Leah Carter’s Point of View
The forest burned behind us, lighting the night like a second, cruel sun, every tree we passed turned black and fell to ash. The sky was no longer blue or gray, it was a wound, red and bleeding, and the air tasted of metal and smoke.
We moved in silence through the ruins of what had once been the borderlands. Wolves from all the clans marched together, the Ashfangs, Iron Pelts, Thorns, Forgotten Pack, Hollow exiles. Some limped, some carried the wounded. All were haunted by what they had seen.
Emma slept against my chest, her small body still burning faintly with fever. The Oracle had said it was the mark of the Veil, that she carried its power inside her now. Every time her breath hitched, I thought the world would end.
Kael led from the front, his cloak to
