ELLIE
Another step. The floor is wet under my shoe, and I don't look down at what it's wet with.
The wolf drops the man in its mouth. He hits the stone and doesn't move. The head comes around, and everything in the room stops.
Not the noise. The noise keeps going somewhere behind my left shoulder, my title over and over.
But nothing moves.
It's looking at me.
Blood black along the muzzle and down the chest. Its head is level with mine.
Its eyes are on my face, and there is nothing behind them.
The pull is still going, hooked in under my ribs and drawing.
Roan moves.
He goes left along the wall, toward the broken half of the pole with the loop on it. He is quiet about it.
He gets two steps.
The head snaps around before he has the pole off the floor. Whatever was holding it s
