THE GIRL NOBODY WAS LOOKING FOR
The first thing I noticed about the dead man was that he still had his boots.
That was a shame.
Good boots had become harder to find than good people.
I crouched beside the body beneath the shadow of a collapsed pharmacy, one hand gripping the knife at my thigh while the other reached for the man's ankle.
Rainwater dripped from the broken roof above me, tapping against rusted metal and cracked concrete. The air smelled of wet moss, old blood, and the sour rot that had settled over Blackhaven years ago and refused to leave.
I pulled at the boot.
It came free.
Mira appeared behind me, bow slung over one shoulder, her dark hair plastered against her forehead.
"You're robbing the dead now?"
I glanced at the boot.
"It's still useful."
Mira folded her arms and gave me the look she reserved for my worst decisions.
"Of course it is. God forbid you let a corpse keep anything useful."
I ignored her and examined the sole.
Worn.
But intact.
I tossed it beside me and reached for the second one.
Mira sighed.
"You know, most people would start by checking whether he's carrying food."
I pulled at the second boot.
"Most people are dead."
She stared at me for a beat.
"Fair point."
I pulled off the second boot.
Then I noticed the blood.
Fresh.
My fingers stopped.
The man's throat had been torn open.
Not cut.
Torn.
The skin around the wound was shredded, and dark blood had soaked the front of his jacket.
I stared at it.
Something about it felt wrong.
Not because people died in Blackhaven.
They died every day.
It was the freshness.
The body couldn't have been here long.
I looked toward the street.
Nothing moved.
Blackhaven was too quiet.
Not peaceful.
Empty.
I had learned the difference.
Five years ago, the Black Moon had swallowed the sky.
The Moon disappeared, and everything else started falling apart.
Packs fractured. Cities emptied. Borders became killing grounds. Things that had once been legends began walking through the streets.
Werewolves lost control.
Some became sick.
Some became monsters.
Some simply disappeared.
Human governments collapsed soon after.
Blackhaven was what remained when nobody cared enough to save a place.
I had survived it anyway.
Not because I was special.
Because I was difficult to kill.
There was a difference.
Mira crouched beside me again, her expression turning serious as she studied the wound.
"Less than a day."
I glanced at her.
"Then whatever did this may still be close."
Her gaze lifted toward the empty street.
"I know."
She looked down at the boots in my hands.
"And you're still taking those?"
I pulled the second boot free.
"Especially now."
A reluctant smile tugged at the corner of her mouth.
"You're impossible."
I tucked the boots under my arm.
"I've been called worse."
We started down the street.
Mira kept watch behind us, her hand resting near the weapon at her side.
The rain had started getting heavier, washing the blood from the pavement and carrying it into the gutters.
We had taken perhaps twenty steps when something crashed in the distance.
Metal against metal.
Loud enough to echo between the buildings.
Mira stopped so suddenly that I nearly walked into her.
"Tell me you heard that."
Her gaze moved across the empty street.
"Unfortunately."
We waited.
Nothing.
No footsteps.
No howl.
No second crash.
Just rain.
My hand tightened around my knife.
Then the pressure started.
It settled behind my ribs first.
A strange heaviness.
Not pain.
Not exactly.
It felt like remembering something I had never lived.
I closed my eyes.
Silver light.
A hand reaching toward mine.
A voice saying my name.
Then
nothing.
I opened my eyes.
Mira was watching me.
"What?"
She studied my face.
"You went pale."
I looked away.
"Then stop looking at me."
Her expression softened, but she didn't back down.
"You know I won't."
She rarely did.
I had learned not to ask too many questions about my missing memories. Questions had a way of becoming doors, and some doors were better left closed.
But lately, I kept dreaming of silver light.
And once, I'd woken with blood dried beneath my fingernails.
I hadn't known whose it was.
I still didn't.
I tightened my grip on the knife.
"Keep moving."
Mira held my gaze for another second before nodding.
"Fine. But if you collapse, I'm carrying you."
"I'd rather die."
"See? This is why I worry about you."
That almost made me smile.
She rarely admitted she worried.
That was why she was still beside me after five years.
She knew when to ask.
She also knew when not to.
We turned into the lower district.
The moment we entered, the world went silent.
I stopped.
Mira nearly walked into me.
"What?"
I raised a finger.
Listen.
Nothing.
No birds.
No insects.
No rats scratching through garbage.
Not even the wind.
Blackhaven had never been silent.
Not completely.
Something was wrong.
Then we heard it.
A scream.
I spun around.
It came from behind us.
The dead man.
My stomach dropped.
Impossible.
His throat had been destroyed.
He couldn't have
The scream came again.
Mira grabbed my arm.
"Run."
We did.
We tore through the alley, boots splashing through filthy water, my knife already in my hand.
The scream followed.
Then stopped.
We reached the end of the alley.
A shadow moved above us.
I looked up.
A man dropped from the roof.
He landed hard enough to send water spraying from the pavement.
Tall.
Broad shoulders.
Dark hair soaked by rain.
Black clothes.
He straightened slowly.
And looked directly at me.
My instincts screamed danger.
His scent reached me before he spoke.
Smoke.
Pine.
Something wild underneath.
His eyes were the color of molten gold.
He didn't look at Mira.
He looked at me.
"How long have you been in Blackhaven?"
I stared at him.
"That your way of introducing yourself?"
His expression didn't change.
"Answer."
I almost laughed.
There it was.
Not a question after all.
A command.
I shifted my weight, keeping my knife visible between us.
"Long enough to know better than to answer questions from men who fall out of the sky."
Something almost flickered in his eyes.
Almost.
"Your name."
"You first."
"Kael."
Just that.
No title.
No explanation.
I didn't believe him.
A growl rolled through the alley.
Kael's head snapped toward the sound.
His entire body changed.
"Behind you."
I turned.
Too late.
Something moved through the rain.
Fast.
Low.
Wrong.
An infected wolf burst from the darkness.
Mira raised her weapon.
I reached for my knife.
Kael moved first.
He caught my arm and pulled me sideways.
His hand closed around my arm before my knees could give out.
Warm.
Firm.
Steady.
For one stupid second, my body leaned toward the contact before my mind caught up.
I jerked away.
"Don't."
His fingers fell from me immediately.
His jaw tightened, but he said nothing.
That should have been the end of it.
Instead, the place he'd touched kept burning.
Our eyes met.
And suddenly, I wasn't standing in the ruins anymore.
A hand was reaching for mine.
Silver light spilled across my skin.
Someone was saying my name not shouting it. Not warning me.
Saying it like they'd said it a thousand times before.
Aurelia.
The memory vanished so violently that pain flashed behind my eyes.
I staggered.
Kael's expression changed.
Recognition.
Fear.
Something I couldn't name.
The infected lunged.
Mira fired.
The shot struck its shoulder, spinning it sideways.
But it kept coming.
"Move!" Mira shouted.
Kael stepped between us.
Something inside him broke loose.
Bones shifted. Muscles tore and reformed beneath skin.
A massive black wolf stood where the man had been.
I should have been afraid.
I was.
But beneath the fear was something else.
Awe.
He moved like the creature had been waiting inside him all along.
The wolf collided with the infected.
Claws tore through flesh.
The infected snapped at his throat.
Kael twisted.
His jaws closed around its neck.
One violent movement.
Then silence.
The infected collapsed.
The black wolf stood over it, chest heaving.
Rain ran down his dark fur.
His golden eyes found mine.
And that strange pull returned.
It wasn't attraction.
Not entirely.
It was deeper.
Older.
My body recognized something my mind couldn't.
I hated that.
The wolf shifted.
Bones cracked.
Skin replaced fur.
Seconds later, Kael stood before me again.
Blood streaked his arm.
I couldn't tell if it was his.
He looked at me.
I looked at him.
Neither of us spoke.
Then heat ripped through my chest.
My knees hit the concrete.
"Aurelia?"
Mira's voice sounded far away.
I grabbed the collar of my shirt and pulled it down.
A silver crescent burned beneath my skin.
Not like a scar.
Like something alive.
I stared at it, unable to breathe.
I had seen that shape before.
Not in a book.
Not on another person.
Somewhere inside the pieces of myself I couldn't remember.
Kael went completely still.
"That's not possible."
I looked up at him.
"What isn't?"
His eyes remained fixed on the mark.
For the first time, the certainty in his face cracked.
"I don't know."
The mark flared.
The ground moved beneath my hands.
Once.
Twice.
Something was waking beneath the concrete.
Mira grabbed my shoulder.
"Aurelia, get up."
I tried.
My body refused.
The darkness beneath us breathed.
And a voice rose through the cracks.
Soft.
Ancient.
Familiar.
"Aurelia."
My blood went cold.
Mira's hand tightened around mine.
Kael stared at the ground.
And for the first time since the Black Moon destroyed our world, I understood something terrifying.
Whatever had just awakened beneath Blackhaven
it had been waiting for me.
