Darkness clung to the town long after it should have lifted. The lights had blown when the barrier cracked, and the sky felt stuck in some half dawn where everything looked bruised. People moved through the square like shadows. Voices were sharp. Fear was sharper. Wolves paced with their ears pinned back, noses to the ground, tails stiff.
Silver ash drifted in the air.
Not normal ash. Not like fire. This shimmered. It caught light that did not exist. It looked alive.
Someone screamed behind me.
I spun toward the sound just as a woman dropped to her knees in the road. She scraped at the ground with both hands, her fingers leaving frantic trails through silver dust. Her voice cracked as she cried out.
“He was right here. He was standing right here.”
A pile of ash glittered under her pa
