Chapter 49. Wolves Beyond the Grave

They stepped beyond the Bone Forest's broken edge and into a land of ghostly silence.

At first, Selene thought they had crossed into a dream—or perhaps into death itself. The landscape stretched out before them in muted grays and silvers. Grass, brittle and colorless, bent under a wind that carried no scent. Sparse trees twisted skyward like supplicants, their leaves dry and transparent as old skin.

The sky above was a low, churning mass of gray clouds, casting no true light, no true shadow. It was a world emptied of warmth and life.

The wolves fanned out slowly, noses twitching, hackles raised.

Selene felt it too—the absence of life. Not even insects moved here. Not a bird sang.

Only the faint rasp of their breathing and the crunch of ash-stiff grass underfoot.

"Where are we?" a young wolf asked, voice ba