Aurora tried to hold on to something—anything. But there was no rope, no saddle. Only the uneven rocks on the back of a colossal bear that she now knew was alive.

Her nails dug into the cracks in the rock, heat rising through her hands, her knees scraping against the friction. The ground shook with each step the creature took. She didn't dare let go. The wind blew hard, the voices of monsters all around, screams in languages that didn't exist, noises impossible to identify. It was ...