Chapter 34 · Moonclaim - Chapter 34: After the Eclipse

The voice coming out of Leon's mouth wasn't his.

It was—but under it, threaded through it like a second signal bleeding through a radio, there was something older. Deeper. The blue light from the core made his shadow stretch across the lab floor, twice as long as it should've been.

Ivy didn't move. The syringe was still in her hand. Her fingers were numb.

"You should have used it." Leon's lips moved but the layered voice made her teeth ache. His eyes were solid gold now, no pupil, no white. "He would have thanked you."

"Who the hell are you."

"You know who I am." He stood. Slow. Like his body was remembering how. "You carry my son's mark. You can smell me on him."

The wolf king. Dead ten years. She'd seen the photos in her father's files—the body in the ditch, half-burned, throat torn out by hunter rounds. But here he was, wearing Leon like a coat.

"You're dead," Ivy said.

"Obviously." The king tilted Leon's head, studied her. "But I left insurance. My line doesn't end with cowards."

The core was still humming. The blue light pulsed in time with Leon's heartbeat—