Mika didn't remember falling asleep. She just remembered the dark, and then the voice.
"You're stronger than she was."
The voice came from everywhere again, low and rasping, and this time Mika didn't feel scared of it so much as tired of it. "Who? My mother?"
"She ran. You fought." Something shifted in the dark, closer now than it had ever been.
"Fighting wakes me faster. But it also makes you more interesting."
"I don't want to be interesting to you."
"No one ever does." Almost — amusement, maybe, if something like this could feel amusement. "She sealed me away because she was afraid of what I'd take from you. She was right to be afraid. But she was wrong about one thing."
"What's that?"
"I'm not trying to take you over, little wolf. I already tried that, a long time ago, with som
