THE FIRST WAVEThe air felt too heavy. It wasn't just the humidity of the forest or the smell of damp earth. It was the waiting.

I stood at the edge of the tree line, my fingers digging into the bark of an old oak tree. My heart was a drum, beating a rhythm I couldn't slow down. Down in the valley, the human army looked like a giant silver snake, cold and unmoving.

"Esme."

I didn't have to turn around to know it was him. Demetrius’s voice was the only thing that could cut through the fog in my ...