The world tilted and spun, but the sight in front of me wouldn't disappear.
The wolf...the thing...was gone.
And in its place lay Elias.
My brain couldn't wrap itself around what I was seeing. His body, bloodied and bare, sprawled in the dirt like something ripped from a nightmare.
I couldn't breathe. My entire body shook, like my bones were rattling inside me.
"E-Elias," I whispered, my voice cracking, thin and desperate.
His name felt wrong on my tongue now, as if I didn't even know who, or what, he was anymore.
The words stopped there. My mind went blank except for one terrible, roaring truth that wouldn't stop screaming in my head:
The wolf was Elias. Elias was the wolf.
I stared at him, frozen, while my stomach twisted so hard I thought I'd throw up.
The dirt beneath my hands felt unreal, but the blood on his skin… the steam rising in the cold night… that was real. Too real.
This wasn't a dream.
