LOGINRaeThe warning lingered after Jesse pulled away.Careful.My wolf did not growl again or send another surge of emotion through me. She retreated beneath the moonstone, leaving me with Jesse’s hand against my cheek and the taste of his kiss still warm on my lips.“Tell me you trust me more than him,” he had said.The words felt different now that the kiss was no longer distracting me from them.I stepped back.Jesse’s hand fell to his side. “That wasn’t the reaction I was hoping for.”“I told you I wasn’t going to rank you against Grant.”“I know.” His smile returned, lighter and more careful than before. “I pushed too hard.”The apology came easily enough that some of the tension inside me eased, though my wolf remained watchful.“You did.”“I’m jealous.” J
RaeThe growl followed me back to the dorm.Jesse had not heard it. He had continued discussing the Vicker archives while we crossed the courtyard, unaware that something beneath the moonstone had responded to his promise that I would be safer with him.By the time Chrissy and I reached our room, I had replayed the moment enough times to make the words sound harmless again. Jesse had offered me answers and a temporary escape from Ravenwood. Neither should have upset my wolf.Chrissy dropped her bag beside the desk and studied me. “You’ve been quiet since the courtyard.”“I’m thinking.”“You’ve also been rubbing the necklace.”I lowered my hand from the silver crescent and sat on my bed. The metal had cooled, though the skin beneath it remained tender from the burn.“My wolf reacted to Jesse.”Chrissy stopped untying her braid
RaeThe word stayed with me after the room fell silent.No.I stared at the cracked crescent against my chest and waited for the voice to return, but nothing followed. Mansfield sat across from me in Calder’s office, Chrissy still held my hand, and Calder remained near the door with his arms folded. None of them seemed to realize something had answered Mansfield’s question before I could.I lowered my eyes to the moonstone.Are you there?Silence.The ticking clock on Calder’s wall seemed unnaturally loud inside the privacy ward. I could hear the mechanism turning behind its face, along with Chrissy’s breathing and the faint scrape of Mansfield’s sleeve when she shifted in her chair. Beneath all of it, I listened for the presence that had spoken.Did I imagine you?Nothing answered.Maybe the pain had overwhelmed me. Mansfield had just told me the necklace could break, the s
RaeThe silver crescent rested against my skin as though nothing had changed.The crack remained narrow. The moonstone was still pale. Anyone looking at it from across the room would have seen the same necklace I had worn every day of my life.I could no longer see anything except the cage beginning to open.“What happens if the moonstone cannot contain it?” Chrissy asked.Mansfield removed the wyvern-hide gloves and set them beside the leather case. She took the chair across from me, but t
RaeThe crack was so thin I might have missed it if Mansfield had not turned the necklace toward the light.A dark line cut through the lower curve of the silver crescent, stopping just before the moonstone. It looked harmless, barely wider than a strand of hair, but Mansfield’s fear filled the air with enough cold electricity to make my teeth ache.Grant took another step toward me.Pain tightened behind my eyes before he reached the edge of the mat.Mansfield turned sharply. “Stay back.”His body went rigid. “Is that the fracture the translation warned about?”“I cannot answer that until I examine it.”“You saw the crack.”“I saw damaged silver. That does not tell me what is happening inside the spell.”Students still crowded the edges of the gym, watching us with badly disguised curiosity. Whispers crawled
RaeAt first, the changes had been easy to dismiss.Sunday morning, I heard two girls whispering in the hallway outside our room, even after one lowered her voice beyond Chrissy’s hearing. By that evening, I knew who approached our door before they knocked. Chrissy dragged her left foot when she was tired. Officer Dane’s boots kept the same measured rhythm. Mansfield moved almost silently except for the faint chime of bracelets beneath her sleeves.By Monday, emotions had developed scents.Fear carried the cold charge of rain against stone. Anger tasted metallic. Embarrassment was warm and strangely sweet.That frightened me more than the hearing. People could control their expressions and lower their voices, but their bodies betrayed them anyway.By Monday evening, I had stopped using the common room. Too many conversations overlapped there, and too many emotions clung to the air. Even ins
RaeAnd when I finally looked up, it wasn’t who I expected.Not even close.Brax Weston stood in the doorway balancing two pizza boxes, four sodas, and enough confidence to make it seem like he’d been invited.Chrissy’s eyes widened.Brax grinned.“Good,” he announced. “You’re alive.”I blinked.“W
RaeBy the time I made it back to my dorm room, the box in my hands felt heavier than it had any right to.It wasn’t the weight of the things inside it. It was everything attached to them—the way Sonya had looked at me, the way Julien hadn’t backed down, the way Grant had stepped into the conversat
RaeBy the time classes ended, I understood something I hadn’t been prepared for when I walked into Ravenwood Academy that morning.Being ignored had been easier.At least when I was invisible, people didn’t look at me like I was something to be figured out.Now they did.The whispers had changed.
RaeJulien Bennett’s hand remained extended in front of me, steady and patient, as if the weight of the entire courtyard staring at him didn’t exist.For a moment, I didn’t move—not because I needed help getting up, but because of what that gesture meant. Wolves like Julien didn’t involve themselve







