In an instant, the fragile balance of the ritual shattered. Aria could hardly register the moment: one heartbeat, she stood poised in the center of flickering runes, her father rushing forward, sword raised. The next, a howling storm of violence tore through the clearing.
The bonfire flared, sparks spinning into the dark sky. Wolves in half-shifted forms lunged at one another, eyes wild, fangs bared. Some tore off their clothes in a frenzy of transformation, howling as their bodies contorted with the Eclipse’s twisted energy. Others flailed mid-change, stuck between human skin and wolf’s claws—faces elongated, bones warping.
Aria gasped, stumbling back as a rogue warrior convulsed within arm’s reach, muscles spasming under half-grown fur. He howled, flailing at anyone nearby, his half-fo
