The headman laughed. “You’d fray into what? A ghost?”
Inside the wolf, Kaelen felt its sorrow as a physical thing—a collapsed rib cage of grief. He also felt its rage, a second heart beating black. It would not stop. It could not stop. The Sundering had rewired its instincts so that every living thing smelled like the men with torches. animrco
He found the Sundering’s heart: not a place, but a forgotten Animrco who had frayed into a mountain a thousand years ago and never come back. The mountain had grown mad. Its earthquakes were its nightmares. The headman laughed
Kaelen woke blind in one eye, deaf in one ear, and smiling. He also felt its rage, a second heart beating black
“There,” one man shouted, pointing.
On the hunt, Kaelen led the men through the thorn-woods. They carried torches and boar spears. The blightwolf circled them from the shadows, its smoke-eyes glowing like punctured coals.
The villagers stared at Kaelen. Some made signs against evil. One man raised his spear.