I turned my attention to the rune magic.
The wild, crackling energy that I'd been fighting against.
Don't fight it, Kael said—or maybe it was his wolf's voice.
They seemed to blend. Show it to your wolf. Let her see it's not an enemy.
Slowly, carefully, I guided my wolf's attention to the rune magic.
She snarled. This was the thing that had poisoned us. The thing that had almost killed Erica.
Not this power, Kael corrected gently.
This power was stolen from you. You're just taking it back. It was always meant to be yours.
That perspective shift changed everything.
The rune magic wasn't foreign. It was mine. Stolen and corrupted by Leighton, but originally drawn from my life force.
I was… reclaiming it.
My wolf seemed to understand. She approached the crackling storm carefully
