The world was wrong.
It was no longer dark, but it wasn't light either. The air twisted the shapes of things that shouldn't exist, shimmering like molten glass. Trees grew upside down. Wolves, half silver, half shadow, hung in the air like shattered constellations. Like a heartbeat, the Cradle's light flickered across everything.
And I stood in the center of it all.
Or something that looked like me.
Thorn saw me first. With blood on his hands and Mira by his side, her blade out and trembling, he staggered into the clearing They both froze when they saw what had risen from the cracked earth.
I didn’t breathe. I didn’t blink. With each heartbeat, the silver light rippled through my skin and hair, breaking into rivers of shadow. Like veins carved in light, the mark on my wrist had sprea
