If there was one thing John regretted, it was falling head over heels for Sloth. He ignored her Beta's warnings, thinking he could change her cold and uncaring ways. But here he was, marked for life and without the people he had so deeply cared for.
The latter was a lie.
They were there. An effervescent swirl of souls becoming one with his shadow. Clinging to his shoulders with their tiny icy grasps. Their last utterances forever burned into his memory. The burden of being a banshee.
Through their sacrifice, John had narrowly escaped death in the form of a haggard Tengu who was hellbent on extinguishing the entire pack. His face, no, his soul, was burned into the Fae's mind.
