“Yeah, I can. It’s small, like a candle compared to your bonfire, but it’s there.”
Something shifted in Soren’s expression. Not concern exactly, but something more like recalibration; the look of someone who had expected a certain result and gotten something significantly beyond it.
“That’s more sensitivity than I anticipated,” he said. “Most of what my grandmother told me about Nyx bearers suggested the Gift primarily detected wolf energy, bonded wolves specifically. Detecting ambient life energy from non-wolf sources at this stage of awakening is unusual.”
“Is that bad?” Lira asked.
“It’s not bad. It means the Gift is further along than I thought, which means we have less time than I hoped,” Soren said.
Lira looked at her wrist. The cuff was still in place but she could feel the sca
