SCARLETT
The howl kept rising until it felt like the sky itself might split apart.
It wasn’t a sound so much as a force low, endless, and threaded with a language older than words. My bones vibrated with it. The triune mark across my chest burned white-hot.
Kael’s flames flared instinctively, casting a copper glow across the blackened valley. “That’s no wolf,” he said, voice rough as gravel. “That’s a summons.”
Darius turned toward the southern horizon, where the storm-eye churned like a living god. Lightning pulsed through his irises. “A summons…or a challenge.”
Lucien’s shadows curled tighter around the children huddled behind us. He didn’t look away from the dark vortex. “Either way, it already knows we’re coming.”
The little ones whimpered at the next rumble. Their small hands cl
