bChapter /bb153 /b

    The water hit me like a wall of knives.

    Icy. Crushing. Absolute.

    The breath tore from my lungs in a strangled gasp that bubbled upward, lost in the ckness swallowing me whole. Panic red sharp and hot in my chest, but I forced it down, thrashing forward, deeper, deeper–because if I turned back now, what had been calling would im Francesco instead.

    This was mine to face.

    Theke’s darkness pressed around me, thick as tar. My eyes stung, but I forced them open. It wasn’t just water. It moved like something alive, curling around my arms, my legs, slithering into my hair, tugging me lower with greedy fingers.

    Come closer.

    The whisper wasn’t sound, not exactly. It slithered against my bones, a pulse that wasn’t mine.

    Faces began to form in the murk. Pale, hollow–eyed, mouths frozen in silent screams. Women. Dozens of them. Their hair floated around them live strands of weed, their hands stretched out–not to me, but through me, as though they didn’t even see me at all.

    My chest tightened so painfully I thought it might split.

    And children. Spirits of them, small, fragile, flickering like candle mes about to snuff out. Theirughter echoed, warped and broken, chilling me gh than the water ever could.

    I wanted to scream. I couldn’t. My lungs burned.

    Something brushed my ankle.

    I jerked, spinning, my hands shing through the water. Not a fish. Not a branch. A hand. Cold as stone, gripping, trying to pull me further.

    “No-” The word tore uselessly in my throat, escaping as nothing more than a bubble.

    The hand tightened. Another caught my wrist. Another wound through my hair. They weren’t just shadows anymore–they were bodies. The missing. The lost. Women and children who should have been safe within this pack’s borders.

    They were trapped here.

    The water wasn’t just ake–it was a grave. A cage.

    A force surged behind me, pressing like a current, and in the twisting reflection of the ripples, I saw it–something vast, formless, darker than the dark. Watching. Waiting. Feeding.

    The realization mmed into me like thunder; this wasn’t nature. This was power. Old. Malevolent. And it had been taking them one by one.

    My lungs convulsed, desperate for air. Stars iburst /ibehind my eyes. My wolf stirred, restless, wing at my insides, but the grip bof the /bke was stronger. than flesh and bone–it dragged, whispered, demanded.

    Stay.

    Join us.

    I kicked, wed, fought. My nails scraped against skin–cold, rubbery, unyielding. The faces staredb, /bbtheir /bmouths open bin /bsoundless bpleas/b, and bfor /bba /bheartbeat, I couldn’t tell if they wanted my help or if they wanted me to stay, to drown with them bin /btheir eternal silence.

    Above, muffled and warped, I heard it. My name.

    1113 Thu “BAUURA B

    Charter 153

    Fine!”

    Francesco.

    My heart lurched, pain cutting sharper than Tear. He couldn’t follow me if he did, it suld take him, ton

    The hands pulled harder. My chest burned, splitting, ready to cave. This is it, I thought this is how die

    And then-

    Everything stilled.

    The hands. The faces. Even the current.

    Gone.

    Like none of it had ever existed.

    The water was just water again. Cold, suffocating, endless—but normal.

    Confusion seared through me. My wolf howled inside, sharp and warning, but then I felt it–arms, strong and unyielding, wrapping and me me upward.

    The surface shattered above my head.

    Air mmed into my lungs with a ragged cry as Francesco hauled me out of theke like I weighed nothing I coughed, choked, water spilling down chin, my chest heaving like I’d been starved for years.

    The world blurred–trees swaying, sky bleeding gray, Audrey’s pale face stark against the shadows.

    Francesco’s gaze snapped down at me, burning, wild with something that wasn’t just anger.

    “What are iyou /idoing?!” His voice thundered, shaking the night. “Jumping into the water like that–do you have a death wish?

    I blinked, dazed, imy /ibody trembling against him. My lips parted, but no sound came. My head twisted–back to theke.

    It was calm. Perfectly calm. Not a ripple. Not a shadow. Just ake, dark and quiet in the middle of the forest.

    No hands. No faces. No children’sughter.

    Nothing.

    My stomach dropped.

    Quickly, my gaze flew to Audrey. She had stopped at the bank, her eyes wide, fixed on me like she didn’t know whether to scream or run. Her lips moved soundlessly, her whole body shaking. She had felt it too–I saw it in her stare.

    But when Francesco followed my look, she froze. Stiff, Like prey caught in the open. Her jaw snapped shut, her lips sealing over whatever truth she had been about to speak.

    And everyone else Luc, the warriors—they only stared at me like I was mad. Like I had just thrown myself into an ordinaryke, not into the jaws of something that shouldn’t exist.

    “What…” My voice rasped, raw, as Francesco set me down on the bank. My legs buckled, and he steadied me, though his grip bwas /bstill iron, “What’s going

    on?”

    No one answered.

    Only Luc. His eyes, sharp and unblinking, held mine. And in them, I saw it–recognition. He knew. He knew that I knew. But bhe /bsaid bnothing/b.

    11:14

    nu, z? Aug

    My pulse hammered, confusion crashing through me like waves.

    The whispers came back to me. No one remembers.

    Is this what they meant? That the moment theke released you, it erased itself from your memory? That the terror, the faces, the truth–it all sipped away like water through fingers?

    But not for me.

    Iremembered everything.

    I swallowed hard, my throat dry despite the water still clinging to my skin. Francesco’s voice cut through the silence again, softer now, though no less sharp.

    *Eine?”

    I flinched at the sound. His hand was still on my arm, anchoring me, waiting.

    I had to decide.

    I couldn’t tell him. Not here. Not now. Not when everyone else looked at me like I had gone insane.

    So I forced the corners of my mouth upward. A small, fragile smile.

    “When I saw theke,” I whispered, my voice breaking into a light chuckle that didn’t sound like mine, “I thought I’d take a swim. Sorry.”

    Francesco’s eyes narrowed, studying me with ithe /iintensity that always made my knees weak. But after a moment, his shoulders sagged. He sighed, heavy and long, rubbing a hand down his face.

    “You and your random acts,” he muttered, though something darker still lingered in his tone. His gaze softened, just enough to break me. “Lucky I love you.”

    Heat red in my chest–sharp, overwhelming, too much–but I forced another smile, nodding as if his words had steadied me.

    His attention shifted, then, to Luc. Silent, watchful Luc.

    Luc didn’t speak. Didn’t move. Only kept staring at me, the weight of it pressing like another kind of chain. His silence screamed louder than any words could have.

    I lowered my gaze quickly, my hands trembling in myp.

    Something was wrong. Something terrible. And if the others couldn’t remember, if they truly believed it was only ake–then that meant it wasn’t just feeding on bodies. It was feeding on truth. On memory.

    But not mine.

    Why not mine?

    I cleriched my fists, biting back the tremor in my jaw, had to pretend. y stupid. Smile andugh and let them think I was reckless, foolish, beven /b

    insane.

    Because if theke knew I remembered… it woulde for me again.

    And next time, I wasn’t sure I’d get out.