VALEN

REMEMBER. I didn't know who wrote it, or why, but the warning echoed in my nightmares. My wolf stirred under my ribs, restless, pacing, I dressed

s if the castle exhaled, I kept to the shadows cloak pulled high, hood tight against the chill and moved t

f churned earth and sweat. Around me, other students prepped their gear, bets whispered, eyes sizing up opponents, machinations spinning under polite smi

xpecting to draw someone weak, Omegas, scholarship kids, anyone who'd st

orld

o'd broken me. His posture was easy, indifferent but the tilt of

want this history, I wanted bleach on memory and a clea

ue and cold, casting sharp shadows on the walls. The air tasted of magic and danger,

though I was defending more than just myself. My mind hissed ol

struck, I shifted reflexively. The shield of the lunar ward flared in my arms, light bent around

ean forward, eager for spectacle, I saw others step ba

d to two heartbea

shock that ran through him made the air crack. The sand rose in a spiral, catch

pathy, I didn't want to see him flinch, I backed

stare burn down my spine. Every person in that hall now knew something, I

pear again, I walked steadily through the echoes of my own footsteps, until I reached the old sto

near the archives hummed low, I touched the runes carved beside the

ng-predator wolf, but the changed wolf, the

hed, the night smelled lik

ight, too careful. I turned, ready to run or fight, the torchlight

hed before I c

ide. The warnings had come true,

omeone wa

the desire to sprint into darkness. Instead I whisp

se I

fter I felt the s

passed through them like a blade through silk. The hall behind me clapped with cheers and jeers, but for once those voices drowned a

with shock or awe or disgust, I didn't care which, I didn't belong there, n

ear the library, a place of breath, of ghosts, and old runes. I pressed both palms against the carved wall,

beyond the walls smelled of pine

not student‑fast, but a predator‑slow. My wo

shifting slightly. Gauntl

igh, shadow swallowing everything but a glint at thei

ead, they paused, as though calcul

out of black, slow, calm, n

ause I knew that name,

me "Ava." They ca

swer, my th

ne was coming, I shifted faster pulse in my

bbed my cloak

s gone, slipping into the dark like smoke from a candle

pty. Exactly empty, no footsteps, no echo, jus

lenched, I forced myself

u o

r, him. Elias Crowe. Storm‑hair, gray eyes, shoulders tensed, the faint

ady. "You looked like you w

members nam

en maybe you don't wa

ound where the figure had been steps erased, cloa

ove toward him, I stayed rigid, w

me," he said. "There migh

think a book ca

loak instead. "Maybe, or it can s

over my shoulders, the weight was

every shadow too long and every echo a question. In the archives, dust motes danced

exiled students, lists of disappeared Leopards and Crescen

ve years ago. "There was a girl named 'Valen,

blank space like a scar, the ledger's

us, soft and careful

whispered, "

ant to know. The way the air

t, we closed the ledger, back

t colder, the forest beyon

every sound in the dark, the rustle of leave

wore Ava Riel was only as s

a candle and can

, I was no longe