They arrived at dusk.
Black mist poured across the southern hills like a living tide, swallowing the forest in silence. Trees wilted. Wolves howled—and then went silent. The mistwalkers had returned. And they were not alone.
Raine stood atop the battlements of the southern watchtower, eyes fixed on the horizon. The sky bled orange and red, the sun retreating behind a veil of smoke. Below, wolves scrambled to reinforce the wards. Xavier stood beside her, sword strapped to his back, tense and alert.
Maelin joined them, face grim. "They move faster than we expected. The outer village is gone."
"Gone?" Raine asked, voice tight.
"No bodies. No blood. Just... gone."
Raine's ember flared inside her chest, as if recognizing the threat. She took a step forward, her eyes glowing faintly.
"This isn't a battle," she murmured. "It's a message."
Suddenly, the air turned cold. A howl echoed in the distance—not wild, not wolf—but something fractured. Hollow. Wrong.
Raine descended the tower stairs in a rush. "We need to reinforce the perimeter."
They reached the edge of the southern field where the mist clung to the trees like webbing. Soldiers from multiple packs lined the clearing—some still hesitant, but many bearing her crest now.
Then it happened.
The mist parted.
Out of it stepped a single figure.
Raine froze.
It was her mother.
Or rather... something wearing her mother's face.
Tall. Graceful. Eyes burning with shadowed flame. She wore the robes of a seer, but her presence was cold, wrong. Twisted.
"Raine," it spoke, voice eerily gentle. "My little star."
Xavier snarled. "That's not her."
Raine's hand trembled on her blade. "I know."
The illusion shifted. One moment her mother. Then a mirror of Raine herself. Then Xavier. Then nothing but smoke and ash.
"Your flame burns too brightly," it hissed. "You awaken what should have slept forever."
The mists surged behind it. Dozens of mistwalkers emerged—tall, skeletal wolves with glowing veins and lifeless eyes. Silent. Waiting.
Raine stepped forward, ember blazing around her like a shield. "If you wanted fear, you picked the wrong Alpha."
The creature smiled.
"We don't want fear, Raine. We want you."
And then chaos exploded.
The mistwalkers charged.
Flames roared.
The wolves of the southern front howled and met them head-on. Raine's fire turned blue as she unleashed it in waves, cutting through the mist like lightning. Xavier fought by her side, his movements fluid and brutal, a dance of silver and blood.
In the heat of battle, Raine saw something—a mark glowing on one of the mistwalkers' foreheads. It matched the symbol on the stone that rose after the Hollowfang's death.
The ember pulsed. Something clicked inside her.
These weren't just enemies.
They were guardians. Twisted. Inverted. Bound.
And she might be the only one who could unbind them.