EZEKIEL
20 Years Ago
Long before this war.
Long before I ever became the monster Asher sees. I was fifteen the day everything began.
The air on the hill was heavy with mist, the kind that clings to your skin and dulls your senses. It was neutral ground, the lonely stretch of earth that divided the werewolf packs from the witches' kingdom. And today, it was where I hoped to find my brother.
Asher had vanished weeks ago after she died. The witch he loved, the one he swore he'd burn the world for was gone. And with her death, something inside him snapped. Children were vanishing from villages, torn apart by claws too familiar. And no matter how far I ran, no matter how hard I tracked, I was always too late.
Until now. I'd caught his scent here.
I sprinted up the slope, my lungs burnin
