-Asher-
The shift was instant, a painful, necessary tear from the confines of human skin into the raw, streamlined power of the wolf. I hit the ground, my instincts taking over. Alexia was no longer just contained; her distress signature confirmed she was being moved from the cell.
I surged forward, a jet-black streak of muscle and shadow. My focus was absolute, honed by tracking and fueled by the cold certainty that if I didn't reach her, she would be lost.
Behind me, I heard the rapid, desperate footfalls of the others. The journey was a blur of straining magic.
Soren was the anchor, weaving short-range shadow jumps. Finn, the fire elemental, was forced to suppress his energy, relying on raw speed. The terrain quickly became unforgiving: rough woodland gave way to high moorland, swept by a freezing wind.
"Hold up!" Jasper gasped, dropping onto his knees as we crested a rocky rise. "We can't keep this pace! We'll hit the mountains and be useless!"
I stopped instantly, my body coiled, my muscles screaming. My shadow-tinged wolf eyes locked on Finn.
"We don't have a choice!" Finn spat, his eyes blazing. "She's not just sitting in a cell anymore. What did that pulse mean?"
I answered by letting a low, urgent whine ripple through my chest, pointing my muzzle toward the black silhouettes of the looming mountain range. The air there felt choked, dense with Gideon's power, like a bruise in the atmosphere.
"He's saying she's at the primary locus," Soren translated, his voice rough. "That means they're preparing for whatever his final ritual is. He's not waiting."
Kaia slid off Zeus's back. "We have to get through the mountains faster. We need a push."
Finn looked at Soren, then at me. It was a desperate necessity overriding his pride.
"You're the shadow wolf," Finn said, his voice clipped. "If you can use his power... a full Shadow Glide across the terrain. Can you get us closer to the base without killing us?"
I shifted, the transformation painful but necessary, allowing me to speak. "It will drain Soren. It will feel like you're being torn apart. But it will work. Gideon's counter-magic is focused on the endpoint, not the journey. We have maybe one shot at this."
"I'm the source. I'm ready," Soren affirmed.
I returned to my wolf form. I nudged against Soren, absorbing the chilling, vast power of his shadow into my being. I felt Zeus's immense, calming presence next to Kaia, a steady anchor for the familiar's own magic.
I focused on the distant, terrible chill of Gideon's fortress, and then I ripped the air open.
A void swallowed us—a moment of blinding, deafening non-existence. We were pulled through the gap between worlds. I heard Kaia cry out, Zeus groan, and Finn yell a muffled curse as his fire struggled against the chilling vacuum.
Then, with a sickening jolt, we were spat out.
We landed hard in a blast of freezing wind, high on a ridge overlooking a massive, sheer cliff face. Below us, nestled in a deep, black fissure, was a gothic fortress: Gideon's Castle.
The journey was over. The siege had begun.