LYRA

The creatures that emerged from the shadows were wolf-like in the way nightmares are wolf-like, holding the basic shape while getting every detail wrong in ways that made my skin crawl. Too many limbs that bent at joints that shouldn't exist, faces that shifted between animal and something else entirely, fur that moved independent of their bodies like it was made of living shadow.

They circled me growling in sounds that scraped against my ears and sounded like a language even though I ...