’ve seen plenty of people shift into wolves. It’s such a common occurrence that it’s not something I dwell on. Some people are very dramatic about it, shifting in an instant and letting their clothing fray to ribbons. Others take their time, stretching and loosening up before stripping naked and neatly folding their clothes. It’s not violent or painful. It’s a simple, little pop, and all of a sudden, they have four legs instead of two. This is different. This is bloody and grotesque. This is painful, and it’s happening right above me. My scream is swallowed by a sucking sound that shatters the air around us. Ian’s pain radiates through me, forcing my heart to beat like a quick, frantic drum. His skin turns an inky, swallow green before melting away and revealing his new form. Perhaps his true form. “Don’t move!” Wren shouts, holding his hands out in surrender as Ian, now fully seated in his beast form, his wings expanded as far as possible in the snug, low-ceiling room, lif
EvanderI’ll give credit where credit is due and admit that Kenna is fast. She darts across the grassy expanse of wide open farmland at a speed I hadn’t expected, and I find myself jogging to try to catch up to her.She cuts between two barns and disappe
EllaIt’s odd seeing Ryatt in plain clothes. He doesn’t fit here, I realize, as I watch him turn his gaze from the strangers seated nearby back to the water all around us. He’s been silent since we walked onto the ferry that runs between the isles and Maatua. I wish I could take a peek into his mind,
RyattMy mother blinks, then blinks again, that milky, whirling magic clearing from her eyes. Eyes the color of emeralds lock on mine, then slowly graze toward Westfall.Her skin goes pale.“No,” she says, so softly we all almost miss it. “Where–” She backs away from Isaac and Westfall, shaking her hea
*Ryatt*Twin Rivers is nothing but ash and stone as I walk beside Westfall through a wall of heavy fog tinged with smoke. It ripples around my boots as each of my steps echo in the nothingness the last battle left behind. Over the mind-link, I hear the voices of my commanders rattling off the names o







