Cassian's scream faded into the night, swallowed by the darkness beyond the broken gate. Elara lunged after him, but Kael's arms wrapped around her, holding her back as more of those cold, hungry shapes emerged from the forest's edge.
"Let me go! That's my brother!"
"And if you follow, you'll be taken too!" Kael's voice was raw with desperation. "Look at them, Elara! That's not a rescue mission, that's a s*******r!"
She looked. Through the shattered gate, in the flickering light of burning torches, she saw them. Not marked wolves. Not corrupted sentinels. Soul-Eaters a dozen at least, their forms semi-solid, woven from stolen starlight and concentrated void. They moved through the outer bailey like smoke, and where they passed, wolves simply... stopped. Their eyes went blank. Their bodi
