Victor Nightblade ran through the cursed wood with three hours until dawn, and every step burned his feet. The soil here punished his kind. He had crossed this forest to reach the tournament of the vampire lords, where the winner earned the title of undying champion. That title was the only thing Victor wanted. But the sun would kill him before he ever reached the arena. He needed shelter. He found none. The trees offered no hollows. The ground refused to be dug; the cursed soil hissed and smoked when he clawed at it. His hands blistered. He shook them and cursed. Every cave he passed had a mouth too shallow to block the light. The sky in the east turned gray. Victor's skin already prickled with warning. He had maybe an hour left, maybe less. He forced himself to think instead of run. Then he heard panting. A small wolf cub stepped from the brush. Its coat glowed like a live coal, orange and yellow, and small flames curled off its fur. Where its paws touched the cursed soil, the ground did not smoke. It did not burn the cub. The creature looked at Victor and wagged its bright tail. Victor knelt. "You walk on this ground," he said. "It doesn't hurt you." The cub yipped and trotted a few steps, then looked back. It wanted him to follow. Victor had no better plan. He followed. The cub led him fast, weaving between the black trunks. Its glow lit the path. Twice Victor stumbled; twice the cub circled back and waited. At last it stopped at a slope of stone. A crack split the rock, low and narrow. Warm air breathed out of it. Deep inside, Victor saw darkness that ran back far, past the reach of any sun. A true shelter. He could have wept. The cub squeezed into the crack first. Victor followed on his belly. The passage widened into a dry chamber of stone. No light could reach here. He was safe. Behind him, the crack flared. Dawn hit the forest. A blade of daylight stabbed through the opening and struck the floor an arm's length from Victor's boot. He pulled back. The light held there, steady and patient, blocking the only way out. He was alive. He was also trapped until dusk. And the cub sat beside him in the dark, its flames the only light, watching him with bright eyes. Victor looked at the small creature that had saved him. "The tournament starts tonight," he said. "And I don't know these woods at all." The cub thumped its tail against the stone. Outside, the forest waited, and somewhere beyond it stood the castle of the vampire lords, where the champion would be crowned.