The quarry felt wrong the moment we stepped into it. The wind carried a metallic hum that crawled across my skin. The mark in my palm pulsed like a heartbeat that did not belong to me. Each throb sharpened the air. Each throb tugged at my ribs. Each throb whispered keep going. Keep looking. She is close.
Nathan walked beside me in a silence that felt heavier than the cold. His wolf had risen so close to the surface that his scent was sharp with restless warning. Leah trailed behind us, hands glowing faintly as she gathered threads of magic from the air like she expected the stone itself to attack.
The quarry stretched under the early evening light, carved into the earth like an old wound that never healed. Frost clung to the broken scaffolding. Snow shifted across the ledges. The shadows
