SCARLETT
Even the wind stopped moving, as though the trees themselves feared to sway.
The figure before us radiated a pressure so heavy that the air seemed to warp.
Its cloak rippled like oil on black water; where it stepped, the ground charred to ash.
Kael shifted forward, twin blades igniting with molten light.
“Name yourself.”
The creature tilted its head, those ember eyes bright with amusement.
“Names are for the living.”
Its voice slid through my skull like smoke.
“But if you need a sound to curse, call me Nyxvar.”
Lucien’s shadow coiled tighter around him.
“Ancient,” he murmured. “Older than the first packs.”
Darius summoned a coil of lightning that danced between his palms.
“You shouldn’t be here.”
Nyxvar smiled a slow, terrifying thing.
“You burned my hollow, little
