At the Bloodline Ascension Rite, my Alpha shattered my Soul-Bonded Fang in front of the entire pack.
She withdrew her hand. "Without your Fang, let's see how you walk the Path of the Unfeeling."
But what I heard was the voice inside her head, sick and frenzied:
With the Fang gone, he's nothing. He'll have no choice but to cling to me, day and night. My little caged bird.
Descending from the Ritual Mound, her step faltered and she fell.
The voice surged again: Does it hurt him to see this? Hurry, come help me up! Just reach out your hand and I'll forgive everything. I'll even let you touch my face...
She pushed herself up, brushed off her robes twice, and didn't look at me.
Gabriel Foxglove came over with a training blade carved from dead oak and pressed it into my hands. "Senior brother, the Supreme Alpha is only doing this for your own good. Once you get used to a training blade, it's really no worse than a Soul-Bonded Fang."
I took the training blade and bowed. "The Alpha's correction is just. This wolf acknowledges his fault."
Back on Sovereign Peak, Seraphina Voss had my Rift-Tearing Array dismantled and reassigned the Pack Wellspring to Gabriel.
Cry. Just shed one tear. Beg me once, and I'd give you my life.
I packed my things into a travel satchel and moved to the Servants' Quarters.
Seraphina stood in the doorway. Her hand trembled once.
Why won't you beg me? Are you trying to make me die of heartbreak? Fine. Let's see how long that stubborn pride lasts. When you can't take it anymore, you'll come crawling back, crying for me to hold you.
She didn't know the Blood Severance Artifact had been repaired.
Seven more days, and I'd be free of this lunatic. Home for good.
What I didn't expect was that the moment I truly vanished, that lunatic would appear in my bedroom drenched in blood, her fingers locked around my ankle like a vice, laughing.
...
I set the medicine pot over the charcoal fire.
For a handful of hemostatic herbs, I'd dragged my wounded body through the Hinterlands for four hours, digging in the dirt.
The wooden door exploded inward, kicked off its hinges. Splinters rained down.
A brocade boot came down on the medicine pot.
The clay vessel cracked apart. Brown medicinal broth splashed across the floor.
Scalding dregs hit the back of my hand, raising angry red welts.
Gabriel Foxglove stood in the doorway, grinning.
"Senior brother, that herbal stench is unbearable. What if it upsets my spirit finch?"
Behind him trailed enforcers from the Hall of Judgment, every one of them wolves I'd once trained.
Now they stood with arms folded, hands resting on their blades, not sparing me a glance.
Gabriel plucked the half-boiled stalk of seven-leaf purple lingzhi from the floor.
"Perfect. My spirit finch has been off its feed. This herb is common trash, but it'll do as an appetizer for a pet."
That was seven-leaf purple lingzhi.
Five years ago, when Seraphina was gravely wounded in the Hidden Realm, I'd fought my way into the Beast's Lair and bled half my body dry to bring back that single stalk.
She'd glanced at it once and said, "Adequate."
Now I was on my hands and knees in the Hinterlands scrounging for herb scraps, and Gabriel was feeding them to a bird.
Before, I would have drawn my Fang and fought him over it. Now I just watched the panel hovering in my vision.
[Time remaining until extraction from this world: 6 days]
I stepped back, making room for Gabriel.
"If it pleases you, junior brother, take it."
Gabriel's smile froze. He hadn't expected compliance.
His eyes darted, and his fingers stroked the fur cloak draped over his shoulders.
That was Snowball.
My moonbound fox, raised for ten years, fed on my own lunar essence since she was a kit.
Yesterday Gabriel had mentioned he was cold. Seraphina skinned her alive.
Gabriel pulled the cloak tighter and nuzzled his face into the fur collar. The faint scent of dried foxglove and weak chamomile drifted off him, underlaid with something sour that my wolf registered before I could stop it.
"Senior brother, this pelt is so warm. I really must thank the Supreme Alpha for spoiling me. Don't blame her, though. An animal getting to keep me warm? That's the best fate a beast could hope for."
A stab of pain in my chest. Then nothing.
I stared at the muddy water on the ground.
A few more days. Then this would be over.
Seraphina appeared at the courtyard gate in her black ceremonial robes. The air shifted the instant she crossed the threshold, pressure settling against my skin like the promise of a storm. White frost and crushed moonflower, and beneath it something metallic and wrong.
She stepped into the small yard, a crease forming between her brows. The smell of mildew, probably.
She looked at me.
"It was just a beast."
