Crowned by the shadows
r whispered b
they
olite. Eyes that di
e tall, too-full girl with the wild red hair and no wolf. No one car
o
hrough the doors first. Averted their eyes, then
n't ki
as f
worse than rej
ever still. I kept to the edges of Hollowshade,
I swept the front steps of the training barracks. I walked th
s a cursed girl was
the whisper
urned her face from me. That the wilds had changed
eren't
on my shoulde
ilver ink etched into bone. At the center, the dark initial
ched it, I
ingled like a thought t
voice more
nute. Not ev
topped mistaking it
learer in
I stood still for too l
up of Hollowshade soldiers, standin
t need th
ys calm. Al
lways
ell anyone
dmitted it
e back of the healer's storage room, I slipped on a
, but the pain
mbled back, hold
e fast. W
sto
itself and the gash closing like water
tar
s trem
tell th
boots off, legs in the freezing water, just
heavy above me ,al
ey
ler this time. Lik
y chest ached with som
pped while carrying fir
r the scattered lo
d him away befor
dn't t
idn't
red at the mark on my shoulde
didn't leave my
ird day,
sn't
n't vi
'd once tried so hard to shift like the othe
aight through, cra
s didn't e
at my hand,
are w
, I answe
g into
espo
ling around me li
of the only wolves who ever treated me with
inkled, her hair gra
brighter,"
n't r
lted h
. You feel like something growing, Seris. An
?" I asked before I
d. But no
question you s
what
oser, her voice
ou do when y
ater, I
to go that far
uds bloated with rain, thunder
lenced the world. They
r than I'd ever gone, past the perim
here I f
ed through the trees, ble
oaking his left side. There was a scar running from his cheek to his neck, and th
hed bes
flutter
en. Not
immed wi
. Hollowshade
dered. "You k
weak, cr
come here dressed
are
dn't
asse
ow what ma
nct,
erat
ribs over the deepest woun
in bu
palms...faint, white-b
athing
stopped
but the pain
k, breath caug
had I
id tha
he could op
in my room, I stared
didn'
didn'
oked li
hey w
my head, I heard
almost