Chapter 78
Vanya
I sat beside his still body, the rain having finally eased into a thin mist that curled low across the mountaintop. The sky had dulled to a soft gray, but the weight in my chest remained anything but light. The silence up here was vast. Too vast. I couldn’t hear wolves, or the city, or even the wind. Only the rasp of my breathing, and the occasional shift of stone under my legs.
Kross hadn’t moved.
It had been quite some time since he’d shifted back. Hours since the horror. Since Kyle.
Since everything broke open.
And he hadn’t stirred once.
I’d tried everything—shaking him, whispering his name, slapping his cheeks lightly. Nothing. Just slow, even breathing. Like he was asleep. Or trapped.
My hands clenched in the soaked fabric of my dress as I looked up at the sk
