Chapter 21: Camp Politics

- RAVENA"He's a security risk, Edith. Look at the way he moves. That's not rogue scrap; that's trained martial form."I kept my back pressed hard against the rough exterior logs of the elder’s council cabin, my knees dug into the snow. The heavy wool of Chief Rod’s coat did a decent job of masking my breathing, but my heart was doing double-time against the tight linen wraps flattening my chest.Inside, the fire was popping, and the old voices were loud enough to bleed right through the timber seams."Kael’s nose is broken in three places," a dry, raspy voice spat. That was Torin, one of the senior camp elders who looked like he’d been chewed up and spit out by a bear fifty years ago. "The boy didn't just defend himself. He targeted the joint. He knew exactly where the ghost-blood weakness was. You telling me some random stray from the south just happens to know how to cripple a northern shifter?""I'm telling you he's fast, Torin. There's a difference," Edith’s voice shot back. She

Chapter 22: The Hood Never Comes Off

- RAVENA"He's definitely a lizard," Rayna said, her teeth crunching loudly through a dried apple slice. She was sitting sideways on the infirmary cot, swinging her legs so hard that the wooden frame creaked. "Like the big ones in the southern swamps. The ones that spit something.""Venom," I corrected, without looking up from the mortar and pestle I was using to crush dried winter-fern. "And no, he’s not a lizard. Lizard skin doesn't throw off that kind of heat. It’s too dry.""Then why does he wear the mask indoors?" She leaned forward, nearly falling off the mattress. "Eli said he saw him take a drink of water once. Said he used a silver straw pushed right under the leather and didn't even lift the edge an inch.""Eli also thinks potatoes grow on trees," I muttered, scraping the green paste into a small clay pot. "Don't listen to him."But the truth was, I’d been watching the man like a hawk for the last three days.Chief Rod was a freak of nature, even by northern standards. The

Chapter 23: Erevale Academy

- RAVENA (ZAVIER)"If you drop your left shoulder like that again, I’m going to throw you off the eastern ridge," Edith snapped, her wooden staff coming down hard against my thigh."Son of a..." I cut myself off, stumbling back across the slick sand of the hidden training clearing. I shook out my leg, glaring at her through the dirt smeared across my face. "I didn't drop it. The ice shifted.""The ice doesn't give a damn about your excuses, Zave," she said, spinning the staff between her fingers effortlessly like it weighed nothing. She didn't look tired at all. Me? I was sweating through my linen wraps in sub-zero weather, my chest heaving as I tried to keep my gravelly voice from slipping. "The selectors aren't going to look at the ground," she snapped. "They’re going to look at your throat. Again."I gritted my teeth, raising my fists back up into the guard she’d beaten into my muscle memory over the last three weeks. My knuckles were scraped and bleeding, the skin split and froz

Chapter 24: Push Harder

- RAVENA (ZAVIER)"A wolf who fights in the light is easily skinned," his voice rumbled from the dark.Chief Rod’s thick dragon-hide glove was still clamped around my wrist like an iron vise, his grip the only anchor on the pitch-black infirmary porch. The unnatural heat radiating off him was making the sweat on the back of my neck turn to warm steam despite the freezing night air."I fight where I have to," I rasped, dropping deep into my boyish Zavier voice, though my heart was hammering frantically against the linen bindings flattening my chest."Then do not mistake the shadow for safety," he murmured. The leather mask covering the lower half of his face muffled the words, but the quiet intensity in his voice made me pause. He didn't release my arm. His dark, hooded head tilted slightly, his dead legs completely hidden beneath the heavy furs draped over his reinforced chair. "The dark only hides you until the fire starts. Remember what you are climbing out of, boy."My heart skipp

Chapter 25: The Mountain View

- RAVENA"You're going to freeze your small southern ass off if you keep standing that close to the edge," Chief Rod said.I didn't move. The wind up here on the highest ridge was harsh, like someone throwing handfuls of tiny ice needles straight into my skin. I pulled the collar of his massive grey coat up over my chin, the scent of pine and old iron hitting my nose. "I'm fine, Chief," I rasped, forcing the gravel back into my voice. My throat felt like sandpaper from keeping up the Zavier routine all morning, but I couldn't slack off now. Not with him sitting two feet away. "It’s a nice view. If you like rocks and misery.""It's a tactical position," Chief Rod muttered from beneath his deep hood. The reinforced leather mask covered everything below his eyes, making the words sound dark and heavy. His dead legs were buried under three layers of black wolf furs, but the sheer heat coming off his frame kept the snow around the iron wheels of his chair completely melted. "From here,

Chapter 26: Bad Blood

- RAVENAI was just running an errand to fetch the supply pack when I heard the shout echoing right through the heavy timber doors of the main hall, shattering the quiet evening slush. "You're making a mistake, Chief Rod. A massive, stupid mistake, and we're the ones who are gonna pay for it in blood." I heard Torin, one of the elders, snap.I paused on the bottom step, my hand freezing on the heavy strap of the supply pack I was dragging back from the smokehouse.Inside, things were getting really loud."I don't remember asking for your permission, Torin," Chief Rod’s voice came through the wood coldly, dropping the temperature in the room despite the heat he always carried."You didn't have to ask when it was just a few broken pups!" Torin roared back. I could hear the heavy thud of a fist slamming onto a table. "But now? You're handing our best resource, the only ticket into the capital's good graces, to a nameless human stray who can't even grow a proper chin? Eli has blood ties