They saw the first erasure step out of the treeline like a smudge refusing to sharpen.
It moved on long not-legs that bent where joints should be, but didn’t. Wherever its feet touched, bark forgot it had rings; stones lost their edges and went featureless; frost slicked flat and then simply wasn’t. It walked with purpose, but without hurry. Things that don’t need roads rarely do.
“Line!” Ysra barked. “Shields high. Nothing touches you.”
Unsung slid into shape by old instincts and new stubbornness. Dominic took the center, blade low, eyes hot, the breath in his chest steady as a door’s hinge. Kael stepped to Lena’s left, shadow tight to his ribs, smile a thin, wicked line that lied about how much it hurt to breathe. Mireya planted her staff in thawing earth and scowled at physics as if
