Lucci stood, reaching down to pull Rhea smoothly to her feet. He kept one hand firmly on her forearm to steady her as her boots touched the dirt. "Then we don't wait here."
Rhea turned toward the dark treeline, the magic hummed under her skin, burning hot and ready in her veins.
"They're coming," she said, her voice dropping into a quiet, deadly calm.
Lucci drew his heavy iron blade, the steel rasping clearly in the cold night. "Then let them."
By the time Rhea, Lucci, and Eli made it back from the hollow, the main camp was already in motion. War drums pulsed low and steady into the soil. Tents collapsed. Weapons passed from hand to hand. Shifters moved in silence.
Something was coming.
Rhea could feel it in her ribs. The ground breathed shallowly beneath her boots. Her skin buzzed—n
