The sound of Finn’s body hitting the permafrost wasn't a thud; it was the dry, hollow crack of a dead branch.
"Finn?" Marek’s voice didn't just break; it shattered. He fell to his knees, his hands hovering over the gray, shriveled husk that had been a nineteen-year-old boy seconds ago. "Finn! Breathe, damn you!"
But there were no lungs left to expand. I felt the boy's last spark of warmth dissipating inside my own chest, a stolen sun that made my skin glow with a sickly, pearlescent light.
"You... you soulless abomination," Kael whispered. He didn't look at Silas for orders anymore. He didn't look at him as an Alpha. He looked at him as a traitor. "You brought this plague into our heart, Silas. You let it eat the youngest of us."
"Kael, stand down," Silas rasped, his voice thick with t
