CLAIMED BY THE FOUR ALPHA BROTHERS
Calix muttered, and I heard him shift closer, his shoulder brushing mine in the dark, a silent kind of reassurance neither of us said out loud.
Soren's voice came from somewhere near the door, quieter, steadier than I expected. "I can hear its breathing. It's not human. It's not a wolf either. It's something in between, and it's close."
Every one of us went still, breath held, straining to hear anything beyond our own pulses hammering in the dark.
And then, without warning, without any flicker of buildup at all, the lights came back on.
Every torch in that ancient room roared back to life at once, blinding after so long in total darkness, and I threw my arm up against the sudden brightness,