Elliot

The air inside the hidden lab tastes like metal and fear.

I grind the last of the compound into solution, watching the chemical swirl in the glass cylinder. It glows faintly—iridescent silver against a storm-dark base. Fitting.

“Steady,” my Lycan murmurs inside me. His voice is low, controlled, but I feel the tension vibrating beneath it. “If you miscalculate the ratio, the backlash will tear the barrier—and everyone near it—apart.”

“I know,” I mutter under my breath, adjusting the heat.

The barrier outside pulses through the earth like a second heartbeat. Elira’s magic. Old. Corrupted. Alive.

A crack. That’s all we need.

Once she’s vulnerable again, her wolves will...