Liam Wolfe's Arc

Chapter 7 of 10

The last hunter's boots faded into the dark. Liam stood between the willow and Luna, human again, breathing slow. Luminara's glow still pointed north. More iron circled out there. He turned to Luna. "Next time they hit us, I need you to see it," he said. "The shift. Up close. Not the wolf standing. The change." Luna's face went still. "You've kept me away from it every time." "I know." His jaw tightened. "I didn't trust it near you. But we fight blind. You pull roots on a guess. I turn on a guess. When the iron came tonight, we almost lost the beat." Luminara dropped low between them. Her light steadied, the same way it steadied his lungs. "He's right," she said. "You match his breathing. But you can't see his breath. You need to see the whole change to hold it with him." Luna knelt and pressed her palms to the dirt. "Then show me. Now. While it's quiet." No softness. A command. Liam's chest went cold. Every part of him wanted to walk into the trees and do it alone. But that was the old fear, and the old fear had nearly turned him on her once. He stepped back. He gave himself room. "Watch my ribs," he said. "That's where it starts." "In," Luminara said. He breathed in. "Out with her roots." Luna pulled. The root-hum rose through the stone. Liam let the change come on her rhythm. His spine bent. Fur pushed up his arms. His hands cracked into claws. He kept his eyes on Luna and did not look away from her face. She did not flinch. She watched his ribs swell. She watched his jaw stretch. She matched each pull to what she saw, not to what she guessed. "Slower on the shoulders," she said. "You rush there. That's where you slipped tonight." Her hands gathered, then released, timed to his bones now, not his breath alone. He finished the shift on her count. He rose as the wolf and stood himself inside it. Steady. No lurch. No hunger turned toward her. Just the two of them, locked. Luna stood and touched his fur. Her hand did not shake. "I see it now," she said. "I know where you break." Liam shifted back and knelt, spent. The thing he had hidden for months was gone from between them. She had watched the change and stayed. "You didn't run," he said. "You didn't lose it," she answered. Luminara's glow flared and swung north again. Sharper this time. The circling iron had stopped moving. It sat still in one place, close to the willow's edge. Waiting. Luna's hand left Liam's shoulder. "They stopped," she said. "They're not circling anymore. They found where they want us." Liam got to his feet. For the first time, they would meet the hunters seeing each other whole. He did not know if it would be enough.