Zoe POV

The dust is everything.

When Iris pulls back into me, the shift happens in under a second—wolf to human, the change running in reverse, and the cloud she kicked up on her final charge swallows me completely. Stone dust and dry air, thick enough that the wall of warriors along the perimeter can't see through it. Can't see what's in the middle of it. Can't see what just changed shape in the gray heart of it.

I am standing in it, human-shaped, completely bare, and I ...