LOGINQUEENETH’S POVWhat They See When They Look at MeWe find them near what used to be a water source.The stream is still there, cutting through the land like it always has, but even the water looks wrong. It moves too slowly, like it forgot where it was supposed to go. The banks are disturbed, footprints layered over each other, some fresh, some older, all restless.Amy senses them before I do.“Not hiding well,” she murmurs.Not because they are careless.Because they are tired.I raise my hand slightly, signaling the others to slow. No sudden movements. No weapons drawn unless needed. We approach like we would wounded animals. Careful. Quiet. Ready to be bitten anyway.The first one steps out from behind a cluster of rocks.A boy.Too young to carry the look in his eyes.He freezes when he sees us. Not curious. Not hopeful. His body goes rigid, breath catching like he has already decided running will not save him.Then more of them emerge.A woman with a torn sleeve and dried blood o
QUEENETH’S POVWhere Something Has Been TakenWe feel it before we see it.The land changes without announcing it. No clear border. No broken trees or scorched earth to warn us we are stepping into something wrong. It just… shifts.The air loses weight.Not lighter. Just thinner. Like something important has been taken out of it and the space has not decided how to fill itself again.I slow without meaning to.The others notice immediately. Feet adjusting. Breathing quieting. No one asks why. They feel it too, even if they cannot name it.Amy presses forward inside me, alert, tense in a way that makes my skin tighten.“This place is empty,” she says.Not quiet.Empty.We step fully into eastern pack land.And I understand.It is not corrupted.Not twisted or infected the way I expected. There is no rot creeping through the roots. No dark pulse moving beneath the soil.It feels hollowed.Like something came through and scooped the center out of everything that mattered, then left the r
QUEENETH’S POVThe Silence That StaysTravel with Collins is different now.I feel it before I understand it.The first morning we leave, the air between us does not tighten the way it used to. There is no invisible thread pulling at my ribs every time he moves too far ahead. No sharp awareness of his breathing, his heartbeat, the exact distance between us measured without effort.The bond is still there.It just does not reach for him anymore.That should feel like freedom.Instead, it feels like walking after an injury healed wrong. Nothing is broken, but nothing moves the way it used to either.We travel with the others spread out, not tightly packed. Everyone keeps enough distance to breathe. Enough distance to think. No one complains. No one questions the pace.They all feel it.Not the bond.The absence.Collins walks ahead most of the time. Not leading. Just… choosing a direction and trusting we will follow. His shoulders stay straight. His steps steady. If he is in pain, it do
QUEENETH’S POVWhat I Will Not BecomeThe elders call the meeting before the sun finishes setting.They do not summon me to the Alpha house. Not anymore. We gather in the open courtyard instead, where the rebuilding has not quite erased the cracks in the stone. Torches burn low. Smoke rises straight into the dark like it is trying to escape.They form a half circle around me.Not tight enough to trap. Not loose enough to feel casual.Responsibility hangs in the air before anyone speaks it.“The eastern packs are already fracturing,” one elder says. His voice carries the weight of years and the tremor of fear he refuses to show. “If this spreads, it will not stop there.”Another steps forward. Her hair is braided with silver thread, hands folded into her sleeves to hide their shaking.“You ended the Hollow King,” she says. “You understand this magic better than any of us.”There it is.Not accusation.Expectation.They want me to lead the response.They call it responsibility.I hear p
QUEENETH’S POVWhat Carries My Name Without MeThe messenger arrives at midday.Not announced. Not escorted. He crosses the boundary like someone who expects to be challenged and has already decided how far he is willing to bleed for the answer. The wards ripple when he steps through, not resisting him, just noticing. The way skin notices a blade before it breaks.I am in the yard when I feel it.Not a warning. A disturbance. Amy lifts her head inside me, ears sharp, attention narrowing. The pack feels it too. Conversations falter. A training blade drops and is not picked up right away.He does not kneel.That alone tells me everything.He stops a few paces away, far enough to flee, close enough to strike if he has to. His clothes are torn from travel, not battle. His eyes are bloodshot, sleepless, fixed on me with the kind of focus people have when they are deciding whether a storm can be outrun.No bow. No title.Just a stare that weighs me.“You’re her,” he says finally. Not a que
QUEENETH’S POVAll the Ways I Could EndThe dreams change.They do not come with teeth anymore. No Hollow King watching from the edges. No Moon pressing its weight into my chest. No commands dressed up as destiny.Just doors.I stand in a place that has no walls, no ceiling, no sky. The ground is pale and smooth, like stone worn down by centuries of footsteps. The air feels still, expectant, like it is waiting to see what I will do before deciding how to behave.The doors stretch in every direction.Rows of them. Endless. Tall. Narrow. Wide. Plain wood. Carved metal. Some cracked with age, others so clean they look new enough to still smell of sap or heat. None of them are labeled. None of them invite me.They are simply there.Amy is with me, not beside me but threaded through my spine, alert in a way that makes my skin prickle. She does not speak. She does not need to. I can feel her understanding bloom at the same moment mine does.Each door holds a life.Not a possibility. Not a w







