The quarry breathed like something alive.
Cold wind dragged across the broken stone. Frost clung to the scaffolding. The air hummed with a low vibration that made my ribs ache. My palm burned with the mark’s steady pulse, each throb sharp enough to make my fingers twitch.
Nathan stood to my right. Felix to my left. Leah just behind us, hands glowing faint blue. We were surrounded by stone statues of wolves frozen mid terror. They looked dead. They looked asleep. They looked ready to wake.
Then he stepped out.
The vessel.
Human shaped. Human sized. Human faced. But wrong in every other way. His skin held streaks of silver beneath the surface. His eyes glowed faint, sickly white. His movements were careful, like he was fighting his own bones.
He smiled at me first. Slow. Crooked. Hungr
