The fortress didn't look built.It looked grown.
Its towers jutted from the earth like black fangs, their jagged walls wrapped in glowing red chains that pulsed in a slow, steady rhythm. Each beat thrummed in my chest, syncing with the shard's pulse until it felt like my own heartbeat wasn't my own anymore.
Aria stirred weakly against my arm. Her skin was clammy, her breaths shallow, and the curse-mark across her throat pulsed faintly in time with the fortress's chains. She winced each time they glowed, her grip on my wrist tightening.
"Kael…" Her voice was a whisper, barely audible. "That place… it's pulling me. Every time those lights flare, it feels like my heart skips."
Lyra walked ahead, her stride calm, almost casual. "That's because the curse tethered to her isn't just some random hex. It was forged here." She gestured toward the nearest tower, her black blade balanced casually across her shoulder. "That fortress doesn't just call to her… it owns her bond."
My claws flexed involuntarily, sinking into the shifting soil beneath us. The shard throbbed again, hotter this time, like it wanted to drag me forward without question. The whispers, once faint, rose in the back of my skull:
Anchor… closer… unchain… feed.
The ground leading to the fortress was lined with broken statues, each one shaped like a wolf. Some knelt, heads bowed. Others were shattered entirely, their faces frozen mid-snarl, as though they'd been alive when the stone took them.
As we stepped past the last row, the air thickened. Every breath tasted metallic, heavy, as if the Veil itself didn't want us to be here—and yet, it kept pulling us closer.
Then the gate appeared.
It wasn't made of wood or iron but of bones, thousands of them, fused together in a twisted arch. Two massive wolf skulls crowned the top, their hollow eyes glowing faint red, watching us like sentinels. Between the skulls, a chain of glowing runes hung like a lock, its light pulsing with the same rhythm as the shard inside me.
The shard burned hotter, the pulse so strong my vision blurred. My knees nearly buckled as the voices surged, no longer whispers but a chant:
Break… chain… unseal… FEED.
Aria gasped, her body convulsing against me as the curse-mark on her skin flared bright red. Her eyes rolled back for a second, and her voice came out strangled. "It's… pulling my soul… Kael, I can't—"
I caught her before she collapsed completely, holding her against my chest. Her glow had dimmed almost to nothing, her pulse so faint I could barely feel it.
Lyra turned to face us, her expression as calm as ever, though her eyes gleamed with something sharper. "The gate won't open for me. Or for you, wolf. It'll open for her… but only if she survives long enough." She tilted her head, the faintest smile playing at her lips. "Which means you'll have to make a choice. Again."
I bared my teeth. "And what choice is that this time?"
She pointed to the glowing runes suspended between the skulls. "The shard inside you is the only thing strong enough to break that chain. But it won't do it quietly. Once you let it loose, there's no reining it back in. Not here, not in that place."
The shard pulsed again, hotter, hungrier. The chains on the gate flared brighter in response, as if calling to it. Calling to me.
The soil beneath our feet began to crack, red light spilling from below, and the statues along the path turned their heads—stone grinding on stone—to face us.
Their jaws opened in unison, a low, echoing growl rolling out that shook the air.
Lyra drew her blade, not in alarm, but with a faint, eager grin. "Looks like the gatekeepers want to test you before the real fun begins."
The statues stepped forward, stone cracking as they moved, their eyes igniting with the same faint red glow as the skulls above the gate. One by one, they dropped to all fours, claws of jagged rock digging into the ground.
The shard burned, my wolf howled inside me, and the whispers screamed louder:
Break them… feed… UNCHAIN.
I set Aria gently on the ground, her breathing shallow but steady, then flexed my claws and stepped forward as the first stone wolf lunged.
If the shard wanted to be fed, I'd give it what it craved.
But I wasn't letting it own me.
Not yet.