Rowan’s POV
Silence fell over the clearing all at once.
A heavy, dense, unnatural silence—so thick that even the whisper of falling snow became audible. The screams were gone. The cracking of bone had ceased. The electricity that had vibrated through the air slowly sank into the frozen ground.
Where moments ago a fragile twenty-year-old girl had writhed among the torn remains of a fur cloak, something entirely different now lay in the snow.
I slowly released her shoulder—no longer a shoulder—and leaned back on my knees, unable to tear my gaze away. Caroline was finished. She lay on her side, her body matted with snow and the sweat of transformation, drawing deep, ragged breaths. With every exhale, a cloud of white vapor bloomed around her muzzle.
“My gods…” Myra whispered behind me, h
