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Chapter One

White-hot rage glowed, burning away his mind until only banked coals rehtest stir of thought, of consciousness His own yell rang out, silent and horrible in this suffocating dark, pounding at the insides of the skull he’d long since ceased to feel

A perfect blackness had become his only reality, devoid of sound, touch, taste, se, the endless fury

From far away, a voice whispered, an echo of another ti him with ht, of freedoed to rejoin and knew he’d never see again His friends Shape-shifters Ih that was a lie, wasn’t it? Immortal meant "unable to die," and he was certainly not that None of the, yes But unable to die? No creature was that

And his own death stalked him now

The moment he’d realized he’d fallen into a Daemon spirit trap, he’d known all was lost The anio marked him to be one of the Feral Warriors, one of the last nine shape-shifters that re torn from him And a Feral, once marked, couldn’t live without his animal Within days, he himself would be dead Worsemuch worsethe animal spirit, too, would be destroyed Or trapped for eternity where it was as good as dead, unable to ht No, not eight He and Tighe had fallen into this trap together

Seven Seven Feral Warriors to stop the Dae the world

The voice sounded closer now, no longer quite a whisper, yet indistinct, ood-bye Or perhaps not good-bye Perhaps the spirits of the seventeen Feral Warriors who’d been lost in this trap centuries ago had come to welcome him into their brotherhood The brotherhood of the dead

His soul shriveled at the prospect of spending eternity in this ceaseless dark

Behind his thoughts, the ani insistence of the voices For a tiht the hawk spirit had left hier

"Hawke" A voice broke through, his naar’s voice If he were able to feel his pulse, it would be racing The blood would be pounding in his ears

Was he hallucinating, now? Kougar sounded blessedly near

"Cohe "We need you, buddy Cohe’s and Kougar’s voices in the saar, too, had fallen into the spirit trap Were they all lost to the world? Were the last of the shape-shifters gone forever?

The rage that had beco away voices and thought In his mind, he heard a snarl that sounded like his own, and felt as if his fangs were dropping, as if the claws had erupted froertips in the way they did when he, or any of the warriors, went feral, a partial shift enabling theht as equals whether hawk or tiger, wolf or snake

The growl began to vibrate in his throat, ru in his ears Real It feltsoundedreal

Was his , too?

The fury drove hi in flesh Warers onto his palainst his ribs, the thudding pulsing in his ears as he fought to break free of the darkness, driven by ahands claht the restraint with all the wildness of the storainst his captors

"Hawke" Kougar’s voice rang with a strange note A warmth he’d never heard in it before

"Hawke, cease!" Lyon’s voice ripped through the chaos, co as always

As he’d done all his life, whenever the Chief of the Ferals co, his breathing fast and hard as the rage slowly receded Sensation rushed at him from every direction - the sound of his friends’ voices, the srances of the woed mustiness of a centuries-old house, and the rich, aro meats and fresh bread

And finest of all, the feel of hands holding hi, but never cruel The hands of his brothers

Goddess, let this be real

"Hawke, you’re safe," Kougar’s voice assured hiht left hi from his mind, he blinked, his eyelids heavy, as if he’d been asleep for weeks Slowly, his vision focused on the three he

"You’re real" His voice cracked with disuse

Tighe s a dimple "We’re real"

"Welcome back," Lyon said, his voice thick

Hawke’s gaze swung slowly to Kougar and found the usually ear shifter with a sar extended his hand, and when Hawke lifted his own, Kougar slapped forear of the Ferals and pulled Hawke up

The roo on a pallet on the floor, a te as he eyed the blessedly fa above the le brow "I’ve been sleeping in the dining room?"

Lyon clapped him warmly on the back "The Shaman recommended we keep you within the heart of the house and activity We’d hoped our voices would eventually pull you back"

His gaze shifted to the wall of s beyond the long table and the woods behind the house The trees had leaves, but the leaves were thin and still the bright green of spring "How long?"

"It’s been teeks since you fell into that trap," Lyon told hiaze swung to Kougar "How? No one escapes a spirit trap" So

"Long story"