-Aurelian Salvatore:
The mask was gone. The mask was gone. My face is bare and exposed.
I didn't even have time to reach for it, because my life was in danger.
The wolf had barely landed before Sebastian moved, but I was already lifting my hand, magic sparking instinctively at my fingertips. Fear didn't hit me first.
Exposure did.
The wolf had my mask in its jaws, fabric tearing between its teeth, blood smearing across the surface that had hidden me for so long. For one split second, I thought about grabbing it—snatching it back, covering myself again, restoring the barrier between my face and the world.
But there was no opportunity.
The wolf lunged again.
And something inside me snapped.
I didn't speak a spell. I didn't chant. I didn't even breathe properly.
I just reached.
