COWRIEI woke before dawn, sticky with pine needles and sweat, his cloak tangled beneath my thigh and his breath slow against the back of my neck.The forest still held the scent of us, thick and reckless, but morning light bled through the canopy, and I couldn’t afford the comfort of staying wrappe
COWRIEThey arrived before sunrise, before the dew dried from the courtyard stones and before I’d finished my tea. First came the guards in cloaks too stiff to move in, then the drummers, then the elders who hadn’t spoken my name in years. They placed my chair in the center of the receiving hall lik
COWRIEThe market square was packed by midday, all noise, elbows and the smell of fried yam. I weaved between stalls, ducked past a cart stacked with soaps and herbs, ignored the familiar greetings tossed in my direction.I only came because Mum said we needed peppers and rice, apparently she won't
GAVINSolenne found me by the eastern cliff after the rites ended, barefoot, skirts hitched in one hand. She sat beside me on the flat stone, legs swinging over the drop like she couldn’t feel the fall calling. Her magic pulsed low and constant, humming into my skin, into the crack in my bones I had
GAVINThe bone chamber breathed with fire. I sat with my father’s cloak folded over my knees, one hand around the iron medallion he wore when the arrow took him, the other pressed against the dirt floor, tracing the ridge where the last Alpha's blood had soaked into stone.The fire pit in front of m
LILALyric plopped beside me, her braid falling over her shoulder, face glowing, “She’s crawling. I mean, really crawling now,” she said, lifting Solenne’s discarded pacifier and wiping it on her sleeve.Cowrie crawled beside her, copying her form, elbows tucked, legs pumping, yelling sound effects