The bear was blasted back, hitting the snow
with an icy thump. It was instantly up again,
racing for Manon. Only Manon.
Half a thought had Dorian flinging
invisible hands to halt the beast. Just as it
collided with his magic, snow spraying, light
flashed.
He knew that light. A shifter.
But it was not Lysandra who emerged from
the bear’s perfectly camouflaged hide.
No, the thing that came out of the bear was
made of nightmares.
A spider. A great, stygian spider, big as a
horse and black as night.
Its many eyes narrowed on Manon, pincers
clicking, as it hissed, “Blackbeak.”
The stygian spider had found her, somehow.
After all these months, after the thousands of
leagues Manon had traveled over sky and