Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 31 - Chapitre 40

Luan found Mira sitting by the river at dawn.The girl was small for twelve. Her hair was grey at the temples, the same grey Luan had seen in her own mirror. Her eyes were brown and hollow and older than they should have been. She hugged her knees to her chest and stared at the water.May I sit? Luan asked.Mira shrugged.Luan sat on the cold ground beside her. The river rushed past. The sun was still behind the mountains. Frost glittered on the grass.How long have you been turned? Luan asked.Two years, Mira said. Her voice was soft. Tired. Like she hadn't slept in weeks.You were ten.Mira nodded. Her fingers picked at a loose thread on her sleeve.They found me behind a dumpster. I was looking for food. Julian said I had the scent. The latent blood. He said I would make a good soldier.Luan's hands curled into fists. The anger rose in her chest, hot and familiar. She pushed it down.What did your mother say?Mira finally looked at her. Her brown eyes were wet.She tried to stop th

The dream came three nights later.Luan was standing in the clearing where Cass had died. The grass was brown. The sky was black. The moon was the color of blood. She turned in a circle, looking for the source of the wrongness that crawled across her skin.You think you've won.The voice came from everywhere and nowhere. It was Julian's voice, but deeper. Older. Hungrier.Luan's hands curled into fists.Julian is dead.Julian was a pup. A child playing at power. The voice laughed. The sound made the ground shake. I am not Julian.Then who are you?The darkness in front of her coalesced into a shape. A wolf. Massive. Grey. Its eyes were the color of old blood. Its fur moved like smoke.I am what Julian should have been, the wolf said. I am the hunger that cannot be fed. I am the curse that cannot be broken. I am the first wolf's shadow.Luan's heart pounded.The first wolf is gone.The first wolf is sleeping. The wolf stepped closer. Its breath was cold. It smelled of graves. I am what

The shadow did not move as Luan approached. It stood at the edge of the tree line, a mass of darkness shaped like a wolf, its red eyes burning like coals. The pack hung back. Cass stayed at her side.You came to me, the shadow said. Its voice was the sound of bones breaking.Luan stopped ten feet away.The first wolf told me to love you.The shadow laughed. The sound made the ground tremble.Love me? I am hunger. I am the end of everything. There is nothing to love.There's always something to love, Cass said.The shadow's red eyes shifted to him.You. The dead wolf who came back. You should not exist.Neither should you, Cass said. But here we are.The shadow stepped closer. Luan felt its hunger pressing against her skin. Cold. Empty. Desperate.I have been sleeping for a thousand years, the shadow said. The first wolf dreamed me and forgot me. I was nothing. Less than nothing. Then you opened the door. You bound the dead wolf to your soul. You woke me up.Luan held her ground.What'

The bowl was empty again the next morning. And the morning after that.Luan did not acknowledge it. She did not thank the shadow. She did not even look at it when she refilled the bowl each night. She simply set the stew at the tree line and walked back to the fire. The shadow ate. Luan ate. The pack ate. The rhythm became part of the valley's heartbeat.On the seventh night, the shadow spoke.Not in the voice of distant thunder. Not in the voice of breaking bones. Something softer. Almost human.Why do you keep feeding me?Luan looked up from the fire. The shadow had moved closer. It was at the edge of the firelight now. Its dark form flickered like a candle flame in the wind.Because you're hungry, Luan said.Everyone is hungry. No one else feeds me.Luan set down her bowl. She stood. Cass reached for her hand. She squeezed his fingers and let go.Maybe they're afraid of you, she said.The shadow's red eyes dimmed.I know.Luan walked to the edge of the firelight. She could feel the

The pack did not know what to call the creature that had followed Luan down from the mountain.It was a wolf. That much was clear. Silver fur, golden eyes, four legs, a tail. But it was also something else. Something older. Something that had been darkness and hunger and grief for a thousand years and was only now learning to be solid.Holt kept his distance. Wren stayed in her human form, watching with wide eyes. Sparrow hid behind Vera. Even Mira, who had been the first to touch it, kept a few feet between herself and the silver wolf at all times.Only Cass walked beside it.He had no fear. Or if he did, he did not show it. He spoke to the silver wolf in a low, steady voice. Asked it questions. Waited for answers. Treated it like a wolf. Nothing more. Nothing less.Luan watched them from the cabin porch.She was tired. The journey down the mountain had taken most of the day. The weight of the first wolf's death pressed on her chest. But the silver wolf was here. It had chosen to fol