The aftermath was brutal.
Not in casualties — Seraphina, working with a focus that bordered on frenzy, managed to reverse the shadow touch on all three frozen warriors within the hour. The process was delicate and terrifying — the witch elder channeling earth magic directly into the frozen wolves' hearts, restarting the biological clocks that the shadow creatures had stopped, coaxing warmth and motion back into bodies that had been suspended in a state between life and death. Garrett came back gasping. Donovan came back screaming. Petra — the young Iron Fang fighter — came back silent, her eyes wide, staring at something none of them could see.
"She'll need time," Seraphina told Draven quietly. "The shadow touch doesn't just stop the body. It stops the mind. Whatever she experienced whil
