Shadow Mountain honey, this mirror isn't big enough for the two of us

It had all started with that damned fox.

The vixen-scent had cloaked their caches, heady and flagrant. The woman was stealing from them, and he'd been tasked to find her out—to put an end to the thievery.

Caligula at one end of the foxhole, the rest at the other—

And Drusilla the first bitten.

---

He'd wandered a bit after his meeting with Mae at Swiftcurrent Creek, unsure of his next move. Her face had nearly swayed him into staying; clearly, she was not protected there. Not enough to remain unmarred.

But that wasn't his job, was it—to protect her? Had not his mother fled, and his father. . .

God, what had Akavir's crimes been?

Hex had shaken it off, gritting his teeth. The mountains were in his mind; they'd always been. And as the spring storms rattled the peaks, sending lightning sizzling off the highest trees, he climbed higher, still higher.

He did not stop until his breathing came shorter, the altitude finally taking its toll.

Finding a small hollow amid the wind and rain, he shielded himself from the elements and tucked his dark, bushy tail across his body, golden eyes narrowed to slits; owlish in the dark.

Hidden away. Just as he ought to be.