Remo's POV ⸻ I lost her. The taste of her name on my tongue turned to iron the moment the circle swallowed her. I tore apart three witches before I even realized they were dead — bodies split open on the forest floor, steam rising from their blood. Not enough. Not enough to silence the bond screaming through my veins. Ella. Ella. Ella. I shifted back halfway through a snarl, claws receding, skin stitching itself shut where the wolfsbane had seared me. My breath left ragged trails of frost in the night air. The clearing smelled of witch-blood, burnt herbs — and her. Fading. Carried away by a wind that was no wind at all. I bellowed her name once — the forest answered only with crows scattering into the black. "REM—" Christian's voice cracked through the trees behind me. He stumbled

