ozen ground, through the marrow of my broken ribs, and se

ange, distant clarity. Not by Viv

er deat

d for th

idn't

of wet pine and cold stone, and beneath that, somet

wolf's muzzle was so close I could see the in

g-long, ivory daggers gl

t bared. Its mo

air and was holding it. And its eyes... My

rea

oud, but a luminous, liquid mercury, swirling wit

me. The fear inside me, a constant, sc

rom my forehead, over the salt-tracks of my tears, down the column of my

h lightning through my nerves. Its nose, cold and

blow. It broke something in me. A lo

l. It sounded li

formed in my s

y? It pulled back, those impo

hat belied its enormo

massive body along the length of my shivering side, its heat an i

its paws, watching me. A guar

again, blurring the moon. I didn'

as real. The solid presence was real. For the first time since

tbreaking I almost wished it would

a fresh eruption of fire. A choked

. The loss of its warmth was instant and brutal. The c

o

It didn't look back. It simply turned and vanished betwee

crushing what was left of my spirit. Of course. Of

oke from a cruel universe. I was alone

m me, replaced by a va

em so bad now. It was quiet there. N

f the stream, the sigh of the wind. There was only the shallow, ragged

tst

ea

bera

oke of two legs, not four. She came back. The thought was flat,

e energy to be afraid anymore. Let her watch. Let

moon's cold face. I looked up, ready f

iece of the night given shape-tall, shoulders impossibly broad. As my

ined ribs. He knelt. No hesitation. No revulsion a

ore intimate than a touch. He saw everything-the wound, the bru

ered, the words a raw

ues

"Is me." Two words. Simple. Absolute. They should have ter

hif

gic, older than packs, older than laws. Wild gods who wore the skin

ched out. Instinctively, I flinched, a feeble tremble. "Be still." His vo

d of a mountain or a deep river. My body, against all expectation, s

air, radiated from his palms. It wasn't magic as I knew it-no p

uted. It softened at the edges, becoming a heavy, throbbing ache I coul

d. I felt it-a profound, searching focus that seemed to pierce through my s

er of something passed over his stern featur

s?" he asked. The question was quiet, but it hu

form Vivian's name, b

irection of the house, of the life that was now ashes. H

like granite. He was smelling the remnants of my

ollo

back at me, and his gaze was no longer just assessing

his arms slid beneath me. I cried out as the movement sent a fresh spike of brightne

elt as solid and unyielding as the ancient forest around us. "I am Kael," he said, his

rail of my own life's blood, moving with a ground-eating stride into

o the dark fabric of his sh

stark, untamed truth. "To a place where the air does not taste of your p

his heart was a new drumbeat ag

g. It was the first, deep, reson

lade fell, the silence within me didn't