The assassin leader moved first.
One single moment he stood several feet away, his cold, calculating eyes locked completely onto mine, and the next, he was already charging through the dense fog.
He moved with terrifying, unnatural speed, the very air seeming to tear around his masculine frame as he lunged straight for my exposed throat.
My body froze instinctively under the sheer pressure; I knew with absolute certainty that I couldn’t outrun him, couldn’t fight him, and couldn’t possibly survive this brutal assault on my own.
Then, out of nowhere, my silent wolf suddenly screamed inside my head: Now, Aria!
Use it!
My hand shot into my travel bag without a single heartbeat of hesitation, my dirty fingers wrapping tightly around the hilt of the ancient silver dagger.
The very instant my skin made contact with the weapon, a violent, electrifying pulse rushed straight through my entire body.
I gasped, my chest heaving as the iron blade lost its freezing chill.
It suddenly felt alive, humming with an ancient, forgotten consciousness.
A brilliant, blinding silver light burst violently from the blade, cutting through the fog-covered ravine like a localized storm.
The divine glow spread through my hand and raced up my arm like liquid fire flowing through my veins, igniting something hidden within my dormant blood.
The assassin leader was only a few feet away, his claws extended, when the raw power exploded outward in a massive shockwave.
The invisible force slammed heavily into his chest before he could even touch a hair on my head.
He was thrown backward through the air, crashing hard into the jagged, rocky ground several yards away.
A painful, heavy bone-crack echoed through the canyon walls, but to my horror, he didn’t stay down for long.
Rolling through the wet mud with a furious growl, he pushed himself back to his feet, wiping a streak of dark blood from the corner of his mouth.
His expression had completely changed; for the very first time, a shadow of deep uncertainty and fear crossed his cold eyes.
The other two assassins immediately stepped back into the brush, their weapons lowering as their wide eyes fixed entirely on the pulsing, glowing dagger in my hand.
“What kind of forbidden weapon is that?” one of them whispered, his voice shaking.
I desperately wished I had an answer for them.
The mystical silver light continued to pulse in my trembling hand—once, twice, three times—and each rhythmic pulse felt intimately connected to the strange heartbeat fluttering deep inside my lower stomach.
It was something hidden.
Something absolute.
Suddenly, a sharp, blinding pain stabbed directly through my skull, causing my vision to blur into dark spots.
I staggered backward, my footing slipping on the muddy grass as the dagger almost fell from my weak fingers.
This ancient power wasn’t strengthening my fragile body; it was violently draining me.
Every single second the blade remained active, it sucked away my life force.
My knees trembled violently, and my breath turned into ragged gasps.
The assassin leader noticed my sudden weakness immediately, a cruel, predatory understanding flashing across his scarred face.
“She can’t handle the weapon’s toll!
She’s losing control!” he growled, his confidence returning in a sudden wave.
Slowly, deliberately, he began advancing on me again, his claws extending further as the other two executioners followed his lead.
My stomach dropped into a bottomless abyss of despair.
I couldn’t keep the dagger active for more than a few seconds, I couldn’t fight three elite, trained killers, and I had absolutely nowhere left to hide.
Behind my back, the swollen river roared like a trapped monster beneath the cliff, sending up a freezing mist from the darkness below.
I turned my head slightly, glancing over the edge into the deep ravine.
The drop was enormous—a straight fall into certain, brutal death.
Then I looked back at the approaching killers.
Their blades were ready to rip me to shreds.
Neither option offered survival.
The leader smiled, a victorious, sickening grin stretching across his lips.
“You’ve finally run out of miracles, little maid.
Give up.” Maybe he was right.
Maybe I was entirely out of options.
But as I stood on the precipice of my own destruction, a sudden warmth flared deep inside my womb—small, gentle, and undeniably alive.
It was the child.
The secret powerful enough to terrify the strongest warriors of the pack packs.
And somehow, that tiny, innocent heartbeat gave me a desperate, burning courage I didn’t know I possessed.
I wouldn’t let them slaughter us in the dirt.
The assassins moved closer, their heavy steps closing the final distance between us.
My racing heartbeat became strangely, eerily calm.
It wasn’t because the fear had left me, but because I had finally made my choice.
I took a deliberate step backward, and the muddy edge of the cliff instantly crumbled beneath my boot.
The assassins realized what I was doing a fraction of a second too late.
“No!
Catch her!” the leader roared, lunging forward with his arms outstretched.
This time, I didn’t wait to be captured.
I closed my eyes, leaned my body backward into the open air, and simply let myself fall.
The world completely vanished beneath me as gravity ripped me away from the cliffside.
Wind exploded violently against my body, tearing at my hair and my clothes as I plummeted straight into the dark abyss.
The jagged stone walls of the ravine raced upward in a blur, and the white foam of the rushing river surged closer with terrifying speed.
Fear should have consumed my mind in those final seconds, but instead, an odd, beautiful sense of peace settled over my soul.
For the first time in my entire life, nobody was chasing me.
Nobody was judging my weakness, nobody was abusing me in the kitchens, and nobody was ordering me to be invisible.
I was completely free.
Even if it was only for a moment.
Opening my eyes through the rushing wind and swirling fog, I looked back up at the disappearing edge of the cliff.
And that’s when I saw him.
A tall, majestic silhouette was standing completely motionless at the very tip of the rock, the grey mist curling around his dark form as if it obeyed his ancient presence.
The Silver-Eyed Watcher.
His luminous, silver stares locked directly onto mine as I fell.
He didn’t look surprised, or worried, or afraid.
It was as if he had foreseen this exact moment since the dawn of time.
Suddenly, a strange, overwhelming emotion touched the edges of my fading consciousness.
It wasn’t a mind-link, but a raw, unfiltered wave of deep relief floating through the air.
As though someone had finally found a precious treasure they had been hunting for centuries.
My breath caught in my throat as the warmth inside my stomach pulsed one last time in perfect harmony.
In response, the distant silver eyes seemed to soften in the darkness, flashing with a protective warmth.
Then, the freezing surface of the river surged upward, and the violent water slammed into my body with the force of a solid brick wall.
Agonizing pain exploded through every single bone and muscle, and a suffocating darkness immediately swallowed the world whole.
The churning, wild river pulled me under, dragging me deeper and farther away into the black current.
Away from the assassins.
Away from the cruelty of Blackfang.
Away from the miserable life I had always known.
As my consciousness began to rapidly slip away into the void, the last thing I felt wasn’t the freezing bite of the water, nor was it the pain of the impact.
It was the unmistakable, solid sensation of two impossibly strong, warm arms wrapping protectively around my waist, pulling my sinking body tightly against a broad chest right before the total darkness took over.
And then…
everything went black.