There was a thick, oppressive, and absolute silence as the light faded.
The courtyard had vanished.
Under a starless sky, I stood on soil that wasn't soil. As if alive, the silver mist shifted and stretched in all directions. Thorn, the wolves, even the estate's stones—they were gone. All that remained, like memory refusing to die, was the echo of their howls.
"Where—" My voice broke, immediately absorbed by the fog.
And then I wasn't alone.
A tall, slender figure emerged from the mist, its face obscured by a curtain of darkness. It didn't move like a human or a wolf. As it moved forward, the ground rippled with each step, giving the impression that the ground wasn't solid.
“You came,” it said. Not the reflection’s mocking tone. Not Korrin’s poison. Something worse. A voice that
