The sky had already turned a deep violet by the time Lyra ordered us into the safehouse. The full moon loomed large above the treetops, heavy and glowing like an open wound.
Inside, the walls were made of reinforced steel, the air thick with the faint hum of wards meant to suppress a wolf's shift. It wasn't enough. Not tonight.
Aria paced near the far wall, her glow already flickering beneath her skin, silver veins snaking from her wrist up toward her shoulder. Every few steps, she clenched her fists, trying to steady her breath. The mark pulsed in time with the moonlight spilling through the barred window.
I leaned against the opposite wall, watching her. "It's stronger tonight."
She didn't look at me. "The moon amplifies everything—the wolf, the whispers, the pull. It feels like my skin isn't mine."
Her voice was sharp, but beneath it, I heard something else. Fear.
I crossed the room slowly, careful not to crowd her. "You're holding it back."
"For now." She stopped pacing, finally meeting my gaze. "But if it keeps spreading…" She lifted her arm, the mark glowing faintly. "I don't know if even you can pull me back next time."
The glow flared suddenly, silver spilling from her palms as if the curse itself had heard her words. Her breath hitched, claws pushing free without her calling them. She stumbled back, her shoulders hitting the wall.
I closed the distance in two steps, grabbing her wrists before she could rake them against the steel. "Breathe. Focus on me, not the pull."
Her chest rose and fell fast, her pupils thinning to sharp slits. For a moment, it wasn't her looking back at me. It was the thing inside her, coiled and waiting.
"Kael," she whispered, her voice frayed. "If I lose it, you run. Don't try to save me. Just… run."
"I'm not running," I said, my grip steady. "Not from you."
Her glow dimmed, just slightly. Her breathing slowed, the whispers fading back into the dark.
And then the wards cracked.
A deep, hollow sound rang through the safehouse, like metal bending under pressure. The air shifted, colder, heavier. Aria's glow surged again—not from the moon this time, but from something else.
The steel door shuddered. Not from a blow, but as if something was… slipping through it. A shadow bled across the wall, stretching, twisting until it formed a figure.
The creature. The same hollow-eyed being from the clearing.
It stepped forward, its limbs bending in ways no living thing should, its voice a low whisper that filled every corner of the room.
"The beacon calls… and I have come to collect."
Aria's glow erupted in answer, the mark blazing so hot I could feel the heat from across the room.
I shifted, claws sliding free as I stepped in front of her. "You'll have to kill me first."
The creature tilted its head, unbothered. "No. You will watch. That is the purpose of an anchor."
Before I could move, the steel walls rippled like water, and the room itself seemed to twist around us. The wards shattered in a flash of light.
The safehouse was no longer safe.