Following Bastian's long, purposeful strides, Lyria finally reached a door carved with intricate woodwork, something you'd only ever see in Winterbraun. She'd been holed up in that mansion for nearly a week, but this was the first time she'd worked up the nerve to step outside the room Etien Carter had given her. The same room she hadn't dared leave since the Beast of the South vanished without a trace. It had felt like the safest place in the world, safer than anywhere else, even places meant to be safe.
Her fear, her anxiety, the trauma she carried, they clung to her like shadows, haunting her every thought since the massacre. The hunters had torn through her family, her people. And with her brother still missing, she didn't know who to trust anymore. Etien Carter was the only one left, the man who'd sworn to her ancestors he'd protect them from the outside world.
