The gates of Thornstud opened to them four days later.
Gabriel and Tess walked through with the weight of thirty Greystone crystals in their packs and the smell of smoke still clinging to their clothes. The guards barely glanced at them. Just two more hunters returning from a contract, alive or dead didn't matter to gate duty.
The streets felt different now. Louder, more chaotic. Or maybe Gabriel was just more aware of how thin the line was between the hunters drinking in taverns and the Greyscale they'd burned in Millren's Rest.
"Straight to Tormund's?" Tess asked.
Gabriel nodded. His ribs had finished healing on the journey back, the bones knitting together completely. No pain remained, just the memory of the alpha's fist and the knowledge that he'd survived something that should have crippled him.
The awakening was accelerating. He could feel it in his blood, in the way his senses had sharpened, in how the red smoke responded faster to his will.
Time was running out.
