Finn’s POV
The black glass of the Avatar’s hand was no longer just squeezing my throat; it was fusing with my skin. I could feel the cold, oily poison of Kaelin’s magic racing toward my heart, turning my blood to sludge. My vision was swimming in a sea of toxic yellow sparks, but Isolde’s words - the root is hollow - pulsed in my brain like a lifeline.
"Why do you reach for the stones, Alexis?" the Avatar hissed, its featureless glass face inches from mine. "The mountain has already disowned you."
"Not... the stones," I wheezed, my lungs burning. "The... gravity."
I didn't try to pull away from its grip. Instead, I reached up and slammed my obsidian claws into the Avatar’s own forearms, anchoring myself to it. I shifted further, the wolf-fire in my blood fighting the black frost in my
