I take the sketchbook. The drawing is hyper-detailed. It shows the sparrow, the courtyard, the window, and the vast, changed world outside. It is beautiful. It is terrifying. It is entirely, beautifully real.
I pull them both into a fierce, crushing hug, burying my face in their hair.
The political war is over. The human threat is neutralized. The magical convergence is won.
But the work of living in the new world has just begun.
That evening, the pack holds the official Mating Ceremony.
The courtyard is packed. Wolves in their human forms, their amber eyes bright, their bodies vibrating with the restless, chaotic energy of their heritage. And humans. Dozens of them, their forearms traced with the faint, bioluminescent golden veins of the Adapted. They are laughing, eating, sharing fo
