The first death came at dawn.
I woke with a start, the bond slamming tight in my chest like someone had wrapped a fist around my heart and squeezed. Air refused to move in my lungs. My wolf snapped awake, ears pricked, fur bristling against my ribs.
Something was wrong.
Very wrong.
I jerked upright in Kael’s bed—still half-wrapped in one of his blankets, still smelling like pine and storm because he’d insisted it would help me sleep.
It didn’t.
Not when the world itself felt like it was holding its breath.
The next second, a howl ripped through the keep.
Not a warning.
Not a call.
Grief.
Raw and broken and furious.
I flinched, hands flying to my ears as the sound dragged claws down my spine. The bond flared again in answer—Kael’s wolf surging violently as he woke somewhere else
