Their tails, long and muscled like living ropes, balanced them against the wind, lashed gently as they picked up our scent. One coiled its tail tight around its body as it paused, a grotesque mimicry of warmth. I could see the slick gleam of its eyes—eyes that had no business shining with that kind of hunger.

  “Yssac.”

  “Yes? I just need–”

  “Don’t move.” I kept my voice low, eyes locked on the foxes as they stalked, waiting. Deciding. “There is a pack of Muxleons watching us.”

  I didn’t have to look at Yssac to hear the fear in his breathing, or how the bottle clinked against the scales as it shook in his hand. Muxleons only hunted in packs, but they weren’t as smart or coordinated as wolves; their mutations and forms had been the result of the Freeze, and were more magical than natural. They often fought amongst themselves, but I could tell the pack in front of us was merely what remained after such a fight. These six were the survivors; the ones who had killed to earn the right to feed.

  My horns materialized, pushing the hair from my face as the scales rippled under my shirt. They still didn’t go down my legs and I dropped down, making my gaze even with the Muxleons. I could hope that seeing my draconic features might make them think we were too much work, but depending on how starved they were, they might take the chance regardless. Besides, without claws or a tail, there was little I could do to kill them, and at best, I could keep them busy.

  “Focus on getting the blood.”

  “Cyran, you–!” I didn’t give Yssac a chance to finish, dashing toward the pack as soon as I saw their eyes turn white. They had raised their eye shields, and were preparing to attack.

  I split the distance in minutes, quickly weaving between jutting slabs of frozen earth and collapsed snowbanks, keeping my body low to the ground. The first Muxleon darted forward to meet me, baring teeth that looked more like frostbitten daggers than anything animal. I dropped low, pivoting on the heel of one boot as I slid beneath its leap, the wind of its lunge hot and sharp as it passed overhead. The second came in from the side before I could recover fully, and I twisted just in time to feel its claws rake across the back of my shoulder, like knives on armor.

  My attention snapped back to the first one, relieved to see that it had ignored Yssac, keeping its focus on me. They didn’t seem too eager to get near Kapral’s corpse and with me choosing to leave it, they were more than happy to make me the primary distraction. I could live with that.

  Another slammed into me like a wave of ice and fur, and I hit the ground hard, the frozen earth punching the breath from my lungs. Its claws scraped across my chest, biting through fabric and attempting to find a gap between my scales. I snarled, trying to twist away, but it was heavy; heavier than I’d expected and I brought my elbow up, smashing it into the side of its face. It staggered away, but I knew I had not done any real damage to it.

  I needed more.

  Pain exploded in my spine, sharp and sudden, like something had torn loose inside me. I fought the scream, rolling onto my stomach as the nails on my hands extended, the scales following as claws, thick and jagged, replaced my hands. My feet were the same, boots torn to shreds where my toes had split and reshaped themselves and I growled, feeling the fangs in my mouth.

  The pain hadn’t faded; if anything, it surged deeper, clawing at my ribs, curling around my spine like something trying to break free from within. I didn’t have time to think about it as another Muxleon leapt for me, attempting to take advantage of my change to strike. Blood, thick and strangely dark, splattered across the snow as I carved through its shoulder, sending it tumbling backward in a yowl of pain. Each movement made the pain grow but I stood anyway, catching another as mid-leap, driving my claws into its side and using its momentum to slam it into the ice.

  With two injured, the others hesitated, circling me as if they weren’t sure if I was still prey or something worse. My breath came out in shallow, hissing bursts, steam rising in violent coils from where it hit the frozen air. My blood felt like it was boiling despite the cold and the pain in my spine started to radiate throughout my body. I didn’t know why it hurt so much; my claws had formed around the same time in my previous life, but not on my hands and feet at the same time and it certainly hadn’t felt like I was melting from the inside out.

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  I took a step forward and the pack growled in response, the sound low and collective, like a warning whispered from six different mouths. One of the injured ones limped toward the back of the group, and I felt a flicker of satisfaction before it was chased away by the searing pull of pain along my ribs. My whole body felt wrong—unfamiliar weight in my feet, my hands aching like they’d cracked and reformed too fast.

  They came at me again, and I twisted low, letting one slide past, its fur trailing like static down my shoulder. My claws raked up under the second, and I could feel the crunch of bone under the swing. Its cry was a rasping bark, and it staggered, leaking steam from its side. The third clipped me, sharp teeth snapping at my arm, dragging me down again as my knees buckled. My breath caught in my throat, and for a second, the world spun.

  I gasped, barely managing to roll away before another set of jaws found my throat. My vision blurred at the edges, black and red flickering like someone playing with the lights. The world hurt in a way it never had before, and I hit the ground again, cheek pressed to the frozen snow as I tried to rise. One of the Muxleons paced at the edge of my sight, sniffing the air, cautious now. The others didn’t charge yet, waiting to see what I would do. I pushed myself back onto my knees, growling low in my chest as I showed my fangs. I couldn’t let them see my pain.

  “Get. Away.” My voice was thick with growl, no longer fully human, barely intelligible as I spoke through the inferno raging under my scales. The Muxleons hissed, wary, and I finally noticed there was only five of them. Good, I had managed to kill one. “Now.”

  Whatever they heard in my final word must have been enough, as they all began to back away, slow at first, testing whether I’d collapse again. I held my ground, even as every part of me screamed, my eyes watching as they moved toward the dead body of their companion. They sniffed at the corpse, before tearing into it, each of the Muxleons ripping off chunks before taking off away from me. I scoffed, my claws dragging in the snow as I forced myself upright. My chest burned with every breath, and the pain only deepened, like whatever had awakened in me had no intention of returning to sleep.

  I closed my eyes, struggling to get my breathing under control so I could change back, but the pain was everywhere. Crackling through my joints, slicing down my spine like fire laced with glass and every breath felt like breathing through mud. Slowly I felt as my hands and feet shrank, the scales flaking off my skin with an agonizing pull that made my arms shake. My horns faded last, taking with them the fading sounds of the Muxleon trying to put distance between me and them.

  As soon as I was human again, I glanced up, noticing Yssac as he stood, struggling to run toward me through the thick snow as it started to fall again. I didn’t have the energy to speak as I crumpled forward into the snow, my hands hitting the ice with a wet thump. My heart was racing, too fast, like it was trying to escape my chest as I curled my fingers into the frostbitten dirt, trying to bite back a groan. Every inch of my body pulsed like it had been flayed and stitched back together wrong.

  “Cyran! Cyran are you alright?”

  Shut up, before you bring them back. But my words stayed trapped in my mind as my vision swam, black creeping into the edge of the white blanket in front of me. I fought against it, knowing that despite the seven year difference, Yssac had no chance at picking me up if I passed out.

  The snow beneath me started to fade, and so did the world. Everything lost its shape, sound dulled until Yssac’s voice was nothing more than a distant hum, a muffled echo in the void growing behind my eyes. The pain didn’t disappear—it just became something I was floating inside of, suspended like a trapped insect in amber. My skin felt too tight, my bones too hollow, like something was wrong underneath the surface of everything I was.

  Still, I kept my eyes open as long as I could. I saw Yssac stumble toward me, falling to one knee beside my body, his hands fumbling uselessly around my shoulder, not knowing whether to hold me or not. His face was pale from cold and panic, his mouth moving faster than his breath could keep up with, and I wanted to tell him to shut up, to keep still so he wouldn’t make it worse.

  But the pain dragged me under, sudden and absolute. There wasn’t even the chance to brace myself, no final breath to hold onto.

  I just fell.