Chapter Forty-Three
Calista
Snow yanked at my boots as I hobbled through the woods, wind clawing at my lungs. My ankle screamed with every impact, bright pain flashing up my leg like lightning, but I moved as fast as I could with this gods’ cursed crutch because Everest’s voice had not been a suggestion.
It had been a command carved into bone.
Behind me, the world changed. The moment Selraya’s full face cleared the clouds, the night filled with sound, a violent chorus that made my blood run cold.
Howls ripped across the ridges. Many, overlapping, answering, and hunting wails that tore through my very bones.
The air itself seemed to shudder with it, as if the realm had been waiting all month for permission to become monstrous.
Massive paws pounded the snow. Close now. Way too close.
I didn’t look back. I couldn’t afford the sight. I only listened, heart hammering and breath sawing, as I followed the thin line Everest had pointed to earlier. If the gods were good, the inland slope would lead me straight to the Lupherium, the sacred temple of Selraya.
Two hours of safety. Of law.
If I could just reach it.
My objective narrowed to a single, brutal truth: live long enough to change our fate.
I shoved through a stand of pines crusted in ice. Branches slapped my face and shoulders, snow shedding in heavy clumps that slid down my cloak. My ankle buckled once, a sick twist that stole my breath, and I stumbled hard, dropping the crutch and catching myself on a tree trunk.
Pain exploded, and my vision went gray. For a heartbeat, I almost went down.
Then a low, hungry huff froze the blood in my veins. It was close enough that I felt it in my ribs.
I ripped myself upright and lurched forward again, teeth clenched so tight my jaw ached.
Run, Calista.
Ma’s face flashed in my mind, confused and frightened at a doorway she no longer recognized. Suri’s small hands, the way she braided beads into her hair like it made her brave.
If I died out here, they would be alone. If I died out here, Hollowcrest would burn. The real stakes tightened around my throat like a noose.
Grabbing the fallen crutch, I pushed myself harder. Ahead, through the whipping snow, something pale rose from the northern cliffs. Alabaster stone. A shape rising from the white like a bone thrust out of the earth.
The Lupherium.
It emerged from the snow like the moon itself had decided to grow bones and architecture. Pale towers spiraled into the sky, slender and luminous, moonbeams made solid. Its surface shimmered with a soft silver pulse that seemed to answer Selraya’s full face overhead.
So close.
A sharp howl split the air to my left, and my blood iced. The trees beside me shook, and something dark burst from them in a blur of muscle and fur.
Wolvryn.
Not in Fae form. A snarling, fur-covered beast.
The massive creature with chestnut fur bristling with frost and runes glowing across its forehead like embers under ash emerged. Its eyes weren’t silver. They were a pale, vicious gold, fixed on me with starving intent.
It landed atop the snow with a thud that vibrated up through my bones.
I skidded to a stop, breath tearing in and out of me, my crescent already in my hand even though my fingers were numb. The Wolvryn prowled forward, head low and teeth bared.
Predatory. Hunting.
My ankle throbbed and terror rose fast, sour and hot, but my body moved anyway. Dropping the crutch, I shifted into a stance Pa had drilled into me with a blade in my palm and salt in my hair.
“Come on then,” I whispered, voice shaking. “Try it.”
The beast lunged.
I swung the crescent up, catching its snapping jaws on iron. The impact rattled my arms and nearly yanked the weapon from my grip. It wasn’t like fighting a Wolvryn in Fae form. There was no restraint, no hesitation, no rules.
Only force.
The Wolvryn’s weight slammed into me, head butting my chest. I staggered back, boots sliding. My bad ankle folded and pain detonated again, turning my legs weak. The beast swiped, claws slicing through my cloak sleeve. The sturdy fabric tore like nothing, and air burned against my skin.
Dropping down, I reached for the crutch and swung low, catching fur and flesh. The Wolvryn snarled, the sound ripping through the night, but it didn’t retreat. It only came harder.
I couldn’t win this. Not alone. Not with this gods’ forsaken ankle.
The Lupherium stood ahead, the entrance a pale mouth in the stone, taunting me. Two hours of protection, just out of reach.
I ducked under another swipe of claws and shoved forward, trying to break past it. The Wolvryn snapped at my leg. Somehow, I twisted just enough that its teeth caught my boot instead of my calf. Still, the bite jarred my bones. It yanked and a scream tore from my lips.
Snow slammed into my back as I hit the ground hard. The crescent flew from my hands, disappearing into the white.
No.
The beast loomed over me, runes blazing bright, and jaw wide open. Moon’s curses. I’d never see Suri or Ma again. My breath locked, icy fear surging through my veins.
A second set of paws hit the ground with a thunderous impact, so heavy the snow jumped. A black blur launched from my right, moving like a shadow made real.
The Black Wolf.
He was larger than the light brown beast by a brutal margin, a wall of midnight fur and muscle. His runes glowed fiercely across his forehead. His eyes flashed silver in the moonlight, bright enough to make my stomach drop.
Everest hit the chestnut Wolvryn mid-lunge. The collision was violent, bodies slamming together with a crunch that made me flinch. The smaller beast yelped and whipped around, claws out, but the Black Wolf was already on its throat.
There was no warning, no hesitation.
Teeth sank in and blood sprayed hot against the snow.
I scrambled for my crescent buried in the slush, clenching it tight in my fist. But there was nothing for me to do.
The other Wolvryn fought, thrashing, snarling, and snapping, but the Black Wolf held fast. His weight pinned it to the ground, jaws locked like a vice.
The runes on his forehead flared, that central mark burning brighter than the rest.
The chestnut beast’s movements slowed, then stopped all together. The black Wolvryn wrenched once, and a wet crack echoed.
Silence dropped like a blade.
The dead Wolvryn slumped into the snow, and the Black Wolf lifted his head, blood streaking his muzzle and breath steaming hard. His silver eyes snapped to me instantly, sharp and searching.
Everest.
There was something in the way he looked at me. A desperate tangle of hunger, possession and protection.
He snarled once, not at me but at the air, as if warning everything out there to stay back. Then he crept closer. Slowly. My entire body tensed, warning flares raising the hair at the back of my neck.
“Easy…” I murmured, hands up. “It’s me, Calista. You know me, right?”
His eyes narrowed, and his lips peeled back before he grabbed my cloak at the shoulder with his teeth and yanked.
I barely repressed another yelp. He began dragging me across the snow until he managed to haul me upright with a strength that stole my breath. My ankle protested viciously, but adrenaline forced the pain down.
He shoved his body between me and the treeline, herding me toward the temple like a living shield.
Go. He didn’t need words. His whole presence screamed them.
I staggered forward, half running, half limping, lungs burning, and eyes locked on the Lupherium’s entrance.
Behind me, the Black Wolf’s growl followed like thunder. More howls answered in the distance.
I forced myself forward anyway, staggering, snow spraying around my boots as the howls rose behind me. The temple’s lower arches yawned open, corridors beyond lit by moonlight filtering from openings above. The light inside was ghostly silver and blue, quiet as a held breath.
Sanctuary.
If I could just cross the threshold.
I hit the first sweep of steps and nearly went down. My palms slapped shimmering stone, cold enough to burn. I dragged myself up, ankle shrieking, lungs tearing, and vision tunneling on the nearest arch.
A final snarl exploded behind me.
I didn’t look. I couldn’t.
I hurled myself through the nearest curve of pale stone and crossed into the Lupherium’s hush.
I made it. A rush of breath siphoned from my lungs. I was safe.
All the sounds outside muted, as if the temple swallowed the world’s violence and left only a distant echo of wind and rage beyond. The air inside was icy, but it was a sacred cold, clean and still, not the cruel bite of the Hunt.
Moonlight painted the corridor in silver and blue, sliding over the flowing walls like water. I stumbled forward and the passage opened into the heart of the temple.
A massive circular dais lay ahead, open to the sky.
Selraya’s full face poured directly down into it.
At the center stood her statue, towering and iridescent, arms outstretched as if she could gather every beast in Lunaris into her embrace.
A crown of crescent moons curved over her brow.
At her feet, a wolf curled in eternal vigilance, and in the goddess’s chest, a gemstone heart pulsed faintly.
My breath hitched. Even terrified, even shaking, I felt it. Selraya’s presence.
I spun back toward the entrance, panting, a part of me expecting to see beasts at my heels.
Instead, the Black Wolf paced at the edge of the threshold, snow swirling around him. His massive body was tense, eyes silver and wild. He didn’t step inside. He hovered just beyond the line of carved stone as if something invisible held him back.
His gaze snapped to mine again.
Then another howl ripped through the night, rattling my teeth. The Black Wolf turned and launched back into the darkness, leaving me inside the Moon Goddess’s sanctuary.
Safe. For two hours.
While the Hunt raged on outside.