It was as if time shattered into sharp fragments.
One moment, I saw them before me—steadfast, defiant, obstinate in their blind faith that they could reach me, save me, remind me who I was beneath Skadi's voracious shadow. But in the next, the wolf lunged at them with such pure violence that it tore the very air apart, and I... I was trapped in the dark hollow of my own consciousness, forced to witness the devastation as a spectator chained to her own body.
There was no warning.
No room for pleas.
Skadi hurled herself at Kael and Lean with the fury of something primal, older than hatred, hungrier than hunger itself. Her claws—my claws—sliced through the distance in a blink, seeking skin, muscle, bone, without mercy, without restraint. The wolf wasn't fighting to drive them back. She wa
