kne

dles, and the metallic tang of my own blood. My lungs felt like they were filled with lead; every time I

e u

regal, sounding as if it came from the bottom of a deep, f

r is rising. If you die

f the transport cage. The van was a mangled wreck of steel and glass, wedged precariously between two massive boulders at the base of the ravine. Below

'd felt before the world went black. My wrists were a mess of blackened skin and raw meat, but strangely, the silver did

, my voice barely a ghost

ld barely feel my own skin. I waited, my heart hammering against my ribs like

ors. They had survived the fall

hattered shoulder and began to claw my way through the jagged opening where the door used to be. The metal sliced into my palms

d the cold was so absolute it felt like being set on fire. The current was a beast, slamming me against rocks and trying to pull me under. I fou

, gasping for air, my face

order patrol. They would be looking down, seeing the twisted metal and the raging river, and assuming no one and especially n

st that had nothing to do with the weather. Let he

ifferent, it were ancient, their bark as black as charcoal and their leaves a deep, bruised pur

crawl, dragging my broken body toward the shelter of a massive, hollowed-out cedar tree. My

ain. It was closer now, vibrating in the v

into something denser, stronger. The wound on my shoulder and the place where th

. The forest was alive around me. I could hear the skittering of claws on bark and t

ared in the bushes twenty feet

lone female, broken and unmated. They were the vultur

rasped. It sounded l

ing ear, stepped into the small clearing. He shifted halfway, his face a

oaming over my torn dress and bruised skin. "You smell like an Alpha's plaything,

The other rogues circled, four of them in total, their ey

agged piece of wood I had found on the ground.

wl. "You're going to bark at me? You don't even have a wolf

lur of grey fu

ust slow down

hin me, wrapping around my muscles like a suit of armor made of ice. My vision shifted, the dark f

e sound of his windpipe snapping under my grip was sickeningly clear in the quiet of the forest. I tossed hi

w terror as the air around me began to drop in tempe

ened into silver-black talons, sharp enough to cut through steel. My skin was glowi

was no longer a whisper; it was a roar. "They threaten

nd turned to run. But the other two, driven by a desperate, sta

ra the healer anymore.

own, the sound of clashing talons ringing like metal on metal. I spun, my heel connecting with his jaw, sending him

time to howl before he was encased in a flash-frost so deep his heart simply st

the clearing

ng into my skin. The silence of the forest returned, but it was different now. The cre

d. The reality of what I had just done and what I was becoming, it crashe

?" I whispered to

n era," a voice answe

the clearing was a man. He was tall, dressed in tattered black robes that seemed to swallow the moonlight. Hi

l like one, either. He smelled like ancien

despite the power still humming in my veins. "

dn't look threatened by my claws. If anything, he looked amused. "And I am a gardener of secrets, Elar

they are the reason the stars have been weeping. They are the keys to a throne that hasn't been sat up

ally won. The world began to tilt, the black trees of the For

y hand falling to my womb as I felt

like sunlight on a winter day. "My dear, I am the only one who can teac

h an effortless strength. For the first time in m