VALERIE.
Darkness.
That was all I knew.
But it wasn’t empty.
It pulsed with soundless voices, thick with memory, and laced with a haunting, ancient rhythm. Somewhere deep, a heartbeat echoed—not mine, not my child’s. Something older. Wilder.
“Awaken.”
I didn’t know who called me, only that I wanted to follow the voice. I tried to open my eyes, but they felt sealed shut, my body suspended in something too heavy for flesh.
Then the world cracked open. I saw fire, raging skies, and wolves fighting under the red moon. I saw a woman cloaked in black, blood dripping from her hands as she clutched a baby to her chest. The child… was me.
“She will unite what has been torn…”
I gasped, trying to breathe. The flames licked at my feet. I reached out—toward the woman, toward the child—but the
