The valley floor cracked open with a sound that split the air in two. Snow and ash exploded upward in a violent plume as the ice beneath us collapsed into the cavern below. Talon yanked me backward with both hands, pulling me just clear of the edge as a slab of frozen ground slid straight down into the abyss. The girl screamed and clung to my coat hard enough that her nails scraped through the fabric.
The earth kept breaking.
Wide fractures tore across the ground, spiderwebbing out from the pit like white veins splitting open the world. The distant roar beneath us deepened, a low, ancient groan that felt like the breath of something rising from a very long sleep.
The ice chamber below revealed itself in jagged slices of white and silver.
Dozens of eyes stared up at us.
Not wolf eyes.
