After the confrontation in the clearing, the whispers from the spirit realm had finally quieted to a manageable murmur. My skin no longer glowed like I'd swallowed a star, though faint traces of energy still danced across my fingertips when I wasn't paying attention.
We'd been following the compass for hours now, its needle pulling us deeper into fog-choked forest where ancient oaks twisted toward a sky we couldn't see. The fragments of text we'd pieced together from Thalia's collection spoke of old sanctuaries, places where knowledge had been hidden when the world was younger and more dangerous than it was now.
"According to this," I said, squinting at the yellowed parchment, "we should be getting close to something. A werewolf settlement that predates the current pack territories."
