The hound was gone. Not dead, not defeated—just… gone.One second it lunged, the next, it melted back into the shadows, as if the Veil itself had swallowed it. No trace remained except the claw marks carved into the ground and the echo of that low, bone-deep hum.
I should have felt relief. I didn't.
The land around us had changed. Again. The black river that had been a hundred paces away now wound right beside us, its surface rippling like something moved beneath it. The ground we stood on cracked in places, steam hissing out as though the soil itself breathed. And the whispers—the ones that had been distant—were clearer now.
Closer… follow… anchor…
Aria stumbled, catching herself against a jagged piece of stone. Her skin was paler than before, and the faint glow under her collarbone flickered weakly, like a lantern about to go out.
"Kael," she said, her voice low but strained, "we can't stay here. The longer we linger, the more this place… feeds on us." Her gaze slid to me, to the dark veins threading from the shard along my neck. "Especially you."
Lyra didn't look the least bit bothered. She strolled ahead, her black armor glinting faintly in the red light. "Then keep up. The Herald's Fortress isn't going to walk to us." She cast me a sidelong glance. "And neither will your control, if you keep hesitating."
Her words weren't wrong. The shard pulsed harder the closer we walked toward the river. Every beat sank deeper, threading into my bones. My wolf, usually restless, wasn't fighting it anymore. It welcomed it.
Aria slowed, her breath growing ragged. She reached for my arm, her fingers trembling. "Something's… pulling me," she whispered. "Like it's… trying to drag me under."
That's when I heard it. Not the whispers. Something else.
Beneath the river's ripples, a sound like chains grinding against stone. The black water bulged, then split, as if something massive was moving beneath the surface.
The ground shifted again. Not a quake this time. The entire path we stood on moved, sliding closer to the river's edge.
Lyra stopped, a faint smile on her lips. "Ah. It's testing us." She tilted her head, eyes glinting. "Or testing you, Kael. The Veil wants to see how badly you'll cling to that shard when it takes something from you."
Before I could ask what she meant, the soil beneath Aria's feet crumbled.
She barely had time to cry out before the ground gave way, and she plunged toward the river of shadows below.
Her hand shot up, reaching for me. "Kael!"
I didn't think. I lunged, catching her wrist just as the black water surged upward, cold tendrils lashing toward us. They weren't water at all—more like living shadows, each one whispering in a dozen voices, clawing at her ankles, her waist, trying to drag her down.
The shard pulsed violently, heat flooding my arm where I held her. My wolf roared inside, urging me to let go, to stop fighting it and use the shard's power.
The whispers joined in, louder, clearer than ever:
Let her go, Anchor. Claim the chain. Feed.
The shadows tightened their grip on Aria, pulling harder. Her breath hitched, her glow flickering out completely.
"Kael…" Her voice cracked, softer now, almost pleading. "Don't… lose yourself. Not for me."
I bared my teeth, every muscle straining as the shard flared hotter, the voices digging deeper into my head.
The river wasn't just trying to take her. It was testing me.
And I didn't know which of us it wanted more.